The Night Land William Hope Hodgson 9781407609225 Books
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The Night Land William Hope Hodgson 9781407609225 Books
Definitely one of the more unique books I've read. It is most similar to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kaddath, or I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Although the story itself isn't that amazing, the world that Hodgson has created is fantastic.My main issue is that the writing is very repetitive. Very often you will find the phrase "and you will see this to be good," and the author apparently thought it necessary to inform the reader every time the protagonist prepares water or food for himself, even if the act is completely uneventful.
The cover of this book is also a bit ugly. The image on the front appears to be a low-resolution image that was blown up. Not exactly something to show off on your bookshelf.
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The Night Land William Hope Hodgson 9781407609225 Books Reviews
While it does have literary merit, and is of historical interest as early high fantasy, the deliberately archaic prose and length make this not as captivating as at should be.
The upside, eloquent descriptions of desolate landscapes populated by strange monsters, the downside, a romantic subtext that is frankly corny to modern readers
Perhaps try the shorter version, The Dream of X?
This is a difficult to define work. Written in 1912, Hodgson created an intircate and interesting apocolyptic work where the last men in the universe are surviving in a single massive tower on an inhospitable world, the last redoubt. The adventurer who sets off to find and rescue a woman who survived the fall of the only other known redoubt. Much to commend it, but the travels across the planet become a day by day diary of a long journey that even H.P. Lovecraft found hard to slog through. John C. Wright took this book and developed several stories based on the history of the last redoubt in his outstanding Awake in the Night Land. All of the world, the feel and much of the experience (less the interminable boredom).
I imagine Hodgson was a seer. He saw the future that would kill him six years after this book was written in 1912. He existed on the tail end of an age that began somewhere in the 800's. That age would die in a seemingly demonic flood of carnage of WWI and WWII. He sets his story in the last piece of the flower of that age and then yanks it 5 million years in the future. That world is the blackest, most dire, terrible universe that I have ever read. Evil is so real and dominant that the sheer hopelessness of everything is beyond anything I could ever imagine. In these two worlds, the protagonist is a man who is beyond my understanding. The world is forsaken, the future forsaken, hell, the universe is forsaken. Only the past remains. He is granted the chance to resurrect a tiny fraction of his and his true loves past with a feat of heroism. This is a world where suicide would be rational, where the forces pitted against humanity cannot be even slightly harmed, he must take the chance.
They say the book is written like the bible, in terms of style. That sure makes me wonder about the bible. But I thought it was a great change to read. I have never read this kind of writing style except in the bible. The style kept me mesmerized throughout the entire novel.
It was a struggle to finish this book at my usual pace - mostly because of the old language style used. It required utter silence and little distraction. However it's quaintness and purity was a refreshing break from today's culture. The need to assure the reader of the veracity of the story (in truth, in verity, etc...) grew thin, but felt genuine in the context.
The ghoulishness of the Night Land, both physically and spiritually, will stick with you. The thought of an extinguished sun and human life pressing on reflects at the tenacity of our species to survive. The monsters of the Night Land are probably not too far off from what we all were afraid of as children with one twist - some of them can kill your soul; a worse finality than physical death. One which you rather end yourself than to let be stolen from you at death.
This is truly a love story, both in the past, present, and future more so than a fantasy epic. The endless development and nuances of their love affair were tiring, but added to the significance of the ending. How such a timeless romance could be threatened by death and yet triumph made it worth it to finish the story.
I saw this as a prerequisite to reading Awake in The Night Land which was recently released by John C Wright which I look forward to reading.
If you want to read this book, DO NOT buy this edition with the green cover. The print is way TOO SMALL! The page layout and font used have produce the MOST TERRIBLY produced book I have ever seen! I have seen self published books put together better than this. The fact that there is no publisher even listed makes me wonder who put this together. I had really enjoyed Hodgson's "The House on the Borderland", and had been looking forward to reading this one. However, this particular version was pretty much unusable without severe eyestrain. Go for the Dover Doomsday Collection edition. One other thing - Although "House on the Borderland" had been quite readable (even for a book written in 1908), Hodgson for some reason chose to write this story in a strange and archaic style. I thought the King James Bible to be more readable. Be Prepared!
Definitely one of the more unique books I've read. It is most similar to The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kaddath, or I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. Although the story itself isn't that amazing, the world that Hodgson has created is fantastic.
My main issue is that the writing is very repetitive. Very often you will find the phrase "and you will see this to be good," and the author apparently thought it necessary to inform the reader every time the protagonist prepares water or food for himself, even if the act is completely uneventful.
The cover of this book is also a bit ugly. The image on the front appears to be a low-resolution image that was blown up. Not exactly something to show off on your bookshelf.
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