This is really a great place to end my current reading of HP Lovecraft. Here we get the story of an Antarctic expedition that goes off the rails in the most Lovecraftian way possible. They find not only the madness inducing beasties but a whole civilization thereof from billions of years ago.

Overall, Mountains of Madness plays directly to Lovecraft’s strengths: the world building. There isn’t much in the way of plot or character (although more than in some of his stories). Instead what we get is a mix of history spanning literally billions of years with the human narrators exploring the ruins.

Regardless of how much less sense this alternate history makes sense in modern times with what we’ve seen of the world, it’s fascinating to read from the lens of a world that hasn’t seen quite as much. In particular, it’s an interesting culmination of Lovecraft’s works, seeing hints of how the Old Ones interacted with other beings we’ve seen in his other stories.

This is probably one of my favorite of Lovecraft’s works thus far and I think a good place to move on for the time being. I still have Dexter Ward to read at some point… but that can wait.