First published 1981
A Miskatonic University expedition ventures into Antarctica's barren interior, expecting to find nothing but ice and rock. The team discovers strange fossils of unknown creatures buried in the frozen wasteland. They unearth carved stones that predate human civilization by tens of millions of years. These artifacts lead them to an ancient city built by beings called the Old Ones. What the explorers find in this primordial metropolis shatters their understanding of life on Earth. The complete short novel anchors this collection of four tales that explore humanity's fragile place in a cosmos filled with alien intelligences. Three additional stories round out the volume: a graduate student's encounters with interdimensional forces in a witch-haunted house, the investigation of a cursed Providence dwelling, and Randolph Carter's account of his friend's obsession with forbidden knowledge. Each story strips away the comfortable illusion that humans control their destiny.
Genres: science-fiction, classic-literature, anthologies, adventure, horror, dark-fantasy
Vibes: atmospheric, cosmic-dread, existential, mysterious, thought-provoking, unsettling
Tropes: ancient-evil, expedition-gone-wrong, forbidden-knowledge, unreliable-reality
Setting: Antarctica, Miskatonic University, Providence
Period: 20th-century
184 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Del Rey
Content warnings: death
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