At the Mountains of Madness

Rating: Five shoggoths out of five

Nutshell: A group of Miskatonic scientists go to Antarctica on a geological survey team. Soon they discover the tallest mountain range in the world as well as some pretty stunning archaeological sites. A few pages later, the group has suddenly dwindled to two people, and the adventure begins.

Commentary: This tale is my personal favorite out of all H. P. Lovecraft's writings. It is also very different from his typical short stories. Lovecraft has taken on a much larger format (a whopping 125 pages in my copy) and has increased the scale of the plot to match. He has also ventured outside of New England, to the frozen wastes of Antarctica, an area of the world which fortunately carries as much wonder now as it did eighty years ago.

I was particularly impressed and humored by Lovecraft's use of anticlimax in this story. Don't worry, the end won't disappoint you, but be prepared for some strange plot twists. In particular, watch out for those six-foot-tall, albino, blind, subterranean penguins.