Alan's Reviews > The Destroyer of Worlds

Rec. by: Previous work
Rec. for: Anyone who liked the first installment of this thrilling, chilling serial

The Destroyer of Worlds is the much-anticipated sequel to Matt Ruff's Lovecraft Country, a book I read and really liked back in 2020, well before the premiere of its high-profile screen adaptation (which I still, to my regret, have not seen).

Don't start with this one, though. I know, I end up saying that a lot, but The Destroyer of Worlds is Ruff's very first sequel—every other one of his published book-length works has been a standalone novel—and I don't think he's quite got the hang of writing a series just yet. A series writer, after all, must strike a balance between easing readers back into a story, one that they might have last read years before—getting us back up to speed—while still diving into the new stuff fast enough to satisfy those who've just finished the old.

The Destroyer of Worlds wastes no time recapitulating its past—so if your memories of Lovecraft Country are at all hazy, it might be a good idea to give yourself a refresher before picking up this one.

Ruff also wastes no time preparing the sensitive reader. Again: if you've read Lovecraft Country, then you should already be ready for horrors, of the entirely realistic kind as well as the eldritch and chthonic. But this is the very first line of The Destroyer of Worlds:

He kills the dogs before he runs.
—p.1

And the first use of the N-word (in context, sure, but still) is on p.4.

The cast from Lovecraft Country is back for this installment, alive and kicking. Mostly. Ruff's story switches among several major threads, including Atticus and Montrose Turner's encounter with an ancestor in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina; George Berry's deal with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop; and Hippolyta Berry's assignment for The Safe Negro Travel Guide, piloting a really sweet new Airstream trailer into the Southwestern desert along with her surly teenage son Horace and friend Letitia Dandridge. And more... there's a lot going on here, although it's usually possible to keep things straight. If, that is, you've already read the first book, and remember it fairly well.

I don't want to give the impression that I disliked The Destroyer of Worlds, though—quite the opposite, in fact. This installment is vivid and fast-paced, with evocative chapter titles and even, sometimes, more than a little depth. (Ruff explains the origin of the J. Robert Oppenheimer quote that became this novel's title rather more thoroughly than I expected, for example, for all that the explanation comes fairly late in the book.)

The Destroyer of Worlds is dedicated to Nisi, "who wanted more." The Acknowledgements clarify that this homage is to Nisi Shawl, whose own work I have long admired as both writer and editor. So I think I need to thank Nisi as well as Matt Ruff, for helping us all get the chance to venture once again into Lovecraft country...