Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.05 AVERAGE
4.05 AVERAGE
Loveable characters:
Yes
My first reading of this was a wonderful surprise. I knew of Roger Zelazny, thanks to his classic Fantasy Amber series and his great SF tales (Home is the Hangman, …. And Call Me Conrad, Lord of Light), but this is one I didn’t know much about until our Oracle of the Occult Randy Money pointed it out a couple of Octobers ago. It has been out of print here in the UK for years but is now available, thanks to Farrago Books, and is worth hunting out and read during the days leading down to 31st of October.
As much as I liked Roger’s previously mentioned work, I was, to put it mildly, a little unsure about this one. After all, this is a comedy. I’ve said before that I think that humour can be one of the trickiest of writing styles to get right – what one reader will find hilarious, another will dislike with intensity – and whilst I consider myself to often have a sense of humour (whatever that is) the number of genre authors who amuse me are very, very few.*
So, prepared for a disappointment, I began reading. My first thought was how surprisingly accessible the book was. A Night in the Lonesome October is written in short chapters, with each chapter being a day. Starting on October 1st, it finishes (logically enough) on October 31st.
“I am a watchdog. My name is Snuff. I live with my master Jack outside of London now. I like Soho very much with its smelly fogs and dark streets. It is silent then and we go for long walks. Jack is under a curse from long ago and must do much of his work at night to keep worse things from happening. I keep watch while he is about it. If someone comes, I howl.”**
From such innocuous and inauspicious beginnings, Snuff’s simple language deceptively tells of the job he does and the world he and his master inhabits. Having got our attention, Zelazny then cleverly drips other little details into the narrative whilst Jack and Snuff go about their seemingly mundane business. Minor conversations become more important as the story progresses.
There are other animals who, like Snuff, act as familiars for their respective owners. They act as guardians against the ghosts and ghouls, things in mirrors and lots of other creepy things desperate to be free in this world. Whilst Snuff spends his time observing, monitoring and warning about such things, he meets a host of characters that may be recognised by well-read readers – a certain well-known Great Detective from Baker Street and his companion (who Snuff bites), the world’s most famous vampire Count, The Good Doctor, building an ‘experiment man’ and Larry Talbot, Jack’s new neighbour (who Universal Monsters fans might recognise):
“Are you a moon-watcher, Larry?”
“Very much so,” came the reply.
“I’d guessed that.”
At the beginning of the book (and the month) unusual things are happening. There are a number of murders in the city, which the famous detective is investigating. As are also many of their known acquaintances, Jack and Snuff are participating in ‘the Great Game’, which will culminate at the end of the month***. This involves Jack collecting esoteric objects to contribute to their Great Spell, whilst also making sure that the Things in the Mirror do not escape, and the Thing in the Wardrobe and the Thing in the Circle stay where they are supposed to be. Much of the early part of the novel involves Snuff meeting and trading information for the Game whilst on his daily rounds. We meet with other familiars such as Greymalk, the cat who belongs to ‘Crazy Jill’ on the Hill (a witch), a rat named Bubo, Quicklime, a snake and Nightwind, the owl. Given the gift of speech for an hour upon the stroke of midnight, Snuff tells Jack of his findings every night.
As the book progresses, things that were at first not clear and apparently irrelevant become less so. The Great Game at Hallowe’en is an event which, when the signs are aligned, could lead to the end of the world as we know it, or at the very least the arrival of things from other dimensions that are rather Lovecraftian…. And it all gets a little more complicated.
This is a clever book, a fun book, a deceptively intelligent book that shows a writer happy to play with language and deftly deal with characterisation. As an experienced author (this was his last published book), Zelazny is confident enough to take on other writers’ characters and use them to his own end, capturing the essence of their persona and then taking them somewhere new. It is clearly written with love and humour and, above all, that joy in the need to tell an entertaining story. It’s not a creepy book, or really a scary book, but there are dark moments. The comedy’s there, but it is not over-the-top, nor particularly surreal, and most definitely not crude, lewd or in bad taste. It is enjoyably, refreshingly subtle and sophisticated.
I read the book in a weekend. The style and the plot drags you in surprisingly well and kept me reading. It’s subtly funny, it’s sad, it’s a fitting homage to those characters I liked, was thrilled by and scared by when I was small. Lonesome has the nostalgic romance of Bradbury mixed with an Pratchett-like intelligence and a Tim Burton-esque love of things that are creepy. If Neil Gaiman wrote it, he would be proud.
Why haven’t more people read it? Though it was a Nebula Award nominee in 1994, these days it seems to be relatively unnoticed. In some ways I’m actually a little reluctant to pass the good news on – it’s my guilty secret, (well – mine and Roger’s), that we share an affection and a passion for this book that many have not heard of (especially in the UK.) Just thinking of this book, of Snuff and Jack, Jill and Graymalk, ‘the Good Doctor’, ‘the Count’ and ‘the Great Detective’ (clearly not specifically named for copyright reasons) makes me smile. It is a book that celebrates Halloween and that others should be more aware of, as reluctantly as I wish to let it go.
Recommended.
*Erm…Pratchett, Sheckley, Douglas Adams. I’ll have to think of more.
