By his own admission, we know Lovecraft invented the legendary Necronomicon; it was a pure fabrication, a fictional tome serving as one of the many devices he utilized to tie the works of his "Cthulhu Mythos" together. Lovecraft's Necronomicon was not inspired by any "real" medieval magical grimoire (Abdul Al Hazred is a fictional character), rather HPL took his inspiration for the literary Necronomicon from "The King In Yellow", a series of stories by Robert W. Chambers in which Hastur, The Yellow Sign, Carcossa, Hali and the evil tome The King In Yellow itself first appear in American horror literature. Never-the-less, many fans of Lovecraft refused to believe that the Necronomicon was a fabrication.... And writers like this mysterious "Simon" are reaping the benefits of this naive misconception. What the "editor" has done here is present a primer on traditional ceremonial magic (in the tradition of MacGregor Mather's Golden Dawn and Crowley's A.A.), spruced it up with some (possibly authentic) Sumero-Babylonian mysticism, and then shamelessly worked in modified names of Lovecraftian beasties (Xastur=Hastur, Azag-Thoth=Azathoth, Ishniggarub=Shubniggurath)and then marketed this hodge podge under the name "Necronomicon" hoping that Lovecraft fans would buy it thinking it was real. He apparently was not disappointed... The only reason I gave this dishonest work two stars is because the intro information on Crowley is informative and the rituals themselves (if you can excuse the occasional use of Lovecraft's creatures' names) are apparently based on actual Golden Dawn magic ceremonies and authentic Sumerian traditions. So, the book is not totally useless, I just wish the original content (sans Lovecraft) would have been presented under a different name (and the fact that it wasn't is inexcusable and dishonors HPL, Crowley, and any serious practitioner of ceremonial magic). Do the rituals work? I don't know...I don't have the guts to try them out!