William Hope Hodgson

Aeons in the future, Earth’s surface faces perpetual night after the failing of the Sun. Humanity is entrenched within the Last Redoubt, a colossal metal pyramid. Beyond the safety of its structure lurk countless unknowable threats.

William Hope Hodgson’s strange, visionary novel of humanity’s struggle for survival in the eternal darkness of the future was first published in 1912, and is widely acknowledged to be one of the foundation works of the ‘Dying Earth’ subgenre of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Written in a style composed of strange archaisms which fuel the weird sense of disorientation, this cult classic has won the admiration of writers from Brian Aldiss to C S Lewis, who wrote: ‘The Night Land gives, like certain rare dreams, sensations we never had before.’

The Night Land

This rating is purely based on how much I struggled to get through this book. I appreciate what it was trying to do - the plot and narrative themselves could be entertaining and the prose style reminiscent of the Bible / old canonical work was a genuinely cool and interesting choice - but oh my god, did it make this an absolutely pain to read. Also the book was weird towards women, made all the more annoying to me by the fact that I was trapped in a 500 page nightmare.

I am sure this is someone else's book but absolutely not mine, thank you.

Finally!! Worst experience of my life!!

This rating is purely based on how much I struggled to get through this book. I appreciate what it was trying to do - the plot and narrative themselves could be entertaining and the prose style reminiscent of the Bible / old canonical work was a genuinely cool and interesting choice - but oh my god, did it make this an absolutely pain to read. Also the book was weird towards women, made all the more annoying to me by the fact that I was trapped in a 500 page nightmare.

I am sure this is someone else's book but absolutely not mine, thank you.

The Night Land

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