Under the Pyramids (H.P. Lovecraft)

The other day, my assistants asked me if I had ready anything by H.P. Lovecraft before.  And I admitted that I had not.  So, Kilbronson and Ahmed laid this title on my desk--a literary mashup of Lovecraft and Harry Houdini--as in the famous magician, Harry Houdini.  How could I not get excited about that?

Um...

Under the Pyramids by H.P. Lovecraft has two distinctions to its name...first, this is my first foray into Lovecraft territory.  And second, I really hated this story.  I won't lie to you, dear readers.  This was not a good story.

Spoilers Ahead:

I mean, it started off pretty good.  Harry Houdini himself goes on vacation in Egypt, tries to stay incognito and ends up accidentally attracting too much attention when he tries to "show up" a lesser magician.  

The real meat and potatoes, however, occurs when Houdini acts as the "second" in a fight on a pyramid between his guide and another man--and learns that the whole thing was a setup to get him alone in the desert in the middle of the night so that he could be bound and gagged and tossed into a hole in the pyramid.  Apparently, the Egyptians felt that Houdini's tricks were somehow insulting to the ancient magic of their country.

I found Lovecraft's writing to be ridiculously edgy, and everything was like "oh no!  The world is a terrifying dark place full of great elder gods that existed before time and don't even care because we're so pathetically insignificant."  Bleah.  Count me unimpressed.  It wasn't scary, it was just weird, and not in a good way.

I'll be honest and say that I probably won't be reading anymore Lovecraft after this.  If you think I should give him another go, however, please feel free to comment your favorite stories and change my mind.