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From: OC.TREI@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Help! I need to know!!
Message-ID: <812@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Sun, 22-Dec-85 13:31:38 EST
Article-I.D.: caip.812
Posted: Sun Dec 22 13:31:38 1985
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From: Peter G. Trei <OC.TREI@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>

> From: muddcs!rracine@caip.rutgers.edu (Ray Racine)
> Date: 13 Dec 85 04:06:47 GMT

> The book is almost morbid, taking place very far in the future.  The
> hero dreams his way there, I think.  All of humanity has taken
> refuge in a large pyramid of light and only a few hundred remain
> with fewer almost daily.  Outside of the pyramid is evil in various
> incarnations.  I distinctly remember one was "HE-WHO-WATCHES-IN THE
> NORTH" in the shape of a huge crouching monstrosity which never
> moved, yet constantly drew closer and closer.  There are other
> capitalized evils in the east, west, ect... as well as other smaller
> evils which roamed freely.  Absolutely everything was dark in the
> book, no sun at all, the entire atmosphere was something straight
> out of Edger Allen Poe.

> It was far and away the best sci-fi book I have ever read from the
> so called golden age of sci-fi.  It was well written and way ahead
> of it's time.

     This book is THE NIGHT LAND, by William Hope Hodgson, originally
published in 1912. I have a paperback reprint from Britain (Sphere,
1981, # 0 7221 4765 1), which I picked up in a used book store. I have
not finished it yet, but it looks quite good. It comes highly
reccomended, and not just by Lin Carter. Its also given top marks by
Baird Searles, and carries cover and flyleaf blurbs from HP Lovecraft,
Clark Ashton Smith, and CS Lewis, all of whom proclaim it a
masterpiece! It is not easy going; written in quasi-17th century
english, it is over 200,000 words long.
    I am not aware of a sequel, but it does not end in the way you
describe, so maybe your edition was split in two parts.

							Peter Trei
							oc.trei@cu20b.arpa
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