of dark humor, shown in “Mr. Dingle the Strong”
(1961) and “The Rip Van Winkle Caper” (1962).
He often took elements of popular culture and
transformed them, skewering baseball in “The
Mighty Casey” (1960) and the traditional western
in “The Showdown with Rance McGrew” (1962).
Although he usually used modern themes and set-
tings, he occasionally drew upon historical events,
as in “The Big Tall Wish (1961) and “Ghost
Train.” Serling’s prose is transparent and work-
manlike, and several of his stories might well have
become minor classics even if they had been pub-
lished in print form initially rather than as adapta-
tions of television scripts. As it is, unfortunately,
they are generally regarded as shadows of the tele-
vised versions rather than artistic works in their
own right.
“The Shadow over Innsmouth”
H. P. Lovecraft(1936)
One of the recurring themes in the work of H. P.
LOVECRAFTis the physical decay and degradation
of human stock, a reflection of his personal reser-
vations about the influx of immigrants in his home
city. The most obvious example is in this, one of
his very best stories, in which a tourist becomes in-
trigued when he hears of Innsmouth, a formerly
prosperous seaport now home to a small popula-
tion of inbred, unattractive, insular people who are
despised and even feared by outsiders. On a whim
he decides to spend a day in the town, despite
warnings about their unfriendliness and their
strange habits, which include adherence to a reli-
gious cult known as the Esoteric Order of Dagon.
Immediately upon arriving he notices a
strange similarity among the population. They
have rough, scaly skin, misshapen heads, and a
tendency to go bald while still very young, and the
older residents remain out of sight, presumably
hidden in their homes. They also have a fondness
for a particularly exotic form of jewelry. Although
repulsed by what he sees, the narrator plies one el-
derly man with whiskey and learns the history of
the town, that in generations past the residents
abandoned God to worship other deities that live
in the sea, but that as part of the deal they inter-
bred with the sea creatures, which explains their
fishlike features. However, he says too much and
finally warns his companion to get out of town im-
mediately, to run for his life. Upset though not yet
alarmed, the narrator decides to leave but discov-
ers at the last minute that there is no transporta-
tion out of town for the rest of the day and that he
is stranded.
During the night a party of locals attempts to
break into his room. He escapes through a window
and is pursued, and during the course of that pur-
suit he recognizes that some of those chasing him
move in a manner that suggests they are no longer
entirely human. Although he ultimately eludes
them and precipitates an armed assault on the
town by the authorities, he has been corrupted by
the contact, and the story ends with him resolving
to return, to swim down into the harbor, and to
find the powerful creatures who transformed the
residents of Innsmouth. The story, which is part of
Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, was the inspiration
for the film Dagon(2001).The Shadowrun Series
Like the FORGOTTEN REALMS, WARHAMMER, and
DRAGONLANCEbooks, this series of novels is based
on a role-playing game system, Shadowrun. The
setting is a variation of generally urban fantasy set
in the near future, which allows magical and tech-
nological wonders to be mixed. The basic premise
is that our world and one where elves and fairies
exist overlap so that England might once again be-
come home to the druids, for example, and drag-
ons and other mythical creatures exist alongside
aircraft and corporations.
As with the other series, the Shadowrun
books are usually written by a group of writers who
specialize in shared-world universes based on game
systems, including in this case Nigel Findley, Lisa
Smedman, Jak Koke, and Nyx Smith. The most
prominent Shadowrun author is Robert Charrette,
who has moved on to other publishers with several
generic fantasy adventures. A few independently
established writers have also contributed to the se-
ries, including Mel Odom, Michael Stackpole, and
Nick Pollotta.
Some of the titles are light adventures with
considerable humor, as is the case with Never TrustThe Shadowrun Series 313