![]() First edition cover | |
Author | Ruthanna Emrys |
---|---|
Cover artist | John Jude Palencar |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Series | Innsmouth Legacy |
Release number | 2 |
Genres | Alternate history Lovecraftian horror fantasy |
Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | April 4, 2017 |
Media type | Hardback |
Pages | 366 |
ISBN | 978-0-7653-9090-5 |
Preceded by | The Litany of Earth |
Followed by | Deep Roots |
Winter Tide is a 2017 alternate history, [1] fantasy and horror novel by American science fiction and fantasy writer Ruthanna Emrys. It is Emrys' debut novel, and the second book in her three book Innsmouth Legacy series, the first being the novella, The Litany of Earth (2014). The series is set in the Cthulhu Mythos universe created by H. P. Lovecraft, and builds on Lovecraft's 1936 novella, "The Shadow over Innsmouth".
Winter Tide was nominated for the 2018 Locus Award for Best First Novel, [2] the 2018 Crawford Award, [3] and the 2019 Mythopoeic Award in Adult Literature. [4]
Winter Tide is set in H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos universe. The Deep Ones are amphibious humans that once lived in the fictional port town of Innsmouth in New England. In Lovecraft's 1936 novella, "The Shadow over Innsmouth", the town's inhabitants, seen by many to be "frog-monsters", are rounded up by the United States government in 1928 and imprisoned in concentration camps in the western interior of the country. In Winter Tide's backstory, during World War II the captured Deep Ones are joined by Japanese Americans interred after the Attack on Pearl Harbor. At the end of the War, the Japanese, along with the remaining two Innsmouth survivors, siblings Aphra and Caleb Marsh, are released. All the other Deep Ones perished in the camps after being denied access to the ocean.
Aphra and Caleb live in San Francisco with the Kotos, a Japanese family they met in the camps. Aphra and Caleb do their best to keep their culture alive, but have no surviving relatives to support them and no longer have access to the books the Deep Ones kept in Innsmouth. In 1949 Aphra is approached by FBI agent Ron Spector for help in locating Russian agents researching Deep One magic to use against the Americans during the Cold War. In return, Spector offers her access to the fictional Miskatonic University libraries in New England that house the confiscated Deep One literature seized during the 1928 raid on Innsmouth. These books are considered "dangerous" by the government and very few people are allowed access to them. Aphra is suspicious of anyone in the government, but agrees to help the FBI agent in order to gain access to material she desperately needs, and the possibility of returning to Innsmouth.
In Winter Tide, I wanted to talk about how we rebuild community after genocide, and how rebuilt community is always changed from what we had before. And I wanted to talk about all those readers over the years who didn't question the Deep One concentration camps.
Emrys said in interviews that in "The Shadow over Innsmouth", Lovecraft portrays the Deep Ones as monsters and deserving of their incarceration in concentration camps. In her Innsmouth Legacy series, Emrys chose to continue the story from the point of view of survivors from the camps. She added, "My own sympathy was squarely with the interned frog-monsters". [5] Emrys said that while Lovecraft was quick to "demonize" anybody different, he occasionally gives readers "tantalizing glimpses of those Others" and their points of view. This opens the door to other interpretations of his stories. Emrys said she wanted to give these Others a voice. [6] [7]
Referring to Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos universe, Emrys said "playing in someone else's sandbox" comes with a responsibility to conform to the world Lovecraft and others have written about. "There's a responsibility, both to speak meaningfully about things that people have been talking about for decades, and to speak beyond those things". [5]
In a review in The Verge , Andrew Liptak called Winter Tide "an impressive book that updates Lovecraft’s creations with added nuance and empathy." [1] He said it follows in the footsteps of books like Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff, and The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle, which "invert ... Lovecraft’s tropes and legacy". [1] Liptak added that while Lovecraft wrote of "unspeakable evils and anxieties lurking at the ends of the world", Emrys describes the "horrors of discrimination and hatred" in his universe. Liptak concluded that "Winter Tide bridges the gap between honoring a truly great shared world, and delivering an ironic comeuppance." [1]
Megan M. McArdle wrote in Library Journal that Winter Tide is a mix of "Cold War paranoia and horror", and should interest Lovecraft fans. [8] She said the "pacing is slow", but the characters, notably Aphra, are well developed. [8] A review in Publishers Weekly described the novel as an "inventive dark fantasy [that] crossbreeds the cosmic horrors of the Cthulhu mythos with the espionage escapades of a Cold War thriller". [9] The review said it is "historically relevant and resonant" for its sensitive handling of Aphra's experience and that of other outsiders. [9]
The Cthulhu Mythos is a mythopoeia and a shared fictional universe, originating in the works of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. The term was coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent and protégé of Lovecraft, to identify the settings, tropes, and lore that were employed by Lovecraft and his literary successors. The name "Cthulhu" derives from the central creature in Lovecraft's seminal short story "The Call of Cthulhu", first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928.
