If there were a [wrinkles nose] emoji I would use it here. Granted, it was going to be hard for any novel to follow Invisible Man but it took me a considerable effort to readjust my expectations as I was reading this one. It's basically fluff. Nevermind the high pedigree implied by the upcoming HBO show. I'm most looking forward to seeing how they change this novel to raise it up to meet that premium cable channel's standards. This is, in fact, a very good premise done dirty with poor prose and shallow characters.

There were other aspects of the novel that made me a little uncomfortable. I guess it's fine but the racism was borderline cartoonish, which, coming off of Ellison, felt wrong. That this was a linked series of short stories made the project feel more like a pitch for a TV series (which it initially was) than an artistic choice (which is probably unfair). The Lovecraftian horrors were mild so if anyone were looking for a scare they wouldn't find one here.

Taken on its own terms this novel is fine: a cool premise that breezes by. I guess I really wanted to stick it to Lovecraft. Really turn him on his head so that the repugnant, racist father of mystical horror would be completely appropriated by the victims of his own hateful ideas (such an ironic horror for the man himself). Well this ain't it. This book isn't interested in that kind of sophistication.