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DJ Tyrer

David Tallerman

Corporate Cthulhu: Lovecraftian Tales of Bureaucratic Nightmare Paperback – January 28, 2018

by Edward J Stasheff (Author), DJ Tyrer (Author), Peter Rawlik (Author),

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YOUR CALL TO CTHULHU IS IMPORTANT TO US. PLEASE HOLD.

Red tape. Catch-22s. Circular chains of command. Whether you're a customer or co-worker, bureaucracies drive us all insane. Even management is just a cog in a vast machine. Information, items, and even people get lost in the system, never gone but never found. No one seems to notice the insanity surrounding them... or if they do, they keep it to themselves. After all, those who notice and call attention to it tend to disappear, leaving nothing behind but an empty desk and whispered rumors in the break room. If ever there was a place for a cosmic horror to hide, grow, and thrive, it's deep within the archives of a huge, old bureaucracy.

But of all bureaucracies, corporations are the most powerful, seeming to have a life and will of their own. They're privately held with a multi-national reach, seemingly bottomless resources, and armies of lawyers jealously guarding their trade secrets. Corporate culture fiercely resists any attempt to change or regulate it, and anything and everything is justified by the bottom line. Who needs a Cthulhu Cult when you've got Cthulhu, Inc.?

Into this insidious world are thrust our heroes—the curious, the puzzled, and the frustrated. Defying authority, seeking answers they'd be better off not knowing, the secrets they discover threaten their sanity and their lives. Will they become the next whistleblower media hero? Or the next no-call / no-show their coworkers promptly forget? Just remember: it's nothing personal—it's just business.

This book contains twenty-five tales of bureaucratic insanity, including:

DEATH PLEDGE by Jeff Deck
WELCOME TO THE R’LYEH CORPORATION by James Pratt
SHADOW CHARTS by Marcus Johnston
CASUAL FRIDAY by Todd H. C. Fischer
THE GOD UNDER THE CHURCH by David Tallerman
REFUSAL by DJ Tyrer
DAGON-TEC by Adam Millard
ESOTERIC INSURANCE, INC. by Evan Dicken & Adrian Ludens
CAREER ZOMBIE by John Taloni
BOEDROMION NOUMENIA by Andrew Scott
INCORPORATION by Max D. Stanton
THE LOPONINE EXPLOITATION by John M. Campbell
FESTIVAL PREPARATIONS by Justin Bailey
MARYANNE’S EQUATIONS by Harry Pauff
WHOLESOME LABOR by Sam Rent
LIKE A GOOD NEIGHBOR by Wile E. Young
TINDALOS, INC. by Charlie Allison
CLEAN UP AISLE FOUR by Josh Storey
FORCED LABOR by Peter Rawlik
THE SHADOWS LENGTHEN in the Close by Ethan Gibney
IT CAME FROM I.T. by Gordon Linzner
RETRACTION by Marie Michaels
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT AT DAGOCORP HQ by L Chan
NO DOVES COME FROM RAVEN EGGS by Mark Oxbrow
APOTHEOSIS by Darren Todd

Print length

418 pages
Language

English
Publication date

January 28, 2018
Dimensions

6 x 0.95 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0998938971
ISBN-13

978-0998938974
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Corporate Cthulhu is a brilliant anthology and a huge success for Pickman's Press, full of high-quality, well-written tales from both new and veteran writers of the Cthulhu Mythos . . . should be picked up by anyone interested in either good Mythos fiction, or just good writing overall."- Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer

"Where it hits the mark, the ending is bleak and leaves a chill . . . where it doesn't there's either a happy ending or -- slightly better -- a qualified happy ending with terrible conditions attached."- Goodreads

"This is great reading if you've ever had a job that sucked the life out of you."- Amazon

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Stasheff Literary Enterprises (January 28, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 418 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0998938971
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0998938974
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.23 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.95 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,796,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,083 in Horror Anthologies (Books)
- #10,409 in Ghost Fiction
- #17,598 in Occult Fiction

