Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Lancer Books (1963), Mass Market Paperback
Description
Who is the Child of Night? That's what small-town reporter Will Barbee must find out. Inexorably drawn into investigating a rash of grisly deaths, he soon finds himself embroiled in something far beyond mortal understanding. Doggedly pursuing his investigations, he meets the mysterious and seductive April Bell and starts having disturbing, tantalizing dreams in which he does terrible things-things that are stranger and wilder than his worst nightmares. Then his friends begin dying one by one, and he slowly realizes that an unspeakable evil has been unleashed. As Barbee's world crumbles around him in a dizzying blizzard of madness, the intoxicating, dangerous April pushes Barbee ever closer to the answer to the question "Who is the Child of Night?" When Barbee finds out, he'll wish he'd never been born.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
According to "John Carter," the pseudonymous author of Sex and Rockets, the Jack Williamson novel Darker Than You Think had a profound impact on O.T.O. Br. Jack Parsons IX°.
The monster-type of the novel is a sorceror-lycanthrope-vampire, representing the genetic recrudescence of a pre-human race
The book stands in many ways as a precursor of the Anne Rice formula of "anti-horror," in which the sympathetic protagonist is a praeterhuman monster at odds with humanity. Particularly like Rice's Interview with a Vampire, the Williamson story indulges in an initiatory plot-line, in which there is a gradual induction into monsterhood. There is also a thematic and mechanical correspondence to certain initiations and epiphanies described in Lovecraft's stories (e.g. "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and "Dreams in the Witch-house"), where the narrator's horror is compounded by discovering his identity with the object of his fear.
The character of April Bell is the unequivocal scarlet initiatrix of the protagonist Will Barbee. She is the Babalon who rides him as a Beast, most conspicuously when he takes the form of a huge saber-tooth tiger and and carries her naked through the night—-an image repeatedly used for illustrations in the various editions of the story. (See Sex and Rockets, pp. 59 & 210, and the current Tor edition of Darker Than You Think, pp. 135 & 143, for different versions of this "Lust Trump.") Of course the names are interesting as well: "Will" is English for Thelema, and "April" is the month of the writing of The Book of the Law. Darker Than You Think is full of an apocalyptic tone, embodied most clearly in the imminence of the reign of a witch-king called the "Child of Night." (C.f. Liber LXVI, v. 2)
All of these correspondences must be chalked up to inspiration, rather than study. Only after writing Darker Than You Think, Williamson met Parsons, and eventually attended an Agape Lodge O.T.O. function, where he was favorably impressed by lodgemaster Wilfred Smith. But he never pursued any formal studies, and was left with the impression that Crowley was best characterized as a "satanist."
The monster-type of the novel is a sorceror-lycanthrope-vampire, representing the genetic recrudescence of a pre-human race
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that has interbred with and become submerged in humanity. These other-people are called "witches" in the story, which might largely account for Parsons' affinity for the terms "witch" and "witchcraft," despite their forceful rejection by Aleister Crowley.The book stands in many ways as a precursor of the Anne Rice formula of "anti-horror," in which the sympathetic protagonist is a praeterhuman monster at odds with humanity. Particularly like Rice's Interview with a Vampire, the Williamson story indulges in an initiatory plot-line, in which there is a gradual induction into monsterhood. There is also a thematic and mechanical correspondence to certain initiations and epiphanies described in Lovecraft's stories (e.g. "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and "Dreams in the Witch-house"), where the narrator's horror is compounded by discovering his identity with the object of his fear.
