The Night Land
Millions of years into the future, the sun is dead, night is eternal. The world is heated only by fires from volcanoes and the warmth that rises from columns plunging a thousand miles toward the earth's center. In and around the Last Redoubt, a metal pyramid 8 miles high, live the remanants of the human race, surrounded on all sides by enemies.
Into this Night Land ventures a telepathically sensitive youth, who "remembers" a previous incarnation and a much-loved wife, whose spirit has appeared in the body of a young girl in another redoubt.
”The Night Land is a tale of the remote future – billions of years after the death of the sun. It is one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written...” – H. P. Lovecraft
"In all the literature of fantasy, there are few works so sheerly, purely creative as The Night Land... the ultimate saga of a fantasy world beleaguered by eternal night and the unvisageable spawn of darkness." – Clark Ashton Smith
Now available as part of the British Library Tales of the Weird series it is written in a distinctive and unique style which Ann VanderMeer unpacks in her introduction, Hodgson’s Weird Fantasy quest novel was first published in 1912 and remains a cult classic which has enthralled writers from C. S. Lewis to China Miéville.
William Hope Hodgson
William Hope Hodgson (1877–1918) was an English author. He produced a large body of work, consisting of essays, short fiction, and novels, spanning several overlapping genres including horror, fantastic fiction and science fiction. Hodgson used his experiences at sea to lend authentic detail to his short horror stories, many of which are set on the ocean, including his series of linked tales forming the "Sargasso Sea Mythos". His novels such as The Night Land and The House on the Borderland feature more cosmic themes, but several of his novels also focus on horrors associated with the sea. Early in his writing career he dedicated effort to poetry, although few of his poems were published during his lifetime. He also attracted some notice as a photographer and achieved some renown as a bodybuilder. He died in World War I at the age of 40.
British Library Tales of the Weird
British Library Tales of the Weird consists of fifty-six books, and the series is set to expand with the upcoming release of three more books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
