I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, but Manly Wade Wellman’s stories are excellent. They’re not quite Lovecraft, but they span a broader range, and are much more accessible in their language and characters.

Unlike Lovecraft’s typical scholar narrator, stumbling into a horror beyond their ability to fully comprehend, Wellman’s main characters are men (almost always) of action, not only challenging and often defeating evil on its own terms, but actively seeking out evil in its lairs.

This first volume contains the John Thunstone and Lee Cobbett stories.