The character of April Bell is the unequivocal scarlet initiatrix of the protagonist Will Barbee. She is the Babalon who rides him as a Beast, most conspicuously when he takes the form of a huge saber-tooth tiger and and carries her naked through the night—-an image repeatedly used for illustrations in the various editions of the story. (See Sex and Rockets, pp. 59 & 210, and the current Tor edition of Darker Than You Think, pp. 135 & 143, for different versions of this "Lust Trump.") Of course the names are interesting as well: "Will" is English for Thelema, and "April" is the month of the writing of The Book of the Law. Darker Than You Think is full of an apocalyptic tone, embodied most clearly in the imminence of the reign of a witch-king called the "Child of Night." (C.f. Liber LXVI, v. 2)
All of these correspondences must be chalked up to inspiration, rather than study. Only after writing Darker Than You Think, Williamson met Parsons, and eventually attended an Agape Lodge O.T.O. function, where he was favorably impressed by lodgemaster Wilfred Smith. But he never pursued any formal studies, and was left with the impression that Crowley was best characterized as a "satanist."
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LibraryThing member RandyStafford
My reactions to reading this novel in 2002.
I originally read this novel because Fortean Miriam de Ford listed it as one of the sf works influenced by Charles Fort. I see no evidence of that. Fort is not mentioned or even obliquely alluded to. I think, amongst other things, Williamson was clearly
Both novels were published in John Campbell’s Unknown magazine, Russell’s in 1939, Williamson in 1940.Both novels feature a broad battle between humans and non-humans, Russell’s Vitons and Williamson’s witch-people, with the evidence of those battles showing up in human psychology and odd events. Both the non-human races feed, in some way, off humans either biologically or using them, in this novel, as slave labor in man’s past.
I was surprised at the tone and narrative approach of Williamson’s novel. The initial transformation of protagonist Will Barbee into a beast is only briefly described. Williamson also seems to have gone out of his way to undercut, through constant mentions of the bestial (cat like grace, predatory eyes) nature of April Bell and the sense that Barbee has met Dr. Glenn before, a lot of the suspense others would have tried milk from the plot. We are in no doubt (especially, of course, since we know we’re reading a fantasy) that April Bell really is a shapechanger. We aren’t surprised to find that Dr. Glenn, the rational Freudian, really is a member of homo lycanthropus.
I don’t think, given the very unsubtle clues he keeps giving for these characters having a hidden nature, Williamson ever expected to fool the reader. Rather, the novel is really the struggle between a man’s unconscious desires (Barbee always shapechanges at night, when he’s asleep, except at novel’s end) and his waking morality. At first it seems like Williamson is doing a sort of Freudian allegory as Barbee helps kill his friends and acquaintances at night and feels guilty about it (and frequently doubting he’s morally culpable or has actually assisted in their deaths) during the day. Barbee, after all, might have reasons for desiring the death of Professor Mondrick who refused his assistance or Sam Quain, the man who married a woman Barbee might have. These desires might account for his fantasies. But the reader does not really believe they are fantasies. Nor does Barbee give in to April Bell’s calls to kill out of sexual lust for her or unconscious desires. His largely witch blood calls to him. He must kill his friends because they are what they are, different from him.
The plot can be seen as Barbee resisting the evil suggestions of April Bell, her sexual temptations overcoming his moral judgment. But there are early suggestions that a race war is going on between different versions of humanity. Gradually, after participating in murder or being manipulated into assisting Bell’s killings, Barbee accepts his racial heritage as the werewolf messiah the Child of Night. From a human perspective, he seems consumed by evil. Yet, from a biological perspective, he is helping quell, reluctantly, a threat to his kind.
Even though I knew that Barbee would answer the call of his kind, the novel kept me in suspense with this moral question. Williamson creates quite an inventive rationale for his plot which makes this sf rather than straight horror. His witch-people (who can change into many shapes imaginary and from nature) can sense probabilities and manipulate them (talk of quantum mechanics is used briefly). They can change any night, not just during the full moon, though, as with traditional werewolves, they can be harmed by silver and, it turns out at novel’s end, radium is the great weapon discovered in the ruins of Ala-shan. They are telepathic. The origins of the witch-people lie in man’s prehistory during an Ice Age. Threatened by glaciation, a human mutation (and Williamson throws in Medellin inheritance science here -- evidently new enough to require a fairly detailed explanation) developed the ability to throw their consciousness into collections of matter removed from their body. Williamson goes on to show how a great many mythologies (as well as folklore about shapechangers) stem from the human--witch-people battle and history.
