From the Tower of Observation

The third extract from ANIMA. More stories are on the way.

A poem by Gregg Marchese, who we welcome to this site.

A short poem by Banks Miller.

A curiosity: a series of D&D stats for Night Land monsters. Composed by Vultur10.

Another story by Zathras, a sequel to his PROGENY. Extract from ANIMA next month.

The second extract from ANIMA. The next one will be up in about a month.

Happy Ostara.

The first extract from ANIMA. I am still looking for a suitable illustration, I fear. Happy new year to you all.

An interesting blog entry.

Happy Yuletide. I may not be able to update over the holidays, but next year we will be starting to run extracts from Brett's novel ANIMA.

A curiosity: some pictures found in an old copy of THE NIGHT LAND sold on Ebay.

Another story by Zathras.

The second print anthology Nightmares of the Fall is now available.

The third and last part of Silence of the Night.

The second part of Silence of the Night.

A short essay and a story by Zathras.

Also an interesting extract from Jane Frank's compilation of rare Hodgsoniania, THE WANDERING SOUL.

The musical compositions created by Alhazared are now available together on the solo site Electric Minstrel. This link may or may not take you direct to the newfangled Flash player thingy for it.

The first part of Silence of the Night, a new three part story by John C Wright.

Gates of dissent have produced a track inspired by the Night Land.

Across The Night Wall Part 6 and last.

Upcoming: a new story by John C Wright and, at last, the publication of the second print anthology, NIGHTMARES OF THE FALL.

Across The Night Wall Part 5.

Across The Night Wall Part 4.

Across The Night Wall Part 3.

Across The Night Wall Part 2.

Happy Yuletide!!

Across The Night Wall. The first part of a new long story by Martin Isitt.

New story coming soon - I promise!!!

SALVAGE part 7 and last.

I am particularly pleased to learn that William Hope Hodgson has been awarded the 2006 Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award. (( Announced at Readercon, Burlington MA, July 2006. Judges were Robert Silverberg, Gardner Dozois, John Clute and Scott Edelman, etc.))

Smith, a remarkable writer, has had a great influence on me. You may visit a site dedicated to his work here .

SALVAGE part 6.

Also noted this month: a fine flash site on Carnacki.

SALVAGE part 5.

Mr Paul Potts maintains a web site which holds several audio files of readings from Hodgson including several well composed sections of THE NIGHT LAND. His excellent ongoing blog well describes his work and may serve as an introduction.

Alhazared have produced the first two parts of a new composition Five Who Watch.

SALVAGE part 4.

Gary McNeil, who did some excellent maps for us a while back, now sends us a screenplay, Torin's Plight; candidly described as "a Night Land story retold as Flash Gordon."  

SALVAGE part 3. Two, maybe three, more to go.

And on a completely irrelevant note, I'm reading Machen's THE THREE IMPOSTORS and liking it very much.

Happy Easter.

SALVAGE part 2.

SALVAGE. The first part of a new long story by Brett Davidson.

ABOVE part 2.

Alhazared continue their Night-Land inspired music at Myspace

A note from a reader informs us of a musical composition The Place Where the Silent Ones Kill," by the interesting group Alhazared.

ABOVE by Pinlighter. The first half of a new story, set in the Darkening.

There are two more stories in preparation. Next year we will either have definite news of the new anthology or the last part of The Cry of the Night Hound. Also some thing on Brett Davidson's novel.

Happy Yule.

I am very sorry about the delays updating this site - a lot of work is pending. In particular we are trying to get a second print anthology nailed down. More follows.

A note reaches me:.

Some important news is coming soon.

Two pieces of news.

First, this site has moved to www.thenightland.co.uk so please change your links accordingly

Second, a new John C Wright story is coming, and it's a corker. The first part will be up in a week or so.

Slope, part 2.

A new story turns up; very suitable for Others' Night Mares.

Free registration at Horrormasters is required to read this.

A new Cover

A little more of the graphic novel . . . which may pick up again in a few months time when some personal matters have settled down.

Slope, by Pinlighter. First part.

Minotaur, third and last part.

The Wandering Soul is upcoming from Tartarus Press and PS Publishing.

"Presented here are 'Coasts of Adventure', a collection of stories never before published in book form; Hodgson's 'Ship's Log' from one of his early sea voyages; photographs of Hodgson and his family; newly-discovered poetry; Hodgson's wonderful and historically important sea-going photographs; factual articles from contemporary newspapers and journals; and an unpublished slide lecture, all augmented by Jane Frank's carefully researched Introduction and a critical appreciation of the fiction and poetry."