Customer Reviews:
23 ratings

About the authors

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DJ Tyrer
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DJ Tyrer is probably best known as a horror writer, but has written in many other different genres and styles, as well as being behind the Atlantean Publishing small press.
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David Tallerman
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David Tallerman is the author of the historical science-fiction novel To End All Wars, thrillers A Savage Generation and The Bad Neighbor, fantasy series The Black River Chronicles and The Tales of Easie Damasco, and the Tor.com novella Patchwerk, among other works.
David's short fiction has appeared in over a hundred magazines and anthologies, including Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and fourteen of his horror and dark fantasy stories were brought together in the collection The Sign in the Moonlight and Other Stories.
Further details can be found at his website www.davidtallerman.co.uk.
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J Williams

It puts corporate life in its place!

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2019

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I've been a fan of all things Cthulhu and Lovecraftian for years. This is great reading if you've ever had a job that sucked the life out of you. If you take buses and trains to work and don't have to drive, it's perfect to pass the commute time.

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2018

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Short story collection with a few real gems.

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smh

Good anthology with fun stories

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2018

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Good anthology with fun stories. Definitely worth buying.

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A drunken panda

A mixture of humorous, grim, and nightmarish looks at the Old Ones in business

Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2018

This anthology is a fun extralopation of the Lovecraft mythos to the corporate world. I'm not going to do a story by story review because it would end up spoiling some of the fun. The authors vary from humorous takes on this - HR in an Old One run company?- to the descent into madness expected in Lovecraftian fare. The story vary in length and approach but the overall collection is a lot of creepy horrific fun. There is a nice mixtures of styles from nearly classic Lovecraftian to less traditional take. I've read most of it on plane trips in the past week and enjoyed it greatly. The only thing I really disliked was the intro, so skip that and jump right into the tales. It's a good read.

Note: Read a pre-release copy.

6 people found this helpful

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Brian Katcher

Just sign here...

Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2019

We all know the elder gods want to bring about the extermination of humankind and the end of the world...but now they have mission statements and an HR department. Sometimes funny, sometimes creepy, you'll be glad Lovecraft didn't survive to see the elder gods develop a corporate culture.

One person found this helpful

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Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reviewer

Brilliant new anthology from new publisher

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2018

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Every week or so I browse through the latest genre releases for the Kindle, in an attempt to really try and stretch the value of my Kindle Unlimited subscription, and as I scrolled through the latest titles for the Cthulhu/Lovecraft Mythos, I was intrigued to see a new anthology appear called Corporate Cthulhu. Published by Pickman’s Press (who appear to be new to publishing Mythos fiction, this being their first title) and funded by a Kickstarter that I’m kicking myself for missing out on joining, my interest was stoked by the title and also the anthology’s cover art. I’ve gone on at length in other book reviews on this blog about the importance of a title’s cover grabbing the reader’s attention, and the cover for Corporate Cthulhu did the job admirably, a very professional piece depicting a Cthulhuoid-looking creature in a business suit. Between the cover art, the Table of Contents and the back cover blurb (“YOUR CALL TO CTHULHU IS IMPORTANT TO US. PLEASE HOLD”) I was sold, and decided to purchase the anthology outright; and I’m glad I did, because I devoured it over the course of two nights in one of the fastest and most intense reading sessions I’ve had in a long time. While it may only be the end of January, this has already shaped up to be my Anthology of the Year!

