"One of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written" -- H.P.Lovecraft. Lovecraft wasn't wrong: this is, perhaps, the greatest single work of fantastic fiction in the English language. The sun has died, as have the stars. Not a solitary light shines in the heavens. The days of light are nothing by a legend -- they are a story told to soothe children. The last millions of humans still live in their Last Redoubt -- but the end of their days is at hand.
The Night Land
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Special Offer until June 30, 2013: Receive an additional £5 promotional Gift Certificate, when you trade-in at least £10 worth of books. Learn more. |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
It was the Joy of the Sunset that brought us to speech. Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt
It was the Joy of the Sunset that brought us to speech. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Well, here is a different view. The Night Land is not appallingly written, not horrendously sentimental, not maddeningly repetitive nor grossly overlong - but it IS one of the most amazing works of fantasy fiction in the English language. The language Hodgson uses is quite in keeping with the eerie, archaic nature of the whole work and adds to its power. There is nothing else like it in the English language and it is unlikely there will ever be again. Hodgson is a true one-off. A deeply brooding masterpiece that is part love story, part horror, part archaic fantasy, part allegory, part religious parable........just read it!
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By Acecee
Format:Hardcover
I first read this book during college and have gone back to it to reread the entire book, and passages since. The combination of the past and the future, fantasy and science fiction, is, at times, awkward but the author manages to overcome this problem with a powerful dream-like vision of nightmarish landscapes and creatures. The images invoked by Hosdgson's writing are right out of a bad dream; tall, cloaked, grim reaper-like figures gliding along a distant road on a mission unknown to the hero; distant dark, houses through whose windows occasional lights can be seen. These images, and many more like them, invoke a unique feel about this book.
The story begins rather slowly but soon develops into a tale of a hero and heroine, a quest, and a disturbing array of creatures straight out of Hodgson's imagination. This is not a book to rush through and, in my humble opinion, is best read at night. Highly recommended for reader's of classic fantasy such as Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" and Eddison's "The Worm Orobouros".
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
THE NIGHT LAND is:
Appallingly written
Horrendously sentimental
Maddeningly repetitive
Grossly overlong
And still one of the most amazing works of fantasy fiction in the English language.
Impressive, sombre, imagery and the sense that the author's imagination is running in overdrive will keep you reading long after common sense tells you you should fling this book at the wall.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By gururob
Format:Paperback
This is one of the 3 books I've never managed to finish.
While the imagery and ideas put forward by Hope Hodgson are good, the resulting book verges upon turgid.
Over the course of a year I struggled through the first half, only to come to the realisation that, once the hero had arrived at the pyramid city, the second half of the book would entail him going back to his starting point.
It was then that I admitted defeat and put the book down.
Shame, really, as I quite liked Carnacki the Ghost Hunter and House on the Borderland.
In case you're interested, the other 2 books I've never finished are The White Hart by Nancy Springer (appalling drivel) and Don Quixote, which was so dull that I can't understand how it ever became popular.
While the imagery and ideas put forward by Hope Hodgson are good, the resulting book verges upon turgid.
Over the course of a year I struggled through the first half, only to come to the realisation that, once the hero had arrived at the pyramid city, the second half of the book would entail him going back to his starting point.
It was then that I admitted defeat and put the book down.
Shame, really, as I quite liked Carnacki the Ghost Hunter and House on the Borderland.
In case you're interested, the other 2 books I've never finished are The White Hart by Nancy Springer (appalling drivel) and Don Quixote, which was so dull that I can't understand how it ever became popular.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The story concerns a "quest" in the Outer Dark of a sunless Earth of the remotest future -- a time when only monsters and strange artifacts remain on the barren surface of the thoroughly wasted planet. A man seeks a girl he saw in a dream, convinced that she can be met in the flesh, and so leaves the comparative comfort of the Last Redoubt (mankind's ultimate shelter against death) and ventures in the various realms of a world that looks more and more like Hades. We are thus confronted not with a traditional fantasy-quest, but with a descent into hell which, paradoxically, culminates in the hope of love. This is an "ancient" book: written at the beginning of last century and adopting a poetic and archaic language as to suggest the remoteness of the world we're going to explore, it is surely overlong and by no means suitable to all tastes, and yet remains one of fantasy/horror most celebrated rambling classics. You could take it as a way to begin to disintoxicate (from what? Well, just contemporary potboilers and well-worn trilogies with elves on their covers, for example); a way to research the fantasy field for what it has to offer in its immensely rich old mines. It is called discovering the past or looking around yourself, even if "around" means, in this case, almost a century back. Try it; maybe you won't finish it, but in any case W.H. Hodgson is an author well-worth discovering and his masterpieces ("The House on the Borderland", "The Boats of the 'Glen Carrig'", "Carnacki" and others) remain among the very best weird fantasy ever written in English.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By Jason Mills
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a much-flawed yet fabulous book. Set mostly in a fantastically distant future, on a dark Earth whose sun has died, it is an adventure and a romance that spans eternity.
First the bad news:
It's written in a clunky, artificially-archaic style. This lends gravitas to the solemn and distant world depicted, and to our heroic narrator, but it is wordy and sometimes laborious.
Some parts of the book portray a land riddled with mighty creatures that are nonetheless natural (as opposed to the supernatural 'forces' arrayed against humanity elsewhere). These beasts exist in an ecology apparently devoid of prey-animals; nor is it clear how vegetation (leafy trees!) can survive, illuminated only by the dim red glow of distant volcanoes. Hodgson appears not to have considered these concerns, but they jar on the intellect of the Educated Modern Reader (yours truly).
The second half of the book rather belabours the lovey-dovey stuff, trying this reader's patience. And feminists will shudder from the first page to the last: enlightened sexual relations are NOT on the agenda...
There are smaller quibbles I could mention; but on to the more important good news:
The book presents a vision of the last millions of humanity crowded together for defence in the Last Redoubt, a steel pyramid seven miles high, surrounded by giant malicious beasts so huge and slow that their movements are barely detectable in a human lifetime. Malign influences bear down upon the Last Redoubt: the House of Silence, the Giants, the Strange Things that Peer from the Precipice, the Silent Ones. He who ventures out beyond the protective circle of the Great Earth-Current risks not merely death but the eternal destruction of his spirit.... Read more ›
First the bad news:
It's written in a clunky, artificially-archaic style. This lends gravitas to the solemn and distant world depicted, and to our heroic narrator, but it is wordy and sometimes laborious.
Some parts of the book portray a land riddled with mighty creatures that are nonetheless natural (as opposed to the supernatural 'forces' arrayed against humanity elsewhere). These beasts exist in an ecology apparently devoid of prey-animals; nor is it clear how vegetation (leafy trees!) can survive, illuminated only by the dim red glow of distant volcanoes. Hodgson appears not to have considered these concerns, but they jar on the intellect of the Educated Modern Reader (yours truly).
The second half of the book rather belabours the lovey-dovey stuff, trying this reader's patience. And feminists will shudder from the first page to the last: enlightened sexual relations are NOT on the agenda...
There are smaller quibbles I could mention; but on to the more important good news:
The book presents a vision of the last millions of humanity crowded together for defence in the Last Redoubt, a steel pyramid seven miles high, surrounded by giant malicious beasts so huge and slow that their movements are barely detectable in a human lifetime. Malign influences bear down upon the Last Redoubt: the House of Silence, the Giants, the Strange Things that Peer from the Precipice, the Silent Ones. He who ventures out beyond the protective circle of the Great Earth-Current risks not merely death but the eternal destruction of his spirit.... Read more ›
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 31 reviews
3.6 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
