In Memoriam: Brian Lumley

I recently heard that Brian Lumley passed away due to a heart attack. It's not a huge surprise, considering that he was 86, but I always mourn the loss of a good writer. He seemed to a nice man as well. His passing is a great loss to the writing community.

I became acquainted with Lumley's work back in 2020. One of the few good things about that year was the opportunity to listen to more audiobooks, so naturally when I came across Lumley's work, it made sense to try him out. I started with A Coven of Vampires, which gave a good overview of his work, and it just kept going after that. His short stories have a magnetic appeal to me.

Lumley made a name for himself in more than one way. He started out writing Lovecraftian pastiches. Many of them appeared in his Arkham House collections Caller of the Black and The Horror at Oakdeene. His mythos stories are always fascinating but honestly, I blew through them so quickly that a re-read is necessary. He also created a series character, Titus Crow, an occult detective, who reminded me a little of Sherlock Holmes in Crow's early tales. As matter of fact, Lumley had a touching anecdote about his father, whose only source of comfort as a soldier during World War II was a copy of Sherlock Holmes stories and read it sparingly to stretch it out during his service. Crow came to be a nemesis of the Great Old Ones and he played an important part in battling them in a 6-book series, starting with The Burrowers Beneath. Each book was crazier than the last, although my favorite of these books might be The Transition of Titus Crow. Lumley kept in touch with his Lovecraftian roots but fused them with Edgar Rice Burroughs and Dr. Who, essentially creating a new style that was uniquely him.

He also made a unique contribution through his pre-historical Cthulhu mythos works, including his tale "House of Cthulhu." He also created his own barbarian hero Tarra Khash, who shows up in a few stories from that era. It's uncommon to see sword and sorcery and Cthulhu come together and Lumley did it well.

In the spirit of the prehistory theme, he also wrote Khai of Khem, a novel that also fuses sci-fi with horror. It tells of a prehistorical Egypt and of a prince whose family is unseated from their throne by a sadistic alien being. Khai devotes his life to fighting this evil creature and liberating his home. This story is introduced in the present day when a historian comes to realize that there was technology found from this ancient civilization that could not possibly exist.

He is best-known for his Necroscope series. I've only read the first three, but they are immensely satisfying reads, fusing elements of supernatural horror and interdimensional travel reminiscent of Dr. Who. Those books starred Harry Keogh, the Necroscope, a gifted man with the ability to speak to the dead and who becomes their ambassador. He also learns to travel through the Mobius Continuum which takes him anywhere through the multiverse. As a result, it gives him an edge in battle intergalactic vampires that threaten the Earth. This is one of those instances in which a horror story can be truly epic. I love Lumley's imagination and am grateful that he wrote these books. Maybe someday, the Necrosope movies will be made, but they have been in development hell for ages.

I talked about Lumley a while back about his many contributions to speculative fiction. Not just horror, science fiction, or fantasy, but all of them. I haven't even everything by him, but there are riches wherever you find his writing. I love the fact that he became a bestselling horror writer without having his work adapted into a major motion picture. It is so common to see that an author's name is kept alive because of a movie, sometimes just one, but he didn't need that. What I really want to say to Lumley, wherever he is, is thank you. Thanks for writing. Thank you for your passion. It has enriched my life and many others.

Written by Nicholas Montelongo