Destroyer of Worlds

A Return to Lovecraft Country

by Matt Ruff

English language

Published Nov. 15, 2023 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-325689-7

(9 reviews)

In this thrilling adventure, a blend of enthralling historical fiction and fantastical horror, Matt Ruff returns to the world of Lovecraft Country and explores the meaning of death, the hold of the past on the present, and the power of hope in the face of uncertainty.

“Ruff renders a very high-concept, imaginary world with such vividness that you can’t help but feel it’s disturbingly real.”—Christopher Moore

Summer, 1957.

Atticus Turner and his father, Montrose, travel to North Carolina, where they plan to mark the centennial of their ancestor’s escape from slavery by retracing the route he took into the Great Dismal Swamp. But an encounter with an old nemesis turns their historical reenactment into a real life-and-death pursuit.

Back in Chicago, George Berry fights for his own life. Diagnosed with cancer, he strikes a devil’s bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, who promises a miracle cure—but to receive it, …

“Ruff renders a very high-concept, imaginary world with such vividness that you can’t help but feel it’s disturbingly real.”—Christopher Moore

Summer, 1957.

Back in Chicago, George Berry fights for his own life. Diagnosed with cancer, he strikes a devil’s bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, who promises a miracle cure—but to receive it, George will first have to bring Winthrop back from the dead.

Meanwhile, fifteen-year-old Horace Berry, reeling from the killing of a close friend, joins his mother, Hippolyta, and her friend Letitia Dandridge on a research trip to Nevada for The Safe Negro Travel Guide. But Hippolyta has a secret—and far more dangerous—agenda that will take her and Horace to the far end of the universe and bring a new threat home to Letitia’s doorstep.

Hippolyta isn’t the only one keeping secrets. Letitia’s sister, Ruby, has been leading a double life as her white alter ego, Hillary Hyde. Now, the supply of magic potion she needs to transform herself is nearly gone, and a surprise visitor throws her already tenuous situation into complete chaos.

Yet these troubles are soon eclipsed by the return of Caleb Braithwhite. Stripped of his magic and banished from Chicago at the end of Lovecraft Country, he’s found a way back into power and is ready to pick up where he left off. But first he has a score to settle. . .

2 editions

Michael Steeves reviewed Destroyer of Worlds by Matt Ruff

Back to Jim Crow and the Turner family

4 stars

The new book picks up a short time after the end of the first book. The new book focuses more on Hippolyta and George, though Montrose and Atticus have a thread as well. They're still being used as pawns in the games of the various sorcerors, though as always they're adept at finding the gaps to maneuver in so that they're not completely powerless (the way they are in society as a whole).

The main threads cover Hippolyta, her son Horace, and Letitia, running an errand for the ghost Witham, Atticus and Montrose taking a trip to the plantation where their ancestor, the slave that would become known as Nat Turner, started his journey to freedom (and where they meet an old friend unexpectedly), Ruby and what became of her after the climax of the last book, and Hippolyta's husband George dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

I wonder if a …

I wonder if a third book is planned -- given how this one wrapped up, it certainly seems like some of the groundwork's been laid for that.

Matthew Royal reviewed Destroyer of Worlds by Matt Ruff

Review of 'Destroyer of Worlds' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

So good! I loved these stories as Lovecraft-inspired fantasy, and I loved the perspective woven through them: the constant anxiety and tension of facing immense, inimical mystery which has no regard for your life combined with the similar psychological tensions and existential dangers experienced by black Americans during Jim Crow.

Told as a series of short stories, or the experiences of different members of a family, with a common thread of traveling for the Safe Negro Travel Guide. That mission and danger is always in the back of your mind, and it's so compatible with cosmic horror, that its use is electric and obvious and perfect.