I used to look forward to taking in a movie or two every year. Somewhere around the turn of the century, though… it just seemed like everything was a reworking of either the first Star Wars movie (aka “A New Hope”) or The Wrath of Khan. Sure, the computer graphics and special effects improved over the years. But something had changed from the stuff I’d grown up with and not for the better. It was almost as if the industry had decided that extended action sequences could serve as a replacement for the kind of human chemistry that once had to really carry films back when special effects were little more than a garnish for the story.

These days I’m turning more and more to short fiction to make up for my craving for the fantastic and the weird. Finding the good stuff is a bit of a challenge, though. With Lovecraft, for instance, it seems that nearly everyone is falling all over themselves  trying to make stories that could make him roll over in his grave. Even people that like the guy tend to go overboard with the multiple monster crossover thing, or else rework things to fit more of the action movie template for how things tend to play out.

Coming across someone that really “gets” Lovecraft well enough to convey the most vital emotional beats of his particular strain of weird tale doesn’t happen very often. Pete Rawlik can pull it off, though. If that sounds like the sort of read you’re looking for, check out his piece “The Spaces Between” over at the Lovecraft eZine. If you’ve read any amount of classic Lovecraft, you’ll know where everything’s headed well before the end. Oddly enough, that makes for an especially pleasant change of pace.