H.P. Lovecraft was a man seemingly haunted by his own origins. In this disturbingly gray tale we are treated to his vision of man as creator, in which he possibly makes the case that a sane human, would, if he could, chose for himself a creator without human characteristics.

Reanimator is a gruesome improvement on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Lovecraft and Howard, despite their being at such variance in style and philosophy, seemed to have achieved a synergy as cooperative authors dabbling in the very same mythos inspired by Lovecraft's nightmares, which, according to Howard's way of thinking, suggested a connection to an actual horrific past. In this story Lovecraft's use of atmosphere shines darkly. Though Lovecraft is not nearly as readable he strikes as effective an atmospheric tone, as Howard, which nets more dread, as Lovecraft’s sedentary plodding and brooding characters linger in ‘the small black hours” much longer than a brute like Conan of Kane. In this light Herbert West Reanimator is an excellent selection for readers of Howard who have not yet read his senior colleague in the writing of weird fiction.