This may not be the first horror novel to show not only a modern battle of humanity with an alien race (though here simply a cousin) but its historical pasts and manifestations in myth and literature and legend, but it may be the first to do so in detail. H. P. Lovecraft did something similar but he didn’t show the beginnings of the conflict or provide as much detail. In some sense, this novel reminded me of Erich von Daniken’s later non-fiction works purporting to find ancient astronauts via archaeology and myth.
I liked that Barbee was the product of a witch-people eugenics program and not just a random sport. Williamson rationalizes this necessity by talking about how many genes separate true man from the witch-people (most people have a combination of genes) and the very remote possibility that a full blood or even three-quarter blood lycanthrop would appear by chance.
I originally read this novel because Fortean Miriam de Ford listed it as one of the sf works influenced by Charles Fort. I see no evidence of that. Fort is not mentioned or even obliquely alluded to. I think, amongst other things, Williamson was clearly
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influenced by the work of Rhine on psychic powers, and the notion that these strange powers (which are mentioned in, partially, Fort’s Wild Talents) may be studied scientifically almost certainly comes from there. If there is any Charles Fort influence, it may be by way of Eric Frank Russell’s Sinister Barrier. Both novels were published in John Campbell’s Unknown magazine, Russell’s in 1939, Williamson in 1940.
I was surprised at the tone and narrative approach of Williamson’s novel. The initial transformation of protagonist Will Barbee into a beast is only briefly described. Williamson also seems to have gone out of his way to undercut, through constant mentions of the bestial (cat like grace, predatory eyes) nature of April Bell and the sense that Barbee has met Dr. Glenn before, a lot of the suspense others would have tried milk from the plot. We are in no doubt (especially, of course, since we know we’re reading a fantasy) that April Bell really is a shapechanger. We aren’t surprised to find that Dr. Glenn, the rational Freudian, really is a member of homo lycanthropus.
I don’t think, given the very unsubtle clues he keeps giving for these characters having a hidden nature, Williamson ever expected to fool the reader. Rather, the novel is really the struggle between a man’s unconscious desires (Barbee always shapechanges at night, when he’s asleep, except at novel’s end) and his waking morality. At first it seems like Williamson is doing a sort of Freudian allegory as Barbee helps kill his friends and acquaintances at night and feels guilty about it (and frequently doubting he’s morally culpable or has actually assisted in their deaths) during the day. Barbee, after all, might have reasons for desiring the death of Professor Mondrick who refused his assistance or Sam Quain, the man who married a woman Barbee might have. These desires might account for his fantasies. But the reader does not really believe they are fantasies. Nor does Barbee give in to April Bell’s calls to kill out of sexual lust for her or unconscious desires. His largely witch blood calls to him. He must kill his friends because they are what they are, different from him.
The plot can be seen as Barbee resisting the evil suggestions of April Bell, her sexual temptations overcoming his moral judgment. But there are early suggestions that a race war is going on between different versions of humanity. Gradually, after participating in murder or being manipulated into assisting Bell’s killings, Barbee accepts his racial heritage as the werewolf messiah the Child of Night. From a human perspective, he seems consumed by evil. Yet, from a biological perspective, he is helping quell, reluctantly, a threat to his kind.
Even though I knew that Barbee would answer the call of his kind, the novel kept me in suspense with this moral question. Williamson creates quite an inventive rationale for his plot which makes this sf rather than straight horror. His witch-people (who can change into many shapes imaginary and from nature) can sense probabilities and manipulate them (talk of quantum mechanics is used briefly). They can change any night, not just during the full moon, though, as with traditional werewolves, they can be harmed by silver and, it turns out at novel’s end, radium is the great weapon discovered in the ruins of Ala-shan. They are telepathic. The origins of the witch-people lie in man’s prehistory during an Ice Age. Threatened by glaciation, a human mutation (and Williamson throws in Medellin inheritance science here -- evidently new enough to require a fairly detailed explanation) developed the ability to throw their consciousness into collections of matter removed from their body. Williamson goes on to show how a great many mythologies (as well as folklore about shapechangers) stem from the human--witch-people battle and history.
