So, I’ve been sick and spending way too much time online. However, I have managed to make myself read a little. Books are way more rewarding than an endless stream of YouTube, but the latter doesn’t require any effort on my part.
So anyway, I’ve been bouncing back and forth between two books, The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson and In Search of the Unknown by Robert W. Chambers. If you’ve been following my blog recently, you probably know I have a slight fascination with Chamber’s most famous book, The King in Yellow, and so I thought I’d look into his other works. I’ve also had a copy of The Night Land sitting on my shelves for a while, and something drew me to it.
In Search of the Unknown is just fun to read, so far. You got cryptids and adventure and humor. Can’t go wrong.
The Night Land, however, is weird, but in a weird way. It’s written in a pseudo-old-timey speech, somewhat reminiscent of Lovecraft, and is full of tropes I normally hate; lovers falling out over misunderstandings, an overwhelming amount of exposition, and reincarnation are all things that would normally turn me off. However, even though it’s mostly written in prose, Hodgson’s descriptions of his phantasy world hit me like poetry. There’s something beautiful in the horror he describes.
Anyway, neither book is for everyone, but I’m glad a found two books that work for me.
Tale Told 