Trying to find an SF/Horror story I once read: don't know the author or title

[Kesserendrel]

I just joined this forum. There are two real questions eating me that explain why I did so, and this is the second

A few years ago I had my wisdom teeth removed. I had stockpiled probably a dozen short story collections to sustain me while recuperating, and in one there was a short story that really grabbed me. I was high on painkillers at the time and drifting in and out of consciousness regularly while spending 22 hours a day in bed, so I quickly forgot the author, the title, and the collection. I only remember the plot, and there are gaps even in this. Basically, the story was set in a universe where horror creatures (possibly from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos?) were controlled by the superpowers and used in a Third World War. The beginning and end of the story really struck me. A the beginning an adult was remembering seeing nuclear-powered bomber aircraft as a child. At the end, the survivors of humanity were relegated to a shelter which I believe was on an asteroid.

Anyone read anything that sounds remotely like this? I'd love to read it again; hopefully it would hold up without painkillers to my memory of it.

 

[williamjm]

That sounds exactly like A Colder War by Charlie Stross. You can read it here: A Colder War - a novelette by Charles Stross

It is an interesting premise and a good story, might have made a good novel with that premise as well. If you like that you might also like Stross' The Atrocity Archives and The Jennifer Morgue which deals with a secret British intelligence agency dedicated to fighting Lovecraftian Horrors, although those books are a bit more light-hearted than A Colder War is.