Phantoms is a novel by American writer Dean Koontz, first published in 1983. The story is a version of the now-debunked urban legend involving a village mysteriously vanishing at Angikuni Lake. The novel includes many literary tips of the hat to the work of H.P. Lovecraft, including the suggestion that the novel's 'Ancient Enemy' is Lovecraft's god Nyarlathotep, also known as the 'Crawling Chaos'; and the fact that character of the air force specialist in potential contact with non-human intelligence is named 'Captain Arkham' (cf. Lovecraft's invention Arkham). Most of these Lovecraftian references were excised from the 1998 film version of Koontz's novel.