This may not be the first horror novel to show not only a modern battle of humanity with an alien race (though here simply a cousin) but its historical pasts and manifestations in myth and literature and legend, but it may be the first to do so in detail. H. P. Lovecraft did something similar but he didn’t show the beginnings of the conflict or provide as much detail. In some sense, this novel reminded me of Erich von Daniken’s later non-fiction works purporting to find ancient astronauts via archaeology and myth.
I liked that Barbee was the product of a witch-people eugenics program and not just a random sport. Williamson rationalizes this necessity by talking about how many genes separate true man from the witch-people (most people have a combination of genes) and the very remote possibility that a full blood or even three-quarter blood lycanthrop would appear by chance.
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LibraryThing member salimbol
[3 and 1/2 stars]
Tautly-plotted and with some clever techno-babble that explains the science behind its shapeshifter antagonists, this book would have sat as easily within the SF Masterworks series as the Fantasy Masterworks, I think. While it must have been fairly ground-breaking when it came out,
Tautly-plotted and with some clever techno-babble that explains the science behind its shapeshifter antagonists, this book would have sat as easily within the SF Masterworks series as the Fantasy Masterworks, I think. While it must have been fairly ground-breaking when it came out,
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reading it in 2013 feels like going back over some very well-trodden ground indeed, and I figured out pretty much all of the plot "twists" in advance. There are also some disturbing elements of "yay for the Inquisition!", and the protagonist is breathtakingly, irritatingly stupid at times. However, It's aged fairly well in some other respects: there are some genuine elements of horror and nasty (though not too explicit) violence, the female characters are given a reasonable degree of agency and personality; the author is excellent at conveying the murky sense of paranoia winding itself around the protagonist; and I have to give him kudos for not descending into the purple prose that so many books of this type tend to. Show Less
LibraryThing member caanderson
Great story.
The beginnings of witches, vampires, were wolves, and shape shifters. He weaves them all together in one book.
The beginnings of witches, vampires, were wolves, and shape shifters. He weaves them all together in one book.
LibraryThing member Coach_of_Alva
This novel is about a human learning that he is non-human. In a contemporary genre story, this would mean he or she would be a teenager discovering that he or she was a wizard or a shapeshifter or a vampire or whatever. This is not a contemporary genre story. This was published very shortly after
Biggest surprise, this is an early example of a genre-blender. Williamson uses monster types out of the Universal Studios template but he re-invents them through hard SF ideas of his day. He powers his witch people not with occultism but with Heisenberg uncertainty. Their evil plan is based on Mendel. They cover their tracks with psychotherapy; nice touch, that. His would-be heroes find their would-be weapons by imitating Roy Chapman Andrews.
Williamson like other urban fantasists has to deal with reality and fantasy. He is very good with both. In the real world, you can almost smell the stink of the anti-hero's fear and the sour whiskey on his breath. In the world of dreams, he made me see the white wolf bitch entering through a door (literally) and the nude redhead riding on the sabre-toothed tiger. Great image, huh?
Williamson used a femme fatale, April Bell, a red-haired vixen whom I can imagine a young Gillian Anderson playing. She is also very necessary for someone has to do the explicating and someone has to energize the sodden hero into finding his destiny. Their relationship isn't explicit, at least by our standards, but it has more heat than Bella Swann's passion for her Edward.
