The Night Land: A Love Tale (The Radium Age Science Fiction Series) - Softcover

Hodgson, William Hope

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1935869604 ISBN 13: 9781935869603

Publisher: HiLoBooks, 2013

Synopsis

In the far future, an unnamed narrator, who along with what remains of the human race dwells uneasily in an underground fortress-city surrounded by brooding, chaotic, relentless Watching Things, Silent Ones, Hounds, Giants, "Ab-humans," Brutes, and enormous slugs and spiders, follows a telepathic distress signal into the unfathomable darkness.

The Earth's surface is frozen, and what's worse — at some point in the distant past, overreaching scientists breached "the Barrier of Life" that separates our dimension from one populated by "monstrosities and Forces" who have sought humankind's destruction ever since. Armed only with a lightsaber-esque weapon called a Diskos, and fortified only by his sense of Honor, our hero braves every sort of terror en route to rescue a woman he loves but has never met.

Hodgson wrote in an archaic style that adds to the story's ever-mounting sense of uncanny anxiety. HiLoBooks' edition of his novel omits two sections which have until now prevented it from reaching a wider audience: the tale's romantic prefatory conceit and its lengthy, relatively uneventful dénouement. Our otherwise unabridged version begins and ends with the most dramatic moments in this epic tale: chapters Two and Eleven.

About this title

About the Author

English author William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918) was known for his works of horror and science-fiction. His first story, The Goddess of Death, was published in 1904. The Night Land, his last printed effort, was published in 1918. Hodgson was also renowned as a photographer and a bodybuilder. He died in battle during World War I at the age of 40.

READER BIO
Drew Ariana is an actor from Chicago whose training includes a BFA in Drama from the University of Michigan as well as a certificate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. He has done a wide range of audio work from voiceovers in films to ESL iPad apps. Drew has most recently performed at theaters including the Peterborough Players in New Hampshire, Circle Theatre in Chicago, and the GBS Theatre at RADA.

Review

For all its flaws and idiosyncracies, The Night Land is utterly unsurpassed, unique, astounding. A mutant vision like nothing else there has ever been.—China Mieville

One of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written.—H.P. Lovecraft,

[Good science fiction stories] give, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before, and enlarge our conception of the range of possible experience... W.H. Hodgson's The Night Land [makes the grade] in eminence from the unforgettable sombre splendour of the images it presents...— C.S. Lewis

Edition details

• Publisher: HiLoBooks
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1935869604
• ISBN 13: 9781935869603
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336