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Study 143 - The Second Wish (Patreon)

Published:
2025-09-18 18:49:23
Edited:
2025-09-18 18:50:11
Imported:
2025-09
Tags:

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Join us as we discuss The Second Wish by Brian Lumley!

Special thanks to reader Andrew Leman! Grab The Spark Devil and so much more at the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society!

Check out these dope Necroscope book covers here and here!

Comments

Rick Hound

I always found Lumley using sexual content in his story as both the usual spice expected from pulpy lit. but also another layer of horror, there’s a specific scene in the first Necroscope that Chad might remember where a sexual scene is described so strangely that it almost feels like an alien behavior H.P would give to the Yith with their time hopping or the Mygo with putting brains in obscure apparatuses. It’s forever stuck in my mind why something mundane and yet muted is used to such an effect of the weird.

Jason Thompson

In defense of the main character, what kinda job is he gonna get? Can he put “Gigolo” for all those missing unemployed years on his resume? It’s hard to switch careers in middle age!

S Jayne Bradley

I just assumed the cthulhu beast was a Brown Jenkin reference.

Daniel Onions

I wondered whether the temple was calling to the characters because they'd seen the Black Stone. They do seem strangely drawn to it from first glance, and Möhrsen seems to be able to compel them, or at least somewhat too easily manipulate them, with his little trickeries. Not sure, but a fun, if slightly workmanlike, read regardless!

Doc Singles

I read and enjoyed the first couple of Necroscope novels but never got around to reading further. This story entices me to pick them back up from the beginning.

badgerspoon

Necroscope's cool cover art drew me in & I stayed for the vampires. I don't think I made it past book 4 or so. I recall each book feeling like diminishing returns. Also, this podcast is how I found out that Lumley is dead, just like how I found out that Anne Rice had died.

REO Jackwagon

There was a point in my 20s where I was living in a barren apartment and I did nothing but work, train, and read - like some sort of library monk. I devoured all the Lumley they could get, even the extended universe stuff. I might need to revist. Never heavy stuff but just so readable and fun.

Blair Leggett

@24:08 "Does that mean there is another Cthulhu he doesn't want you to get mixed up with?!?" Funny you mention that Chad. ;) If you read some more Lumley, the last book in the Titus Crow series is called "Elysia". In it we meet Cthulhu's 'brother' "Kthanid". He looks identical to Cthulhu except that he has "loving" gold eyes. He is said to be as good, as Cthulhu is evil. This is pretty much where I stopped reading Lumley (at least that series). Whaddya mean I gotta look the bloated, octopoid, dragon thing in the eyes to know if he loves me with all his heart, or is going to consume me in absolute rage. Riiiiiight!

Jim Cannon

Oh is this where we all admit we read Necroscope novels? Hi, my name is Jim and I read the first five or six of them and liked the vampires and the Mobius teleport trick. It was weird for me though because I was getting into Lovecraft at the same time so I didn't get all the references back then. Heck, I didn't read "Charles Dexter Ward" until you guys covered it, and only then did I realize just how much Lovecraft was in those books. One of Curwen's old buddies and his blown up castle feature pretty prominently in (I think) the second book. "The Second Wish" sounds like a fun story, sort of like a good version of the Derleth approach. Too many easter eggs, the litany of evil books, but actually pulpy and zippy and not at all a slog.

Jim Cannon

I read the first Titus Crow book and knew it was not for me. It felt more Doctor Who than Lovecraftian, but I'd forgotten about that cabinet from "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" which functions as Crowe's TARDIS.

Sanjay Mathew

The tentacled familiar is very Count Magnus, since we're counting the many Weird references

Richard Horsman

Hi Jim! My name is Richard and I made it to the Vampire World spinoffs, two of the most turgid books I’ve ever read.

Richard Horsman

I’m getting bupkiss on John Kingsley Brown or Browne. I’m intrigued!

Richard Horsman

“Personal assistant and traveling companion”, though the references might be hard to get…

Tony Johnstone

Lumley!!! Ah… those Necroscope books were the gateway to the good stuff, Lovecraft and beyond! His Titus Crow series of books is well worth a read, and his various Lovecraft pastiches such as Dagons Bell and other Discords are great fun. Oooooh to see those Necroscope covers for the first time again… ❤️

Our old pal Brendan Gardiner

When Harry comes streaking back into the inn, I appreciated the chance to imagine the innkeeper’s thoughts without them being laid out explicitly as dialogue. Part of me wanted to see it spelled out — “You went and touched something didn’t you” — and tip the story all the way into comic territory, given the fact that it already fell short of being terribly scary. But the subtlety is effective. Not everything needs to be so direct for a reader to get it. Anyway, just my two cents from the peanut gallery on the sidelines.