The Dark Fantasies of William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) was an English author of horror and fantastic fiction. His early writings were influenced by his experiences as a young man in the merchant marine and dealt with the mysteries of the sea. However his later writings were devoted more generally to the macabre and the supernatural.
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Hodgson created an enduring character, Carnacki the Ghost Finder, a sort of supernatural detective. But his greatest literary achievement is the NightLand, a work of great power and dark beauty.
The Nightland is set in the distant future, after the Sun has died. A few million humans survive in the Last Redoubt, an enormous structure which serves as both the last refuge of mnkind and its eventual grave. Just outside the redoubt are the Watchers, enormous evil creatures the size of mountains that move ever closer, inch by inch, century by century as the power of the Redoubt fades and its defences weaken. These things are patient. They have came from beyond the world, millennia ago, when Mankind opened the gates to them by ill-guided scientific experiments.
The people of the Last Redoubt can only gaze at these monsters through telescopes, making minute observations. There are no more astronomers in this dark land, only Monstruacans, the watchers who watch the Watchers. Beyond the last redoubt are the Thing that Nods, the House of Silence, silent roads travelled by horrific shadow shapes, and even greater horrors.
Then, after all these millennia, the humans of the Last Redoubt discover that they are not alone. Another refuge endures, called The Lesser Redoubt, but its defences are crumbling and it soon falls to the creatures. Its inhabitants are scattered and hunted throughout the Nightland.
A lone hero ventures into the the Night Land in search of the woman he loves. |