Simply one of the best science fiction novels ever written with a satisfying and surprising ending, though modern readers will probably be aware of it already. Even if you are there is much to savour in this fine novel, not least a great sense of how people thought about science in the late Victorian era. A great book that stands the test of time and defined a genre.

Nobody does brooding horror like Lovecraft and The Shadow Over Innsmouth is brilliantly constructed as a story. Innsmouth pops up in several of Lovecraft's other stories so this is a good place to start if you are new to his work. A strange and brilliant piece of horror writing that has remained very fresh, unlike the folk of Innsmouth..

I can't help but agree with Kurt on what's happening not just in Britain but across the pond. Metamorphosis is such a strange and perfect story that you are guaranteed to never forget it. An intellectual nightmare.

Perhaps the best known of Lovecrafts works The Call of Cthulhu is an excellent introduction to his unique style of horror. It has everything that makes his writing great; an unwitting witness drawn into madness, a mythos of creatures beyond human understanding and a great perspective. Without doubt a horror classic.