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“My favorite book of all time. Written in 1907 using late-middle-english-to-Elizabethan-english, it is saturated in sentimental notions of everlasting love. Most people don't like it because the entire book is written in english of 400 years ago. (And it did be near to where the woman was, etc etc......) The main Character, really one of three characters in this grotesque 700 page masterpiece (Ballantine had to cut about 200 pages of love-descriptions [And it did be unto the woman a sweet and tender etc. etc.] as well as split it into a 2 volume paperback.) In the first chapter the nameless hero loses his woman to a pack of dogs. Then he "remembers" a time about a billion trillion years in the future. The sun has died and the world is enveloped in darkness (the NIGHT land). The earth-current keeps alive the last civilization known as "The last redoubt", a seven mile high (Babel allusion?) metal pyramid, and somehow the hero "finds" the reincarnation of his lost love through the "Aether" and intuits that the energy that supports her "lesser" redoubt is failing. So he leaves on a mission to find her through this (and I can not stress how absolutely BIZARRE repetition) trial moving from one "fire-pit" to another in search of his lost love. Neat monuments such as the "road where the silent ones walk", "the watcher of the north-east", the house of silence, etc. It is extremely suspenseful, and in the end I was blown away. I won't spoil it. Remember, it is written in 400 year old archaic english and that turns a lot of people off, but I enjoyed it. Also it took me from May 2001 to July 2005 to finish it. I HAD to cherish each word. Also, luckily, since it would be erroneous to read it a second time because he makes you really work to read it, there is an extremely condensed version that is about 275 pages called "The Dream of X". Someday, I don't know. I may get a copy and bask in the brilliant genius that is William Hope Hodgson.”
Ignatius Dementius wrote this review Tuesday, November 20 2007. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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