The unsettling dreams begin for small-town reporter Will Barbee not long after he first meets the mysterious and beautiful April Bell. They are vivid, powerful and deeply disturbing nightmares in which he commits atrocious acts. And one by one, his friends are meeting violent deaths. It is clear to Barbee that he is embroiled in something far beyond human understanding, something unspeakably evil. And it intimately involves the seductive, dangerously intoxicating April, and the question, 'Who is the Child of the Night?' When he discovers the answer to that, his world will change utterly.
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Book Description
One of the Terror Eight titles: dark reads for hot summer nights!
--This text refers to an alternate
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About the Author
Jack Williamson published his first story in 1928, at the age of 20, and went on to write trail-blazing science fiction novels, including THE HUMANOIDS and THE LEGION OF TIME. DARKER THAN YOU THINK is acclaimed as the best American lycanthropy yet written. Williamson is the winner of the Pilgrim Award and the Horror Writers' Association's Lifetime Achievement Award; he is also a Nebula Grand Master.
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First Sentence
The girl came up to Will Barbee while he stood outside of the glass-and-stucco terminal building at Trojan Field, Clarendon's new municipal airport, hopefully watching the leaden sky for a glimpse of the incoming planes. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The girl came up to Will Barbee while he stood outside of the glass-and-stucco terminal building at Trojan Field, Clarendon's new municipal airport, hopefully watching the leaden sky for a glimpse of the incoming planes. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Jack Williamson's 1948 novel 'Darker Than You Think' really deserved to be made into a late 40s horror-noir film in smoke-laden, shadowy monochrome, directed by Jacques Tourneur with some enigmatic siren of the day playing April Bell. This is a great novel, with a wonderful period feel and a strong, effective narrative which touches upon an ancient conflict and the very roots of evil. Themes of witchcraft, fetch-travelling, shape-shifting and lycanthropy run like currents of dark fire through this tale and we follow the haunted hero, hack-journalist Will Barbee, habituated to cheap bourbon and gradually awakening to his awful doom and destiny. A unique novel which I believe was admired by the late Dennis Wheatley who included it in his 'Library of the Occult' series in the 1970s and which is well worth discovering. Willamson's classic novel somehow touches upon a deep riddle in human nature, the ancient and primaeval shadows which lurk in the heart and affords a terrifying glimpse into the ancient darkness which waits ever to reclaim its dominion...Beware the coming of the Child of Night...
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
By F. Samara
Format:Paperback
Lycanthropy, intrigue, the murderous institutions of American corporate life and the fragile will of the individual. "Darker than you think" was original even at the time for being AGAINST the dark forces it conjures, but still this is not enough to save it from some limp prose and some character-writing so weak, some failure-to-reach-conclusions so obvious, that you want to hit the un-insightful main protoganist over the head and feed him to wolves yourself. What saves the book is its wide-eyed innocence and the pace - you are never allowed the comfort that 'all things will end ok', and you really do want to know what happens next. This is adult stuff. The incidental characters are very well observed - how grief tears people apart and how tragic can be the outcomes of our most cherished hope. The obligatory femme fatale figure really IS fatal, and reminiscent of the strong anti-heroines of Phillip K. Dick. The book is some sort of mile-stone, complete with a clever elliptical ending that somehow raises all manner of (mildly) interesting issues - but anyone who's read 70's sci-fi will have a nagging feeling of deja vu. Worth the time and the investment, and certainly memorable.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A comment on the back cover calls it "The Classic Werewolf novel".
The book starts well with a great opening sequence as a reporter, Will Barbee, and a strange red-haired woman, April Bell, await the return of 4 scientists from some strange archaeological dig in Mongolia. The head scientist announces he has a message that must be heard before evil forces have time to attack him, and just after he reveals the threat of a Black Messiah "The Child of the Night" he dies on the spot, seemingly from natural causes.
Barbee is drawn deeper into the tale as the scientists, who once were friends of his, also start dying in odd circumstances. On all those occasions he dreams that he is involved, that April is drawing him into an evil conspiracy; or could his odd dreams be more than that? And what is in that odd box they brought back?
Originally written in 1940 several ideas that were fashionable at the time get an airing that may not be as relevant to modern day readers. The work of JB Rhine and his experiments in parapsychology and telekinesis and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle are drawn on which leans it more toward a science fiction approach than a straight horror tale.
As a whole the book works well as it builds up the suspense, the identity of the Child of the Night can be guessed at as the story develops but that does not lessen the overall impact of the story.
Is it the classic werewolf novel? Probably not, there are too many shape-shifting deviations from the werewolf theme. My vote would be for "The Werewolf of Paris" by Guy Endore (written in 1933) which is as close as the werewolf genre comes to having a classic novel as Dracula is for vampires.
Is it a good novel? It certainly is, and is well worth reading.
The book starts well with a great opening sequence as a reporter, Will Barbee, and a strange red-haired woman, April Bell, await the return of 4 scientists from some strange archaeological dig in Mongolia. The head scientist announces he has a message that must be heard before evil forces have time to attack him, and just after he reveals the threat of a Black Messiah "The Child of the Night" he dies on the spot, seemingly from natural causes.
Barbee is drawn deeper into the tale as the scientists, who once were friends of his, also start dying in odd circumstances. On all those occasions he dreams that he is involved, that April is drawing him into an evil conspiracy; or could his odd dreams be more than that? And what is in that odd box they brought back?
Originally written in 1940 several ideas that were fashionable at the time get an airing that may not be as relevant to modern day readers. The work of JB Rhine and his experiments in parapsychology and telekinesis and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle are drawn on which leans it more toward a science fiction approach than a straight horror tale.
As a whole the book works well as it builds up the suspense, the identity of the Child of the Night can be guessed at as the story develops but that does not lessen the overall impact of the story.
Is it the classic werewolf novel? Probably not, there are too many shape-shifting deviations from the werewolf theme. My vote would be for "The Werewolf of Paris" by Guy Endore (written in 1933) which is as close as the werewolf genre comes to having a classic novel as Dracula is for vampires.
Is it a good novel? It certainly is, and is well worth reading.
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3.9 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strange ripples from this novel
I read very little fiction but was led to this strange work whilst reading about Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons and the "Babalon Working". Read more
Published 6 months ago by Red Fox
3.0 out of 5 stars
Worth a read but despite a strong start it flags badly
Having read a few of the other books in this series I'm unsure if this is that special, I'd certainly not suggest that its one to read in preference to any of the others I've read... Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2010 by Lark
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classic
I've read better styled writing, with more complete characterisation. Having said that this is a great book. Not your classic werewolf story. Read more
Published on 28 July 2009 by David
2.0 out of 5 stars
What was the point?
The concept was interesting but apart from that this book was a waste of my time.
I don't want to give away the plot, although it might be a kindness if I did, so... Read more
I don't want to give away the plot, although it might be a kindness if I did, so... Read more
Published on 30 May 2007 by E. Nolan
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of the best 'WEREWOLF'stories ever written.
A different slant on the 'Werewolf'theme,highly imaginative treatment,sympathetic characters . I would rate this story as second only to Robert McCammon's 'The Wolf's Hour' and... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2001
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