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Title: The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson ISBN: 1-58715-604-0 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.58 (12 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Great premise but horribly written...
Comment: Hodgson's The Night Land (published in 1912) is frequently cited as one of the great masterpieces of horror and fantasy fiction. Well, in terms of premise and ideas (and to an extent the basic plot), I'd agree. However, the characterization (esp. of women) and the writing style of this novel is absymal- it's nearly unreadable. Hodgson uses a mock-miedevil writing style for reasons known only to himself.
I've read most of Hodgson's novels (four out of five) and this is easily the worst-written of them all (Boats of the Glen Carig is similarly flawed)-and it's a near-fatal flaw. As far as I'm concerned, Hodgson's "House on the Borderland" (published in 1908) remains his only masterpiece. In fact, I've read an interesting article which suggests that Hodgson published his novels in the reverse-order of their actual writing, which means that House would've been one of his last works, i.e., he improved with time.
Rating: 3
Summary: best setting ever
Comment: the setting in this book is the most powerful in horror. the perversity of mankind's survival, a bleak image of itself, after the sun has died. the description of the land without sun. the intensity in man's life, forever surronded by monsters in a surronding land man has no chance in ever getting back. nothing in horror has affected me more than these horrible descriptions. the morbidity of man's survival. a world without sun. how can you destroy such a story? well, Hodgson can. a love story described in the most stupid way, endless repitions. i walked for two hours. i ate a tablet. i walked again for two hours. ate another tablet. i slept. please. this could have been the best book ever. sigh
Rating: 3
Summary: Dark Future
Comment: Disgruntled English students usually think they are suffering when they are made to read William Golding's "Lord of the Flies". They say the symbolism is too confusing, too hard to understand etc. But that book is a walk in the park compared to "The Night Land". It is no exaggeration to say that, unless one is prepared to make an effort, reading this book can be exquisitely painful. In order to avoid getting a headache I was obliged to read in short bursts, or until the words started spinning in front of my eyes.
The writing of "The Night Land" is the deepest shade of purple prose imaginable. Exceedingly dense, flowery, and, in some parts, almost indecipherable. Curiously, I still wanted to finish it. Despite the critic's warnings, I couldn't resist the story: the remaining inhabitants of Earth (a handful of millions) surviving in a future that has long been dark, desolate and hostile since the death of the sun. A cordon of lumbering, monolithic creatures inching their way toward the Last Redoubt, where the humans are sheltered.
While reading "The Night Land" I was, to a certain extent, reminded of Camille Flammarion's "Omega: the Last Days of the World" (1893). Both books are fairly bleak visions presenting an Earth disturbingly changed by the aeons. Both have an element of Victorian-era romance where the heroes set out and eventually find their Intended Ones. "Omega" is far more easy to comprehend, however. It gradually eases the reader into the remote future, preparing him or her for the shock of change. "The Night Land" cuts right to the chase. The narrator, a grieving widow in the first chapter, "awakes" in the future with a different body, completely familiar with his surroundings, looking on his past life like a vaguely remembered dream.
Like other readers, I would have enjoyed the book more if it weren't for the language. There did seem a bit too much padding and a frustrating sense of going round in circles. The romance can only be described as mawkish. Hodgson does do a good job at evoking a feeling of dislocation though. Making the future look confusing and bewildering to outsiders like ourselves. If you want to read a book that plays with language, I would like to suggest "Riddley Walker" by Russell Hoban. It's only set a few thousand years from now, but it does evoke the feeling of another era through language more convincingly than Hodgson's attempt.
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Title: The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson, W. H. Hodgson ISBN: 0786702826 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers Pub. Date: 01 March, 1996 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson ISBN: 1587155710 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: All Gothic 1: The Boats of the Glen Garrig & The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson ISBN: 0738847267 Publisher: Xlibris Corporation Pub. Date: 21 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.99 |
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Title: Gothic Horror 2: The Ghost Pirates & Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson ISBN: 0738847275 Publisher: Xlibris Corporation Pub. Date: 09 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.99 |
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Title: William Hope Hodgson's Night Lands: Eternal Love by William Hope Hodgson, Andy W. Robertson ISBN: 1592246788 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.95 |
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