2 Stars
Pros: Each page is rife with the atmosphere of Lovecraftian Mythos. Though it's set in the desert, the reader can't help but feel the chill of the underwater city of R'yleh where Ctthullhu lies dreaming and other nightmarish places.
Cons: This book is visceral and gruesome and pulls absolutely no punches. In the first two chapters Alhazred is tortured/disfigured and forced to do terrible things that I'm hesitant to mention in a review to the public; it was that gruesome.
Full Review
Abdullah, a beloved poet of the king of Yemen is cast out when his love affair with the princess is discovered after she suffers a miscarriage. Tortured and disfigured, kept prisoner and then banished, Abdullah is left to die in the desert. Somehow, he survives and is visited in his dreams by a creature in a black robe who gives him the name of Alhazred. In his wanderings, he finds a cave full of small, white spiders, that he discovers, when eaten, gives him the power of "second sight." He can see in the darkness and everything that's living and dead glows with a strange, silver light.
His stay in the desert begins with him befriending a pack of Ghouls, the Black River Clan. He also allows a Djinn, a spirit, to possess his body and mind, whom he names Shasi. He learns much during his time with the Ghouls and in his twisted mind thinks of them as friends, but their time together is not to last. The Ghouls are eventually killed after eating the poisoned flesh of a dead child. Alhazred, then wanders to the ruins of the City of Irem and spends time learning of the doomed fate of the city's inhabitants by a witch who witnessed it all. While he stays with her, he hears her speaking to a creature that lives on the other side of a rock wall and in their strange speech he manages to glean the names of Nyarlarthotep, Yog-Sototh and Cthullhu.
Fans of H.P. Lovecraft will obviously know these names are associated with the Elder Gods. And once he leaves the witch and finally stumbles back into the desert, he uses powers shown to him by Nyarlarthotep (the figure in the black robe from his dreams) to hide his disfigurement and go about his travels. He also learned the art of "soul travel" while staying in the ruins of Irem and was able to possess the minds and bodies of people in far away lands and learn of their culture. He visits places like Stonehenge, Atlantis etc but it all comes to an end when he calls upon the name of Nyarlarthotep to rescue him from an ill fated travel.
He is now on a boat to the port of Suez. And the men think he is a Djinn, a ghoul or genie, since the glamour spell he used to hide his disfigurement faded while he slept and a crew-member saw his true face. He managed to convince them all that he was instead, a Necromancer and that if they let him live, he would bring the wind again in two days time and every day forward he would create a jewel out of thin air. Which he did, but because he already had the jewelry on his person from having stolen it in the ruins of Irem.
He reaches Suez, with the Djinn, Shasi, still possessing him. He meets a girl there, who can see into his mind and sees the dark form of Nyarlathotep. Suffice it to say, they team up, go on many adventures together and though Alhazred never exactly gets what he wants in the end, he learns more than enough in his travels that he is more than content to put it all in a book, hence, the creation of the Necronomicon.
This book was heavy and interesting for the sheer fact that it was connected to the Lovecraft Mythos, but by the end of it I just wanted it to be done. It was too long, too graphic, and the situations that Ahlazred found himself in and how he always somehow always ended up coming out on top, it just became rote and boring overall.
I'd recommend this book, or at least a passing glance of it, to anyone who likes Lovecraft but other than that, it's not worth the time.
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