"The Hill of the Beast" | |
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Author | Harry Turtledove |
Publisher | PS Publishing |
Editor | Darrell Schweitzer |
Series | Cthulhu Mythos |
Genre(s) | Fantasy-horror |
Publication date | September, 2019 |
Preceded by | "Interlibrary Loan" |
Followed by | "The Colour out of the Shadow" |
"The Hill of the Beast" is a short story published in the anthology Mountains of Madness Revealed, edited by Darrell Schweitzer (2019). The anthology collects stories that serve as sequels to H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. [1]
The story is the first person account of Moishe Leutner, a New York City-born Communist and volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Battle of the Ebro of the Spanish Civil War. While Leutner was intrigued by the discoveries in Antarctica outlined in the Lovecraft work, his ideology prompted him to go to Spain and join the Spanish Republicans. After surviving fierce fighting in July 1938, Leutner's squad is assigned to take Hill 666, which he dubs "The Hill of the Beast". On the eve of the assault, Leutner hears the Nationalists holding Mass, but he also hears flute playing that he realizes is out of place. He supects that the Nationalists may have obtained something from Antarctica. The next day, a shoggoth attacks the Republican advance.
The story includes a postscript that confirms that Leutner went on to serve with the United States Army in other theaters of World War II, and became a successful civil rights attorney in New York after the war, dying in 1991.
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