Corporate Cthulhu has a total of 25 stories, which is impressive particularly for the first title from a new publisher, and while many anthologies have ups and downs, or rather some stories that just don’t grab me, I have to say that I enjoyed every single one in this particular collection. Each tale is focused around the same overarching theme - the intersection between the world of spreadsheets, corporate takeovers and layoffs, and the world of Cthulhu, Shoggoths and multi-angular terror – and as with any anthology, I particularly enjoyed a handful of stories. As someone who actually works in a hospital, and in a governance capacity that often deals with vast reams of paperwork, I was instantly drawn to Shadow Charts by Marcus Johnston, one of the first stories in the anthology. The protagonist of the tale, a financial analyst/investigator, travels to a mysterious private hospital to investigate alleged financial corruption, only to be foxed at every turn by perfect records, blank-faced staff and disappearing patients. He eventually uncovers the terrible truth behind the hospital – there is always A Terrible Truth A Price To Be Paid in any Mythos tale – in an intriguing ending which didn’t quite play out as I expected.

Casual Friday by Todd H.C. Fisher is a light and enjoyable tale of the world of corporate interns and the short-lived nature of their employment, which I could sympathise with given my own time as a temp; and Career Zombie, by John Taloni, is a well thought-out and often quite touching tale that examines the concept of being a permanent employee, and how some employers could take that quite literally with the right technology. Esoteric Insurance, Inc,by Evan Dicken & Adrian Ludens is a fantastic story, and one of the best in the entire anthology; how could I not love a story that starts with the protagonist, a lowly insurance agent, regretfully informing a property owner that damage caused by interdimensional Mythos critters isn’t covered by his insurance, and ends with a twist only possible through the proper knowledge and application of corporate HR regulations? It is to be hoped that the authors expand on this tale – either through more short stories, or hopefully a full novel.
There are certainly some stories in Corporate Cthulhu that aren’t as light-hearted or even humorous as some of the ones I’ve highlighted above. Boedromion Noumenia by Andrew Scott shows the dire consequences of tech moguls trying to acquire prestige that mere money cannot, by delving into glyphs and artifacts that should remain undisturbed, and Incorporation by Max D. Stanton deftly twists the worlds of corporate money and world-ending apocalypse together to show that capitalists and cultists can easily find common ground in the desire for money and power. Forced Labor, by Mythos veteran Peter Rawlik, is a slow-burning and thoughtful story that questions the nature of slavery and indentured service and makes uncomfortable, although essential, reading.

However, by far my favourite of all of the stories in the anthology is Dagon-Tec by Adam Millard. It is a short story, perhaps one of the shortest in the collection, and yet I cannot remember laughing so much, or so hard, when reading any other Mythos tale. The plot of Dagon-Tec is almost irrelevant, because within these pages Millard manages to effortlessly lampoon almost every single trope of the Cthulhu Mythos, even going back to Lovecraft himself. From the protagonist writing his story on the back of a cereal box “as I could not for the life of me find a piece of blank paper”, to every character coincidentally having a forename and surname lifted from Lovecraft’s works, and an extended argument around the use and context of the term ‘gibbous’, the author expertly dissects the Mythos genre and the lazy clichés and coincidences that often infest its writing. The anthology is entirely worth the price for this story alone, and if Mr Millard can keep up this level of quality I would expect him to go far in the genre.

In conclusion, Corporate Cthulhu is a brilliant anthology and a huge success for Pickman’s Press, full of high-quality, well-written tales from both new and veteran writersof the Cthulhu Mythos. As of writing it is a mere £2.99 for an eBook copy, which is frankly a steal, and should be picked up by anyone interested in either good Mythos fiction, or just good writing overall.

One person found this helpful

SPB

Mixed bag

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 13, 2020

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A bit of a mixed bag in this anthology... Some great stories, but also some really, really poor ones too...

SteveC

Enjoyable Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2019

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Some very good stories although one or two are a little weak compared to the others. I will be watching this publisher with interest for their next release.

Therion Tiberius Ware

Excellent. Suspictions Confirmed...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

If you've ever worked for a big company you'll know exactly where Corporate Cthulhu is coming from...

Michael Doherty

A lot of mileage in tbe old Shuggoth yet...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2020

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Very surprised to find so many entertaining tales in what I mistakenly assumed to be a very narrow theme... Most enjoyable when rationed to one or two a day. Recommended.

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