Ahira's Hangar

This book is hard-to-get nowadays, but it can be found and dowloaded on the Internet. I did so and can say that The Night Land is at the same time a great masterpiece and a very annoying book. Overall, I think the positives outweigh the negatives.

The story is framed as a dream the narrator had, in the old fashion of when people if they wanted to write about strange worlds felt they had to invent a semi-logical explanation for us hearing about them. The main story is set in the far future when the sun has died. The remains of humanity live in a great pyramid protected by a thing called Earth Current, an exhaustible natural resource. Outside there is a benighted cold desert inhabited by various monsters and things inconceivably worse. The plot is based on the hero having to go on a long and dangerous trek through the Night Land and back to save a girl he loves. Hodgson obviously thought much of his love story, but for me it was only an excuse for sight-seeing.

The Negatives:

- The story is very long and detailed and occasionally repetitive. Particularly the romance parts could bear some cutting.
- The romance is terrible and is obviously written by a person who had never had a date or seen any real women lately. (I heard Hodgson wrote the story when he was being employed as a sailor when he was young.)
- The language is overtly archaic and kludgy with rampant Capitalization. At one point I was sure I would scream if Hodgson used the word "dainty" or "naughty" yet again anytime soon.

The Positives:

- The dark atmosphere is among the best. For me the atmosphere is the most important part of a book.
- Despite being very old the story still feels very original in many respects. I can only imagine what it was like when it was first published.
- The world-building is surprisingly good. The chosen technique is hinting a lot in order to add depth. It works.

I think I see think influences from this book in some of the works by Christopher Priest and Oliver Johnson. Also Donaldson's Earth Power reminds me of the term Earth Current. <i></i>

Very cool and justified review Nerdanel. Yes it is on a plane with Priest's The Inverted World. For sheer inventiveness (perhaps I should have said: innovation ) and weirdness the book blew me away! Again consider how long ago it was written and the fact if it was not, somehow, rediscoved in the 70s--like much of E. R. Edison's work--it would have died in obscurity. I've never, really, seen any thing like the landscape and different dimensions--any where else. It conveys a very disturbing, yet touching weirdness... The true human being is the meaning of the universe. He is a dancing star. He is the exploding singularity with infinite possibilities. <i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 6/22/03 9:21 am
</i>

Having already read a half dozen or so of Hodgson's short stories, together with Borderland, Ghost Pirates and Glen Carrig, I now have The Night Land coming to me in the mail. I've heard more or less the same thing from everyone who's read this book: The language is thick, the romantic is interest implausible, but what a terrific imagination. I've already perused an electronic copy without reading it through, so I think I'm prepared for it.

I'm in the middle of the The Brother's Karamazov and it will probably be a week or two before I get my copy of The Night Land but I'll post back then. In the meantime, I may start a separate thread on Hodgson's work in general.

Take care.
<i></i>

The book is an imaginative triumph, yet at times I think it is one of the worst written books ever. I know that sounds odd, so bear with me. Whilst it manages to ooze atmosphere like nothing else, I find that the criticisms, as mentioned above, really detract from the pleasure. <i></i>

I started reading it from a copy I downloaded, but gave up mainly for the reasons stated before - the romance was really grating, the writing clunky, and the pace slow. I did really want to like it though as I enjoyed his House on the Borderlands <i></i>

I had the same problem as Shadoaz. I hoped it was going to be like the end of HG Wells' The Time Machine where Wells describes a dead Earth orbiting a blood red Sun, but instead it was just a potboiler <i></i>