Further Beyond: A Lovecraftian Science Fiction Novel

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Crawford Tillinghast was killed when a machine that he built in order to break down the barriers between dimensions exploded, and his three domestic servants disappeared, leaving his old friend David Dearden as the only witness to the catastrophe.

Now Dearden has to return to the house where the unexplained tragedy occurred in order to help Tillinghast's widow put the estate in order. Three scholars with whom Tillinghast had been in correspondence regarding his research are also there, avid to get their hands on the remains of the machine and any documents the scientists might have left behind.

The accounts they give of their correspondence with the scientist allow Dearden to form a clearer picture of what might have happened on the fatal night -- but in the meantime, he begins to realize that the phenomenon might yet be repeated, with fatal consequences not merely for the inhabitants of the house, but for the entire region of the north-eastern United States -- and perhaps the world -- unless he can find a way to stop it.

Published by Wildside Press in July 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4794-2799-4

Review by Sally Startup

In a novel that takes places shortly after the events of H. P. Lovecraft’s story, ‘From Beyond’, another chilling tale develops.

Crawford Tillinghast’s house and its contents have been left to his estranged widow, Rachel. Tillinghast’s friend, who was also the narrator of Lovecraft’s tale, tells the reader more about himself in this one.

The police have given up searching for Tillinghast’s missing servants, and have accepted that David, the narrator, did not murder his best friend. David would prefer not to return to the scene of the tragedy, yet finds himself unable to refuse Rachel’s request for his help.

It turns out that the damaged remains of Tillinghast’s terrifyingly uncanny machine are of huge interest to other scientific and occult investigators. In order to protect Rachel from the unscrupulous attentions of three such men, David agrees to return to the house. There, after enduring an apparent attack of migraine while trying to understand Tillinghast’s previous researches, and in fear of what could happen if the machine were to fall into the wrong hands, David takes an incredible risk.

Out beyond the known boundaries of scientific knowledge, our actions might easily have consequences too terrible for most of us to contemplate. Through his own exploration of knowledge, David reaches a position in which he has to make a horrifying choice. The result is hauntingly poignant.

The Brian Stableford Website