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World War II. And the hero - rather, anti-hero - isn't a pretty young geek, he is a thirty-year-old loser and a drunk who prefers to believe for most of the novel that he is either dreaming or going mad - better than the reality.Biggest surprise, this is an early example of a genre-blender. Williamson uses monster types out of the Universal Studios template but he re-invents them through hard SF ideas of his day. He powers his witch people not with occultism but with Heisenberg uncertainty. Their evil plan is based on Mendel. They cover their tracks with psychotherapy; nice touch, that. His would-be heroes find their would-be weapons by imitating Roy Chapman Andrews.
Williamson like other urban fantasists has to deal with reality and fantasy. He is very good with both. In the real world, you can almost smell the stink of the anti-hero's fear and the sour whiskey on his breath. In the world of dreams, he made me see the white wolf bitch entering through a door (literally) and the nude redhead riding on the sabre-toothed tiger. Great image, huh?
Williamson used a femme fatale, April Bell, a red-haired vixen whom I can imagine a young Gillian Anderson playing. She is also very necessary for someone has to do the explicating and someone has to energize the sodden hero into finding his destiny. Their relationship isn't explicit, at least by our standards, but it has more heat than Bella Swann's passion for her Edward.
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LibraryThing member BooksOn23rd
I loved this story! DARKER THAN YOU THINK, by Jack Williamson, is a classic old-school shapeshifter novel originally published in the 1940s.
Will Barbee is an alcoholic newspaper writer, who goes to greet his ex-colleagues at the airport after they have been digging for artifacts in Mongolia for
Barbee wants to find out why the researcher was murdered and before long more people are murdered, only it seems to Barbee that it was HE who murdered the other ones in his dreams. He thinks it may be the alcohol fueling these incredible dreams. Is he really responsible for these killings? What does the red-haired woman have to do with all of this? Who are his friends and who shouldn’t he trust? The writing of Barbee's internal turmoil is great.
The novel sounds very much like something written in the 1940s – I could visualize it being a black and white film as I was reading. This made it just that much more wonderful to read!
Any horror fan would appreciate this early rendition of a vampire/shapeshifter story. Williamson won many awards over his writing career, including a Grand Master Nebula and a Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
This is a book that will stay in my library. I also recommend his story, THE HUMANOIDS.
Will Barbee is an alcoholic newspaper writer, who goes to greet his ex-colleagues at the airport after they have been digging for artifacts in Mongolia for
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two years. Something isn’t right and the lead researcher dies on the tarmac before he can make a big announcement.Barbee wants to find out why the researcher was murdered and before long more people are murdered, only it seems to Barbee that it was HE who murdered the other ones in his dreams. He thinks it may be the alcohol fueling these incredible dreams. Is he really responsible for these killings? What does the red-haired woman have to do with all of this? Who are his friends and who shouldn’t he trust? The writing of Barbee's internal turmoil is great.
The novel sounds very much like something written in the 1940s – I could visualize it being a black and white film as I was reading. This made it just that much more wonderful to read!
Any horror fan would appreciate this early rendition of a vampire/shapeshifter story. Williamson won many awards over his writing career, including a Grand Master Nebula and a Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
This is a book that will stay in my library. I also recommend his story, THE HUMANOIDS.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
Read as part of the Retro Hugo Voters' Packet - although it was disqualified as a nominee: "The finalist “Darker Than You Think” by Jack Williamson was mistakenly categorized as a novelette. The story is a novella, but did not receive enough nominations to be a finalist as a
Personally, I'd say this is definitely an actual novel - the pacing and structure give it that feel. It's really not that short, either.
Wait... ah-ha!
"Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson, originally a novelette, was expanded into novel length and published by Fantasy Press in 1948. The short version was published in Unknown in 1940."
I'm pretty sure that I actually read the 1948 novel-length version. (Because it kept not-ending. Not that it really dragged on, but I thought I was reading a short piece, and I wasn't...)
Either way, I thought this would've made a great 1970's or 1960's horror film. It would sit on the shelf comfortably next to The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby.