**Every time I read this now it makes me think of Dug from the movie Up.
***As readers we do not know what the Great Game is at first, other than it is being played. It is all revealed as we read.
As much as I liked Roger’s previously mentioned work, I was, to put it mildly, a little unsure about this one. After all, this is a comedy. I’ve said before that I think that humour can be one of the trickiest of writing styles to get right – what one reader will find hilarious, another will dislike with intensity – and whilst I consider myself to often have a sense of humour (whatever that is) the number of genre authors who amuse me are very, very few.*
So, prepared for a disappointment, I began reading. My first thought was how surprisingly accessible the book was. A Night in the Lonesome October is written in short chapters, with each chapter being a day. Starting on October 1st, it finishes (logically enough) on October 31st.
“I am a watchdog. My name is Snuff. I live with my master Jack outside of London now. I like Soho very much with its smelly fogs and dark streets. It is silent then and we go for long walks. Jack is under a curse from long ago and must do much of his work at night to keep worse things from happening. I keep watch while he is about it. If someone comes, I howl.”**
From such innocuous and inauspicious beginnings, Snuff’s simple language deceptively tells of the job he does and the world he and his master inhabits. Having got our attention, Zelazny then cleverly drips other little details into the narrative whilst Jack and Snuff go about their seemingly mundane business. Minor conversations become more important as the story progresses.
There are other animals who, like Snuff, act as familiars for their respective owners. They act as guardians against the ghosts and ghouls, things in mirrors and lots of other creepy things desperate to be free in this world. Whilst Snuff spends his time observing, monitoring and warning about such things, he meets a host of characters that may be recognised by well-read readers – a certain well-known Great Detective from Baker Street and his companion (who Snuff bites), the world’s most famous vampire Count, The Good Doctor, building an ‘experiment man’ and Larry Talbot, Jack’s new neighbour (who Universal Monsters fans might recognise):
“Are you a moon-watcher, Larry?”
“Very much so,” came the reply.
“I’d guessed that.”
At the beginning of the book (and the month) unusual things are happening. There are a number of murders in the city, which the famous detective is investigating. As are also many of their known acquaintances, Jack and Snuff are participating in ‘the Great Game’, which will culminate at the end of the month***. This involves Jack collecting esoteric objects to contribute to their Great Spell, whilst also making sure that the Things in the Mirror do not escape, and the Thing in the Wardrobe and the Thing in the Circle stay where they are supposed to be. Much of the early part of the novel involves Snuff meeting and trading information for the Game whilst on his daily rounds. We meet with other familiars such as Greymalk, the cat who belongs to ‘Crazy Jill’ on the Hill (a witch), a rat named Bubo, Quicklime, a snake and Nightwind, the owl. Given the gift of speech for an hour upon the stroke of midnight, Snuff tells Jack of his findings every night.
As the book progresses, things that were at first not clear and apparently irrelevant become less so. The Great Game at Hallowe’en is an event which, when the signs are aligned, could lead to the end of the world as we know it, or at the very least the arrival of things from other dimensions that are rather Lovecraftian…. And it all gets a little more complicated.
This is a clever book, a fun book, a deceptively intelligent book that shows a writer happy to play with language and deftly deal with characterisation. As an experienced author (this was his last published book), Zelazny is confident enough to take on other writers’ characters and use them to his own end, capturing the essence of their persona and then taking them somewhere new. It is clearly written with love and humour and, above all, that joy in the need to tell an entertaining story. It’s not a creepy book, or really a scary book, but there are dark moments. The comedy’s there, but it is not over-the-top, nor particularly surreal, and most definitely not crude, lewd or in bad taste. It is enjoyably, refreshingly subtle and sophisticated.
I read the book in a weekend. The style and the plot drags you in surprisingly well and kept me reading. It’s subtly funny, it’s sad, it’s a fitting homage to those characters I liked, was thrilled by and scared by when I was small. Lonesome has the nostalgic romance of Bradbury mixed with an Pratchett-like intelligence and a Tim Burton-esque love of things that are creepy. If Neil Gaiman wrote it, he would be proud.
Why haven’t more people read it? Though it was a Nebula Award nominee in 1994, these days it seems to be relatively unnoticed. In some ways I’m actually a little reluctant to pass the good news on – it’s my guilty secret, (well – mine and Roger’s), that we share an affection and a passion for this book that many have not heard of (especially in the UK.) Just thinking of this book, of Snuff and Jack, Jill and Graymalk, ‘the Good Doctor’, ‘the Count’ and ‘the Great Detective’ (clearly not specifically named for copyright reasons) makes me smile. It is a book that celebrates Halloween and that others should be more aware of, as reluctantly as I wish to let it go.
Recommended.
*Erm…Pratchett, Sheckley, Douglas Adams. I’ll have to think of more.
**Every time I read this now it makes me think of Dug from the movie Up.
***As readers we do not know what the Great Game is at first, other than it is being played. It is all revealed as we read.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
That was unexpectedly fun and wholesome, despite the famously ghoulish cast
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A breezy, spooky, pulpy good time! As I read I sort of played out a Don Bluth-style animated film of the book in my head. I would love to design a board game based around this at some point.
I loved this creepy, dark story narrated by a dog. It’s a bit of a mystery and it was an easy read to get through. Highly recommend.
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated