Customer Reviews

October Dark (Earthling's Hallloween)

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

 

 

I'm the author, and I thought I'd add this review from Library Journal, along with the cover material, and an excerpt from Jeffrey Ford's introduction:

[starred review]"This book has a distinctive premise. So-called movie magic is real, the special effects masters are its practitioners, and it's the only thing protecting the world from unspeakable evil. The novel tracks back and forth between Halloween 1931 and that of 1977. For movie buffs, that year could only mean Star Wars, and the film plays a major role here. Amateur filmmakers Will Travers, 13, and his best friend, Jim, capture something on a roll of Super-8. Their search for answers leads them to a reclusive model maker and a battle against dark forces. Filled with nostalgia triggers for baby boomers and Gen Xers alike, with an original story and the liberally dropped names of a pantheon of horror moviemakers, October Dark is a delight. Consider recommending it to mature YA readers as well."
-- Library Journal

SYNOPSIS:

From acclaimed author David Herter, a new novel in the tradition of Ray Bradbury's SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES and Tim Powers's LAST CALL....

Halloween, 1931. The metropolis of Grenton. On the ruined canals, a clock tolls midnight. Willis H. O'Brien, the father of stop motion animation, seeks the base elements of a new animation. And Henri Mordaunt, the undying Phantasmagoria magician, will soon provide them. An uncanny bargain is struck, leading to betrayal and dire retribution, and an act of cinematic alchemy that echoes down the history of fantastic film.

Halloween, 1977. For thirteen-year-old Will and his best friend Jim -- amateur animators and Famous Monsters of Filmland fanatics -- summer darkens into mysterious autumn, with a black balloon prowling the skies of their suburban neighborhood, and supernatural images haunting the frames of their latest 8 mm epic, heralding doom. Everything leads to the edge of Grenton's ruined canals, and the faded cinema palace where STAR WARS has been showing non-stop since late May, a gateway into the mysteries of Grenton's past, and to a secret history playing out on either side of the silver screen....

From Jeffrey Ford's introduction:

"October Dark is brilliant for so many reasons. In it I see the synthesis of the techniques and styles of Herter's other fiction joined with what seems a very personal authorial vision; an immersion in the world of 1977 boyhood. It's the portrait of an artist, a budding film animator and story teller. And in addition to the wonderfully rendered scenes of that time and place -- Star Wars and weed and eight tracks -- the reader sees the young artist's pursuits as part of an historical tradition of magicians who create life with light and shadow, from [astronomer Christiaan] Huygens to Ray Harryhausen and beyond.

"The historical research here concerning Willis O'Brien and Huygens and the early processes of animation is incredible. Herter relays all this so naturally and convincingly that even the times when he veers away from real history for the sake of plot, those manufactured places, people, and events are indistinguishable in the power of their presence from the authentic. As a writer, I'd often find myself going to the internet to find out if what I'd just read really happened in history. There were times when I was sure these instances must be imaginative and they weren't and times I was sure they were real, but not so. For me as a reader, in the long run, it didn't matter which they were because the story so thoroughly had me convinced of its own fictional authenticity. These connections form secret catacombs of thought that run through the interior of the story, making for a reading experience that continues when the book is closed.

"There's a scene in which Will and Jim (two characters you will meet in the story) play hooky from school in order to go see Star Wars on opening day. They miss the bus, so they go to Jim's older brother's place to see if they can get him to take them. He does, joined by his girl friend. The resultant journey is so well rendered with dialogue and description, revealing the characters and capturing the time period (I remember 1977), I felt like I was in the car with them and the scene was actually a memory of mine.

"There is so much more to the story -- arcane knowledge, conspiracy, a lurid automaton, a secret device, other centuries, monsters. Herter, like the stop-motion magicians of history, has brought a monster of imagination to life. Enter this dark carnival and see for yourself."
-- Jeffrey Ford

I just received this book from Amazon.com last night. Haven't read it, but from what I can see if you are a fan of Tim Powers California trilogy and Blaylock's "Land of Dreams", this is right in your alley. I just wanted to comment that the book is beautifully published piece of work. Amazing paper, dust jacket, and everything else that a book collector like myself would want. Can't wait to read it.