Journalist Will Barbee is ready to meet the returning members of an expedition to far-off lands. He's sure that he'll get the scoop on whatever their discoveries were, because it just so happens that he was college friends with the researchers. However, while waiting for them to meet the press, he finds himself next to a young woman, April Bell, who introduces herself as a budding journalist and is eager for him to give her professional tips. Barbee feels an intense mix of attraction and mysterious repulsion regarding the young woman. The press conference ends up being prevented due to a shocking tragedy - and Barbee's feelings toward April begin to include a suspicion that she might somehow be guilty of a terrible crime. That doesn't stop him from asking her out to dinner, though.
As events progress, we learn that whatever ancient secrets or artifacts were discovered on the expedition may be a threat to a modern cult of witches or other supernatural beings. Against his will, Barbee is drawn into diabolical doings...
Not bad; glad I read it.
I wouldn't have voted for it to win a Hugo, however, mainly because it's horror and not speculative fiction.
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novella."Personally, I'd say this is definitely an actual novel - the pacing and structure give it that feel. It's really not that short, either.
Wait... ah-ha!
"Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson, originally a novelette, was expanded into novel length and published by Fantasy Press in 1948. The short version was published in Unknown in 1940."
I'm pretty sure that I actually read the 1948 novel-length version. (Because it kept not-ending. Not that it really dragged on, but I thought I was reading a short piece, and I wasn't...)
Either way, I thought this would've made a great 1970's or 1960's horror film. It would sit on the shelf comfortably next to The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby.
Journalist Will Barbee is ready to meet the returning members of an expedition to far-off lands. He's sure that he'll get the scoop on whatever their discoveries were, because it just so happens that he was college friends with the researchers. However, while waiting for them to meet the press, he finds himself next to a young woman, April Bell, who introduces herself as a budding journalist and is eager for him to give her professional tips. Barbee feels an intense mix of attraction and mysterious repulsion regarding the young woman. The press conference ends up being prevented due to a shocking tragedy - and Barbee's feelings toward April begin to include a suspicion that she might somehow be guilty of a terrible crime. That doesn't stop him from asking her out to dinner, though.
As events progress, we learn that whatever ancient secrets or artifacts were discovered on the expedition may be a threat to a modern cult of witches or other supernatural beings. Against his will, Barbee is drawn into diabolical doings...
Not bad; glad I read it.
I wouldn't have voted for it to win a Hugo, however, mainly because it's horror and not speculative fiction.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
Read as part of the Retro Hugo Voters' Packet - although it was disqualified as a nominee: "The finalist “Darker Than You Think” by Jack Williamson was mistakenly categorized as a novelette. The story is a novella, but did not receive enough nominations to be a finalist as a
Personally, I'd say this is definitely an actual novel - the pacing and structure give it that feel. It's really not that short, either.
Wait... ah-ha!
"Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson, originally a novelette, was expanded into novel length and published by Fantasy Press in 1948. The short version was published in Unknown in 1940."
I'm pretty sure that I actually read the 1948 novel-length version. (Because it kept not-ending. Not that it really dragged on, but I thought I was reading a short piece, and I wasn't...)
Either way, I thought this would've made a great 1970's or 1960's horror film. It would sit on the shelf comfortably next to The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby.
Journalist Will Barbee is ready to meet the returning members of an expedition to far-off lands. He's sure that he'll get the scoop on whatever their discoveries were, because it just so happens that he was college friends with the researchers. However, while waiting for them to meet the press, he finds himself next to a young woman, April Bell, who introduces herself as a budding journalist and is eager for him to give her professional tips. Barbee feels an intense mix of attraction and mysterious repulsion regarding the young woman. The press conference ends up being prevented due to a shocking tragedy - and Barbee's feelings toward April begin to include a suspicion that she might somehow be guilty of a terrible crime. That doesn't stop him from asking her out to dinner, though.
As events progress, we learn that whatever ancient secrets or artifacts were discovered on the expedition may be a threat to a modern cult of witches or other supernatural beings. Against his will, Barbee is drawn into diabolical doings...
