The Night Ocean

[skuu sunshine]

I just read this story, really interesting! I had no idea what it involved, the name just caught my eye so I gave it a go.
I was constantly expecting some terrifying Lovecraft-esque twist every page but it was a good 10 pages of a vivid description of a bad-weather get-away. Something about the pure reality and vividness of the story along with the continuous suspense made it deeply affect me. Anyone else given this one a whirl?
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/no.asp

[old book]

I read it earlier. It sort of gets stuck with HPL and Sonia Greene's Martin Beach story in my mind. Barlow lived in Florida I guess and Howard visited him there. He also named Barlow his literary executor in his will.

Derleth does some similar stuff with ocean creepiness. I wonder if HPL was moving more toward oceanic terror at the time of his death.

[Lambda]

I love the Night Ocean. Read it a few years ago in an anthology or something like that. It's so... different from what you'd expect in a story by HPL. And... apparently it was the last story ever written by him. Creepy...

[fishy]

Where can i buy it? Found it, but with only domnestic shipping, on Amazon...

Edit: Found it now, thank you 

[skuu sunshine]

And... apparently it was the last story ever written by him. Creepy...

Oh awesome. I didn't know that when I read it. It did seem to significantly depart from his usual/later works. I get the feeling he wanted to communicate some feelings that were away from sci-fi and monsters. Very easy story to use as a metaphor for how he saw his own life to that point.

[Lambda]

And... apparently it was the last story ever written by him. Creepy...

Oh awesome. I didn't know that when I read it. It did seem to significantly depart from his usual/later works. I get the feeling he wanted to communicate some feelings that were away from sci-fi and monsters. Very easy story to use as a metaphor for how he saw his own life to that point.

Yeah, probably one of the reasons why it's so good. When they do this one as the last HPL-fiction-based podcast episode, it sure will be epic.

[Genus Unknown]

I just read it last night, and I love it. LOVE IT. I was so worried after "The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast" and "The Slaying of the Monster" that the very last H.P. Lovecraft story might suck. I'm so glad it doesn't.

Does anyone else get a serious Algernon Blackwood vibe from it? The solitude, the use of the natural elements as both setting and antagonist, the subtlety of the "supernatural" manifestations... it really reminds me of "The Willows" and "The Wendigo." It's a very personal, reflective, atmospheric story, with just the barest hint of a monstrous presence and sinister happenings. I love the prose, I love the almost unbelievable (for Lovecraft) restraint shown in handling the horror elements (if this can even properly be called a horror story), I love his handling of the beach, the vacationers, the internal feelings of the narrator, the depiction of the tourist town... it's so much more human and mature than most of his work, with just enough creepy weirdness to remind you that this is indeed H.P. Lovecraft.

This could easily be a new favorite of mine, even up there with "Colour" and "Haunter," but I'll have to re-read it a couple of times before I make that kind of pronouncement. Still, I am so pleasantly surprised by this story. How much do you think is Barlow, and how much Lovecraft?