Lovecraft and Steampunk

We have finished the Lovecraft section in school so I am prepared to review it. Honestly. I don't know what to think of Lovecraft. His shorter stories (read short as less than 10 pages) are REALLY good. I love how he is one of those Serlingesque writers who wait until the end to reveal a big twist in the story in the last paragraph. Those particular stories of his are A+ work.

Unfortunately that is not all he has written. Especially in the Cthulhu mythos, there are a lot of stories that are longer than 10 pages. Most of these stories have an incredible beginning, and an incredible ending, with an awesome premise. Most of these stories suffer from extremely poor writing in the middle of the stories however. I have come up with two solutions. Either a) someone told Mr. Lovecraft that his stories had to be longer and so he filled them up with crap; or b) Mr. Lovecraft...much like myself when I sit down to write...knows the beginning of his story, and the end of his story...but no idea how to get from point a to point b.

In general I will give Lovecraft a 4/5. His shortest stories are top notch work and would receive a 5 on their own merit. His longer stories grab you by the seat of your pants and force you to slog through a bunch of crap to get to a whizbang of a conclusion...they would merit a 3 on their own. He gets a 4 for his shear, unadulterated imagination. I can safely tell you that I would not have enjoyed waking up next to this man in the middle of the night while he has a nightmare.

My next novel for my own enjoyment is a Steampunk collection. Lot's of authors, lot's of stories. I've always been really big into steampunk, but never read any works. I hope that this particular collection is not indicative of the general quality of steampunk. These stories have so far been...uninspiring. Yes, i love the setting...but you still have to have a story that im interested in reading before i will stick with it.

Following the steampunk collection, i think im going to go for some james rollins while i STILL wait for Mr. Stirling's latest in paperback :/