WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON'S NIGHT LANDS, Volume I, Eternal Love [Hardcover]

Andy W. Robertson (Editor), Nigel Atkinson (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2003

The sun has died. Not a planet, not a star, shines in the black heavens. The Days of Light are less than a legend, their stories moldered to dust amid the chaos of the ancient Libraries. Yet, within their vast arcology, the last Millions of humanity live and thrive. Outside, the huge entities of the Night Land watch - and wait. The Last Redoubt has stood ten million years, and may stand ten million years more, but its final fall is inevitable. The Land is as unknown as the depths of space. It holds life, some of it remotely akin to humanity. Fires burn and shadows creep; cities and lights lie still; clothed and shrouded walkers glide forth. Other Creatures, vaster than hills and slower and more ponderous than glaciers, wait eternally. Forces stir in the darkness. Messages pass across the Land. From the tower above the Redoubt, the Monstruwacans keep record. To this Land go the explorers of the Redoubt. Rarely, rarely, they return.

Editorial Reviews

Review

.. superbly written dying-earth fantasy of a very high order -- NICK GEVERS in LOCUS Jan 2004

... "Eternal Love" is a collection which will speak to anyone who has ever thrilled to "The Night Land" -- ANDY SAWYER in THE ALIEN ONLINE Jan 2004

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wildside Press (December 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592246788
• ISBN-13: 978-1592246786
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,199,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Conflicted Review, September 13, 2005

By 

Joseph A. Bergeron (Binghamton, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON'S NIGHT LANDS, Volume I, Eternal Love (Hardcover)

If I were to rate this book solely on the basis of its stories, I would give it 4 or possibly 5 stars. The long John C. Wright story is probably the outstanding entry, though a few others, including editor Andy Robertson's concluding "The Eater", are also excellent. Part of what makes these two stories so effective is that they fully convey the dread of the nightmarish Night Land which surrounds the remaining members of Humanity many millions of years in the future. A few of the earlier stories in the book aren't so effective at this.

My complaints lie in the serious production problems which mar the book. It has THE worst copy editing I have ever seen in any professional publication. Almost every page is afflicted with multiple errors, usually missing words, duplicate words, inappropriate words, misplaced words or phrases, and other mistakes that don't show up in a pass through a spell checker. These hundreds of mistakes are very distracting. If I were one of the writers in this book I would be upset about the poor presentation of my stories. Robertson's own stories are less afflicted by these errors.

A lesser irritation is the book's page headers. The left hand ones give the title of the book, and the right hand ones identify the editor, on every single page. In every other anthology on my shelf, these headers are used to identity the title and often the author of the story I'm reading. I shouldn't have to refer to the contents to remember the title and author of whatever I'm reading.

I wish I could give this book the full praise the stories deserve. I am told that any future volumes in this series will be professionally copy edited.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a Terrific Collection, March 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON'S NIGHT LANDS, Volume I, Eternal Love (Hardcover)

Do you like far future stories? Do you like Gene Wolfe and Jack Vance's time of the long shadows? Do you thrill to Smith's Zothique? Well then you've probably tried Hodgson's Nightland.
I suspect many who tried to read Hodgson's masterpiece have had the same reaction I did, "great idea, horrible execution". I never made it through the original and always wished someone would have taken his idea and cleaned up the archiac prose. Well my wish was granted! This is a spectacular collection that only makes me want to give Hodgson another go. After finishing the Robertson and Wright stories I promptly ordered everything I could find in print. John C. Wright also has a particularly moving paen to Hodgson directed to blockheads like myself who dismissed Nightland because of stylistics.

(If there are any John C. Wright fans out there, his contribution in the form of a novellete is breathtaking)

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wright story outstanding, September 4, 2004

By 

J. Abbott "sci fi reader" (near Ithaca NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON'S NIGHT LANDS, Volume I, Eternal Love (Hardcover)

The story "Awake in the Night" by John C. Wright (alluded to in the above review) was included in the 2003 Year's Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois. It was probably my favorite piece in this 600+ page anthology. The world described in the "Night Lands" ouerve is fascinating. Based on this one work I was eager to read more and to seek out this particular book.