Iced on Aran

Lumley's series of Dreamlands books concludes with an assortment of short stories involving David Hero and Eldin the Wanderer.The first two stories have, aside from the boisterous characters, a Lovecraftian feel to them. The stories have a slower pace than is usual for the rest of the Dreamlands series, but more than anything else in the series I thought they conveyed a sense of awe and horror. Some will be bored with those stories since there's so little action, others will revel in the horrible weirdness.The third and final story (aside from some interstitial pieces) was a major disappointment, I thought. The villian does all those silly things that the bad guys in James Bond movies do. He reveals all the details of his evil plan before attempting (unsuccessfully) to kill David Hero and his girlfriend in a silly way. Big surprise, Hero and girl manage to survive, meet back up with sidekick and other girl, and win the day. Ho hum, a cliche that we've all grown very tired of.The climax unfolds in a predictible fashion, and the conclusion is not very satisfying. I also found the use of acronyms to be extremely silly and annoying - the "Seer with the invisible eyes" is refered to as SWIE or somesuch throughout the last story. Blah.If I were able to rate the stories individually, the first two stories would get 5 stars, and this last awful story would get one or two stars.For the Lovecraft nut, the second story provides a whole new aspect of the Dreamlands underworld; the remainder of the book doesn't really add much new in terms of exploring or adding to Lovecraft's settings.