H.P. Lovecraft's Dream-Cycle
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H.P. Lovecraft's Dream-Cycle, although often overlooked for his Cthulhu Mythos, is a huge entity in a good number of this "master of the macabre's" fictional works. It is considered by some to be part of the Cthulhu Mythos, but the Dream-Cycle could in many ways be seen as a mythos unto itself, considering the consistency of many places and characters within the writings.
The Cycle centers around the Dreamlands, which has a unique pantheon comprising Earth's gods, known as the Great Ones, the Great Old Ones and the Other Gods; a consistent milieu including the Enchanted Wood, Ulthar and Celephaïs; reoccurring characters such as Randolph Carter, Richard Upton Pickman and Kuranes.
Randolph Carter is perhaps the most frequently encountered character in the mythos, appearing in some form or another in The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Silver Key, Through The Gates of the Silver Key, The Unnamable, and The Statement of Randolph Carter. Many have made the projection that Carter was in fact an alter-ego of Lovecraft's, due to the consistency of ideals and that Lovecraft was reputed to have had constant nightmares.
Some of the authors that have produced pastiches of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos have also produced as a part of them pastiches of the Dream-Cycle. The most numerous sequels to the Dream-Cycle have been by Gary Myers and by Brian Lumley. These are very different in style. All of Myers's sequels are very short short stories that concentrate on atmosphere and are usually very dark in tone. Myers often imitates the style of Lord Dunsany, which of course Lovecraft himself was strongly influnced by in his Dream-Cycle tales. Lumley's pastiches, on the other hand, are traditional sword and sorcery tales, both novels and short stories. They are adventurous and often humorous and (unlike the stories of Myers) are usually quite light and whimsical in tone.