Pyramid Review
Mysteries of Hungary (for Call of Cthulhu)
Published by Chaosium, Inc.
Written by László Dózsa
64-page b&w softcover; $14.00
I am a complete, unabashed sucker for all things /Call of Cthulhu. Whatever it is, I buy it, bookmark it, collect it, wear it, plaster it on my bumper, you name it. So when three new monographs went up on the Chaosium website in mid-May, I faithfully whipped out the credit card and ordered them. Upon their arrival, I immediately picked up the first one and began to read. As luck would have it, fate chose for me Mysteries of Hungary.
I can't begin to describe how disappointed I am . . . but I'll try. I do not believe it was written by someone who speaks or writes English. Not doesn't speak or write it well, but doesn't speak or write it at all. Okay, maybe not "not at all," but it clearly only barely qualifies as a second language. My guess is it was originally written in the author's native Hungarian, and then he translated it into English, using his rudimentary skills and extensive use of either a Hungarian-English dictionary or a translation program.
(Remember the Monty Python sketch with the deliberately mangled Hungarian-to-English phrasebook? The one where the Hungarian for "Cigarettes, please," is translated to "I will not buy this record, it is scratched," and "I would like some matches, too," becomes "My hovercraft is full of eels!" The author -- and I believe us readers -- may have been better served had he used that book instead of whatever . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 13, 2007
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