An unbearably turgid classic

Would you try another book written by William Hope Hodgson or narrated by Drew Ariana?

Yes to both. I have read other work my Hodgson, including "The House on the Borderland" and would be pleased to listen to it again. I think most of his work is better written than "The Night Land".

What was most disappointing about William Hope Hodgson’s story?

The artificial prose style, the repetition, the descriptions that should have been evocative but fell short, the lack of twists or surprises - in short the sheer linearity of the story.

Have you listened to any of Drew Ariana’s other performances? How does this one compare?

No.

Was The Night Land worth the listening time?

Oh yes, especially as I could get on with the laundry, the washing up, the weeding and so on. And there is a diamond of a story in there. Shame it's buries under a mountain of soot.

Any additional comments?

"The Night Land" is an early and highly influential example of Dying Earth fiction. If, like me, you are a fan of the genre and a bit of a completist, it's probably on your "must read" list. However, you might have gathered that reading it is a bit of a trial; H.P. Lovecraft described it as "seriously marred by painful verboseness, repetitiousness, artificial and nauseously sticky romantic sentimentality, and an attempt at archaic language even more grotesque and absurd than that in 'Glen Carrig'."
Aside from not having read "Glen Carrig", I have to agree with Lovecraft in the strongest terms. Regarding the verboseness, bear in mind that it's 200,000 words long, about 600 pages. An abridged version, "The Dream of X", is 20,000 words long, which means that for every 10 words Hodgson wrote, 9 were discarded. This audiobook is unabridged, but once I was halfway through I could see that it should have been cut down even more. The author's vision is wonderfully powerful, but the prose and storytelling are simply dreadful, especially in the second half, and the cod-archaic style reduces the power to evoke. For entire chapters, Hodgson inserts a variant on "truly", "surely" or "in verity" in every single sentence, which becomes very annoying - and anyway, when you highlight EVERYTHING, that's just the same as not have highlighted anything.
Every time the narrator repeats something (which is often) he'll point out the fact to the reader. Indeed, he has no use for such handy devices as saying, "The next few days proceeded in much the same way." There are lengthy homilies on love that would probably make a Twilight fan wince. Despite being in extreme danger, the heroine is driven by her "naughtiness" to engage in risky "pranks". We then have the problem of how to root for a hero who beats the woman he loves.
The reader, Drew Ariana, doesn't have a different voice for each character, because there isn't any dialogue AT ALL. He does manage to convey emotion in places, but frankly, he's got so little to work with, I'm giving him 5 stars for sheer perseverence - he should really be given a medal.

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4 people found this helpful

fantasy WRIT LARGE!

This must surely be the greatest work of an author who deserves infinitely more recognition than he has actually been afforded. The Night Land is a long story, written in a style which can only be described as weird. And yet, the story is huge in scope, and has elements of horror, great valour, and enduring love. In a world long bereft of the sun, a young man leaves the last refuge of mankind, which is his home, in search of his soul mate, -- the existence of whom he has divined in in a clairvoyant or dream state. He embarks on a journey into the darkness, where terror and destruction stalks at every turn. Our hero, who is un named, takes the reader along with him, sharing each step of the way. The things encountered on his journey are monstrous, and bizarre beyond imagining, and begs indulgence and understanding from the reader. However, if one is patient, a feast of fantasy entertainment is in store for you. One just has to let it flow, and be receptive.

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