Cthulhu is a cosmic entity created by writer H. P. Lovecraft. It was introduced in his short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published by the American pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. Considered a Great Old One within the pantheon of Lovecraftian cosmic entities, this creature has since been featured in numerous popular culture references. Lovecraft depicts it as a gigantic entity worshipped by cultists, in the shape of a green octopus, dragon, and a caricature of human form. The Lovecraft-inspired universe, the Cthulhu Mythos, where it exists with its fellow entities, is named after it.
At the Mountains of Madness is a science fiction-horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in February/March 1931. Rejected that year by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright on the grounds of its length, it was originally serialized in the February, March, and April 1936 issues of Astounding Stories. It has been reproduced in numerous collections.
The Shadow over Innsmouth is a horror novella by American author H. P. Lovecraft, written in November–December 1931. It forms part of the Cthulhu Mythos, using its motif of a malign undersea civilization, and references several shared elements of the Mythos, including place-names, mythical creatures, and invocations. The Shadow over Innsmouth is the only Lovecraft story that was published in book form during his lifetime.
Lovecraft Country is a term coined for the New England setting used by H. P. Lovecraft in many of his weird fiction stories, which combines real and fictitious locations. This setting has been elaborated on by other writers working in the Cthulhu Mythos. The phrase was not in use during Lovecraft's own lifetime; it was coined by Keith Herber for the Lovecraftian role-playing game Call of Cthulhu.
Lovecraftian horror, also called "cosmic horror" or "eldritch horror", is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasizes the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock. It is named after American author H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). His work emphasizes themes of cosmic dread, forbidden and dangerous knowledge, madness, non-human influences on humanity, religion and superstition, fate and inevitability, and the risks associated with scientific discoveries, which are now associated with Lovecraftian horror as a subgenre. The cosmic themes of Lovecraftian horror can also be found in other media, notably horror films, horror games, and comics.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is a survival horror video game developed by British studio Headfirst Productions for the Xbox in 2005 and for Microsoft Windows in 2006. It combines an action-adventure game with a relatively realistic first-person shooter and elements of a stealth game.
"Dagon" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. It was written in July 1917 and is one of the first stories that Lovecraft wrote as an adult. It was first published in the November 1919 edition of The Vagrant. Dagon was later published in Weird Tales in October 1923. It is considered by many to be one of Lovecraft's most forward-looking stories.
The Deep Ones are creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. The beings first appeared in Lovecraft's novella The Shadow over Innsmouth (1931), but were already hinted at in the early short story "Dagon". The Deep Ones are a race of intelligent ocean-dwelling creatures, approximately human-shaped but with a fishy appearance. The males would regularly mate with involuntary human females along the coast, creating societies of hybrids.
Lovecraft: A Look Behind the "Cthulhu Mythos" is a 1972 non-fiction book written by Lin Carter, published by Ballantine Books. The introduction notes that the book "does not purport to be a biography of H. P. Lovecraft", and instead presents it as "a history of the growth of the so-called Cthulhu Mythos."
A Cthulhu Mythos anthology is a type of short story collection that contains stories written in, or related to, the Cthulhu Mythos genre of horror fiction launched by H. P. Lovecraft. Such anthologies have helped to define and popularize the genre.
Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, was a writer of weird fiction and horror fiction based in Seattle, Washington. His works typically were published as W. H. Pugmire and his fiction often paid homage to the lore of Lovecraftian horror. Lovecraft scholar and biographer S. T. Joshi described Pugmire as "the prose-poet of the horror/fantasy field; he may be the best prose-poet we have" and as one of the genre's leading Lovecraftian authors.
Move Under Ground is a horror novel mashup by American writer Nick Mamatas, which combines the Beat style of Jack Kerouac with the cosmic horror of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. It is available as a free download via a Creative Commons license, CC BY-NC-ND 2.5 according to the License information in the CC version of the book.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Mexican and Canadian novelist, short story writer, editor, and publisher.
The Litany of Earth is a 2014 fantasy/horror fiction novella by Ruthanna Emrys that is the beginning of The Innsmouth Legacy series by Emrys. The novella revisits the H. P. Lovecraft story "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and was first published on Tor.com.
Ruthanna Emrys is an American science fiction and fantasy writer best known for The Innsmouth Legacy series: The Litany of Earth, Winter Tide, and Deep Roots.
This is a list of fictional creatures from the Cthulhu mythos of American writer H. P. Lovecraft and his collaborators.
The Lovecraft Investigations is a mystery thriller/horror fiction podcast created, written and directed by Julian Simpson, based on several works of H. P. Lovecraft. Produced by Karen Rose and Sweet Talk Productions for BBC Radio 4, the podcast premiered on 2 January 2019, with further series published in November 2019, November 2020 and October 2023.
Deep Roots is a 2018 alternate history, fantasy and horror novel by American science fiction and fantasy writer Ruthanna Emrys. It is the third book in Emrys' three book Innsmouth Legacy series, after The Litany of Earth (2014) and Winter Tide (2017). The series is set in the Cthulhu Mythos universe created by H. P. Lovecraft, and builds on Lovecraft's 1936 novella, "The Shadow over Innsmouth".