H P Lovecraft

The Shadow Out of Time H P Lovecraft

"Lovecraft's single greatest achievement in fiction." - Lin Carter, "Awe-inspiring." - Ramsey Campbell. "The Shadow Out of Time" tells of the Great Race of Yith, an extraterrestrial species with the ability to travel through space and time. The Yithians accomplish this by switching bodies with hosts from the intended spatial or temporal destination. The story implies that the effect, when seen from the outside, is similar to spiritual possession. The Yithians' original purpose was to study the history of various times and places, and they have amassed a "library cit" that is filled with the past and future history of multiple races, including humans. Ultimately the Yithians use their ability to escape the destruction of their planet in another galaxy by switching bodies with a race of cone-shaped plant beings who lived 250 million years ago on Earth ... This novella was written between November 1934 and February 1935, and it was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories.