Customer Reviews

The Nightland: A Love Tale (Classics of science fiction)

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Apart from the archaic language I would put this book up as approaching the standard of Lord of the Rings.

Although it is in the first person and does not convey the companionship of TLOTR...
The brutality and desperate hope engendered by the book and the raw, alien and Cthulu mythos (this bloke taught Lovecraft), underlying the action is so stark and uncomfortable that I feel that this book is a great classic of it's time.

It contains every aspect you would expect from a major current motion picture, Sci-Fi, Love, Action, Danger, Consideration, Intelligence, and I am sure everyone would find something within it to relate to.

I can't wait till it's in print. Until then I will continue my search of old bookshops.

On the plus side: the world of this book is incredible. It's a sort of weird, post-apocalyptic, Lovecraftian world of darkness and nightmares that's not like anything I've seen anywhere else.

On the downside: This guy was paid by the word. And a whole lot of those words are "And I eat my three tablets, and drank the water that I did get from the powder. And so made to compose my body to sleep." That's right, kids! Every time our hero eats, drinks water, sleeps, or engages in any other routine bodily function, we're going to get to hear about it!

And those other reviewers aren't doing the sheer bizarreness of the "romance" subplot justice. At it's most romantic, there's a long, drawn out description of our hero rubbing the girl's feet. At it's least, the phrase "I am your master and you are my babyslave" appears unironically, and completely without the girl punching him in the face and leaving.

I think this novel made me go "What the heck!" and stop reading it for a few days due to sheer exasperation more than any other novel I have ever finished.

But I did finish it. Because the world is totally awesome, and should rightfully take it's place as Steampunk's go-to fashion advisory for post-apocalyptic outfits.

Just don't try and read it for any reason *other* than the setting, and you'll probably be okay.

This book is brilliant, creating a world of images unlike any I've ever encountered before. The description of the marvelous horrors surrounding the Redoubt is superb. The feeling of total alienness is excellent.

The book is written in a pseudo-archaic language which takes some getting used to. The detail is sometimes excessive. No, it's not necessary for us to be made aware of every food pill that the hero consumes. But by far the worst part of the book is the hero's mawkish, sappy, absurd relationship with his girlfriend. The story gets back on track after she mercifully is injured and rendered unconscious, so they can't bleat at each other anymore or make moony eyes.

I read this book a couple of years ago, lead on by HP lovecrafts recommendation. It features one of the most bizarre and fascinating fantastic visions of mankind in an apocalyptic future, millions and millions of years from now. In that area the fiction works. The trouble is all the other components. The author has tried to concoct a love-story of some kind, that unfortunately turns out to be one of the worst I have ever encountered. Unbearably romantic in the worst sense, full of clichés... whatever, you name it. But all in all, if you are a serious dark-fantasy-fanatic, this one might still be worth some while.