Not bad; glad I read it.
I wouldn't have voted for it to win a Hugo, however, mainly because it's horror and not speculative fiction.
Show More
novella."Personally, I'd say this is definitely an actual novel - the pacing and structure give it that feel. It's really not that short, either.
Wait... ah-ha!
"Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson, originally a novelette, was expanded into novel length and published by Fantasy Press in 1948. The short version was published in Unknown in 1940."
I'm pretty sure that I actually read the 1948 novel-length version. (Because it kept not-ending. Not that it really dragged on, but I thought I was reading a short piece, and I wasn't...)
Either way, I thought this would've made a great 1970's or 1960's horror film. It would sit on the shelf comfortably next to The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby.
Journalist Will Barbee is ready to meet the returning members of an expedition to far-off lands. He's sure that he'll get the scoop on whatever their discoveries were, because it just so happens that he was college friends with the researchers. However, while waiting for them to meet the press, he finds himself next to a young woman, April Bell, who introduces herself as a budding journalist and is eager for him to give her professional tips. Barbee feels an intense mix of attraction and mysterious repulsion regarding the young woman. The press conference ends up being prevented due to a shocking tragedy - and Barbee's feelings toward April begin to include a suspicion that she might somehow be guilty of a terrible crime. That doesn't stop him from asking her out to dinner, though.
As events progress, we learn that whatever ancient secrets or artifacts were discovered on the expedition may be a threat to a modern cult of witches or other supernatural beings. Against his will, Barbee is drawn into diabolical doings...
Not bad; glad I read it.
I wouldn't have voted for it to win a Hugo, however, mainly because it's horror and not speculative fiction.
Show Less
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
A story about a man and a werewolf and his descent into madness or werewolf. It's interesting but it's really not my kind of thing. I didn't really get any connection with the characters and almost stopped reading in the middle due to this lack of interest. It was interesting to compare some of the
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more modern stories and it does look like they do owe a lot to this story. It's part of the canon but won't remain part of my library. Show Less
LibraryThing member hodosano
Clever, fun, fascinating! A great read!
LibraryThing member andyray
i may have found another writer at the tender age of 67. I love where he takes me, despite being the most fantasy-driven bok I have read (outside of clifford Simak). The plot hasw enough problems to earn it a three star and a half, but the enthusiasm and abiloity to lead me, the reader, through,
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the woods of imagination, and creating the bond between Barbee and myself is what puts it over the hill as a winner. Show Less
LibraryThing member Michael.Rimmer
This book is to the werewolf story what "I Am Legend" is to the vampire story. That is high praise and I enjoyed this book immensely.
The intermingled themes of folklore, anthropology, Indiana-Jonesesque archeology, quantum physics, pulp-noir detective, witchcraft, psychological and supernatural
Settle down with this book and a hot drink, but first check the doors and windows are locked - not that that would protect you!
The intermingled themes of folklore, anthropology, Indiana-Jonesesque archeology, quantum physics, pulp-noir detective, witchcraft, psychological and supernatural
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murder are handled expertly. As has been said by another reviewer, it is more a story of shapeshifters than a classic werewolf tale.Settle down with this book and a hot drink, but first check the doors and windows are locked - not that that would protect you!
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LibraryThing member ThomasPluck
I wish I'd read this years ago, it creates a compelling mythos.
LibraryThing member ikeman100
This book is much more fantasy then SF but I enjoyed it anyway. Jack Williamson could really tell a story. This would make a good horror movie.
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1940 (Unknown magazine)
1948
Physical description
223 p.; 18.2 cm
Local notes
Omslag: Ikke angivet
Omslaget viser en rødhåret bleg kvinde og en vred tiger
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Omslaget viser en rødhåret bleg kvinde og en vred tiger
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Similar in this library
Pages
223
DDC/MDS
| 813.52 |