Hermetic Library fellow T Polyphilus reviews Feeders from Within by Peter J Evans, set in the Lovecraftian world of Arkham Horror.

Fantasy Flight Games has published two trilogies set in the Arkham Horror gaming milieu of 1930s Yog-Sothothery, but Feeders from Within is a standalone novel in the same setting, also using characters from the games. The principal protagonists here are drifting veteran Mark Harrigan, psychologist Carolyn Fern, and whistleblower cultist Diana Stanley. A few of Lovecraft’s own characters appear or enjoy mentions, most notably Dr. Henry Armitage, Miskatonic University librarian. With respect to the outré horrors they face, the book uses a synthesis of Lovecraft, Chambers, and Smith that has been established as canonical “mythos” in the game context.

The redoubtable fungus from Yuggoth is a prime culprit in this novel, and the story does indeed take on much of the paranoid mood of its Lovecraftian progenitor “The Whisperer in Darkness.” It is a fast read, with the ERB-cum-Hollywood sort of action story arc that builds to a final confrontation with … (that would be telling). Author Evans accomplishes the—in my opinion, most important—task of making the game characters interesting.

While not a high literary accomplishment, I found Feeders from Within to be compellingly savory textual junk food at the very least. The only real disappointment for me was Stephen Somers’ cover art, which, although it still accurately reflects the book’s contents (a scene from the prologue), didn’t seem up to the standard set by Anders Finér with the other Arkham Horror novels. [via]