The device which allows the meeting of disparate historical figures is the crucial attraction of the setting, and Silverberg takes advantage of this in his story by having Gilgamesh meet H. In Heroes in Hell, all the great figures of history go to their infernal rest-so that Cleopatra, Machiavelli, Benito Mussolini, Che Guevara, et al. The whole concept is similar to how comic book shared universes work, and of course is a somewhat more structured and organized version of how the Cthulhu Mythos came to be. The story takes place in the Heroes in Hell shared universe a series of anthologies such as the Man-Kzin Wars and Thieves’ World where multiple authors write stories in a common setting, usually sticking to their own characters but collaborating to a degree on the development of the common background, and possibly referencing each other’s additions and the events in their stories. Howard, for example, appears in both Richard Lupoff’s novel Lovecraft’s Book (1985), Rick McCollum’s Ashley Dust (1994), David Barbour’s Shadow’s Bend (2000), and Robert Silverberg’s novella “Gilgamesh in the Outback” (1986). 1852 (2009), but what all of these stories have in common is that the characterization of Lovecraft is informed by what is known of his life and thought, and the same is true for the other historical personages. The genre varies from weird fiction like Fritz Leiber’s “To Arkham and the Stars” (1966) to historical fiction such as Peter Cannon’s The Lovecraft Chronicles (2004) to erotic horror including Edward Lee’s Trolley No. This began a literary tradition of using Lovecraft and his friends and contemporaries a fictional characters, which continues to this day. Lovecraft even gave his friend permission to kill him off in the story, and returned the favor by killing off a fictional Bloch in “The Haunter of the Dark” ( Weird Tales Dec 1935). Lovecraft was represented as a fictionalized version of himself in Robert Bloch’s “The Shambler from the Stars” ( Weird Tales Sep 1935).

Robert Silverberg, “Gilgamesh in the Outback” in Rebels in Hell (1986) 79Įven before he was dead and could not offer any protest, H.

Lovecraft of the Kingdom of New Holy His Diabolic England, envoys of his Britannic Majesty Henry VIII to the court of Prester John. They were ambassadors, these two: Their Excellencies Robert E.

The two of them had been journeying across the interminable parched wastes of the Outback for many days now-how many, not even the Elder Gods could tell.

Gilgamesh the King by Robert Silverberg