"The Colour Out of Space" (1927) by H. P. Lovecraft, up on Fantastic Worlds

[jordan179]

“The Colour Out of Space”

© 1927

by

H. P. Lovecraft

West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut. There are dark narrow glens where the trees slope fantastically, and where thin brooklets trickle without ever having caught the glint of sunlight. On the gentle slopes there are farms, ancient and

Comments

[eric_hinkle]

Ah, the Color. One of the better second-rank Lovecraft stories. Amazing how a despised pulp writer was able to make more honestly alien aliens than a lot of the writers from, say, the New Wave.

[jordan179]

It's also really good ecological science-fiction horror -- notice how the Colour insinuates its taint up the food chain? How it starts as a fairly low-level scavenger and preys slowly up the food chain until it's strong enough to take humans?

And yes, it's really alien. Some kind of sentient plasmoid, and one not entirely made of normal matter. Up there with some of Stephen Baxter's stranger xenolife, like the photino birds.

[eric_hinkle]

I never thought of it that way before, but yeah, you're right. I remember how it changed the local wildlife and plants. There's also a question of how intelligent it is if at all -- was it planning it's assault out, or just taking whatever prey it could affect?

[affablestranger]

It's one of my favorite short stories of his.