The Night Land Journal
Grey Dog Tales is hosting a month-long celebration of William Hope Hodgson. (Since I was bringing the site up, I'm a little late with this notification.)
William Hope Hodgson is often praised for his fantastic vision. He's not often praised for his characterization. Yet John Linwood Grant, in a post entitled "The Writer on the Borderland 1: Hodgson and Carnacki", points out that Mr. Hodgson's characterization of his occult detective Thomas Carnacki shows some humanizing characteristics not so clearly depicted in other writers' counterparts.
I note that the same effect takes place in The Night Land. Mr. Hodgson often depicted protagonists who were desperately afraid of the weird threats they confronted: I believe a courageous character showing fear to be part of his technique for making his Outer Monstrosities fearful. X, the unnamed hero of The Night Land, is a brave, determined man and an accomplished fighter; and he regards certain of the Night Land's creatures with utter dread.
Mr. Grant is the author of Tales of the Last Edwardian, a series of ghost or horror tales. They are available for free from Smashwords.
In the second half of the post Tim Prasil discusses how an anti-supernatural canon historically came to inform the literary concept of the mystery story.
Mr. Prasil is the author of the Vera Van Slyke occult detective stories.
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- Written by Kate Coady
- Category: News
What if you could be a divinity?
What if it cost you everything?
What if you faced monsters more terrible than you could imagine?
What if those monsters might be your salvation?
The sun has died...
Not a planet, not a star shines n the black heavens above The Night Land.
In its midst The Last Redoubt, a vast, pyramid-shaped arcology, stands obdurate against the night, while within it the remnant millions of humanity live and thrive. The Days of Light are less than a legend to them, mouldered to dust amidst the chaos of ancient libraries.
Outside, strange immense and malevolent entities watch — and wait.
The Last Redoubt has stood ten million years and may stand ten million years more - but its final fall is inevitable. The last age is drawing to its close and the end of everything comes ever nearer.
The people of the Last Redoubt face this fate with stoicism, hedonism, heroic folly... except for two secretive orders who are making plans for survival and have found their champions, a man and a woman who will together carry the essence of humanity beyond the end of night.
But can they preserve their own humanity as well?
Brett Davidson's long-awaited Night Land novel Anima has been published by Three-Legged Fox. It's illustrated by well-known artist SMS, whose work has frequently appeared in Interzone, and who has a Night Land gallery here. It's 432 pages, and available as a hardcover or a paperback.
Anima is available at:
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- Written by Kate Coady
- Category: News