Minotaur, part 2. Third part soon.

Woo Woo Woo We're on metafilter
       

The Wreck of the Aetherwing, a story by a new writer, James Dewitt, set in the age of Airships.

The title page of the graphic novel.

The second half of Minotaur will be up in a few days. Two more stories are in preparation, but annoyingly are not quite ready.

Some very handsome maps, sent us by Gary L McNeil II, to whom we tender our thanks.

Minotaur, part 1.

And yet more, and more, and more.

An awful lot is pending, but there's not much I can present here. It remains for me to wish you a glorious Yuletide. :-)

Post scriptum. This very perceptive entry in a weblog caught the library daemon's eye.

What has given The Night Land a cult following over the past century is an underlying myth that is totally different from that which underpins what we would call science fiction, today.....(continued at link).

It's not a formal review, but it's a neat enough summary of what The Night Land means to be well worth reading.

And yet more, in several varied versions.

Also an interesting interview with NL contributor James Stoddard at Green Man Review. Stoddard's own books well repay reading, and we hope that the whole of his Rewritten version of The Night Land will soon see publication.

At least one more story is on the way soon.

Also noted: a rather nice cover to a Spanish edition. I'd really like to get a proper scan of this.

More of the graphic novel.

My attention is drawn to the stunning song "Furthur", by VNV Nation. Probably not an intentional Night Land reference, but it ought to be.

More of the graphic novel.

Another page of the upcoming graphic novel. Does any one know how you script these things??? This is harder than it looks.

From Peter Kendell.

"I thought you might find this interesting. It's WHH's memorial inscription at Tyne Cot cemetery, near Passendale.

My wife and I just returned from a trip to France and Belgium, touring the graves and memorials of various of the War Poets and the Vera Brittain circle, but I didn't want to leave WHH out, especially as we'd visited Tyne Cot in 1998 without knowing he was commemorated there."

The first two pages of a graphic adaptation of Sean Mclachlan's "The Siege of Humanity".

Coincidentally Sean's story gets a fine review and an award at SFreader.com

A new picture in the SMS Gallery

Eikon. By Brett Davidson.

Jewel. By Pinlighter.

Another fine review, from the pages of the charming e-zine Deep Magic

It's been busy but new stories should be along soonest :)

A Myth Long Forgotten, in Others' Night Mares.

Coming soon: new stories from Brett Davidson and Pinlighter

Two new pictures in the SMS Gallery.

A magnificent realisation of Scyrr in the Land, by Martin Isitt, whom we welcome to this site.

John C Wright informs us that "the Night Lands story AWAKE IN THE NIGHT has had reprint rights sold to no less than two, count them, two, anthologies. THE YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION #21 ed. Gardner Dozois, BEST SHORT NOVELS 2003 (Science Fiction Book Club) ed Jonathan Strahan!" Congratulations!!

Also our co-editor Nigel Brown has a story, though not a Night Lands one, in Hartwells BEST SF OF THE YEAR. Congratulations to him as well!!

Some Night Land pictures by my old LARP buddy Mike Horsefield* are, uh, pending. As soon as my scanner gets fixed.

* "You know Andy, we could do a Night Land LARP - on Dartmoor, in the nighttime . . ."

I am directed to an interesting Japanese site on Hodgson. Our thanks to shigeyuki@j-wave.net for the remarkable covers by Marino Lounie that he has scanned in for us.

Brett Davidson's novel ANIMA is nearing completion. Please discuss here.

A review in The Alien Online, than which almost nothing could be kinder.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

First review, in LOCUS, and quite good. HERE

THE NIGHT LAND will be moving to a domain of its own! We are busting the limits of what my web provider gives for free.

Discuss here.

The Astronomer by Brett Davidson

What would Christmas be like without a star to guide us? :-)

Anne M Stickel's completed post-Night Land They Walk Not In Straight Lines, over at Colin Harvey's Showcase. This is a continuation of the short The Seer, recently published here.

Coming for Yuletide: a new story by Brett Davidson, "The Astronomer".

Bestia Centauri has produced a couple of electronic tracks inspired by The Night Land. One is now available as a streaming audio track.

The second part of The Last Of All Suns.

Parts two, three and four will follow in due course.

The Wandering Soul: Glimpses of a Life, A Compendium of Rare and Unpublished Works by William Hope Hodgson. Compiled and Edited by Jane Frank with an Introduction by Mike Ashley.

This is apparently selected from previously uncollected and/or unpublished material, remaining from the Moskowitz collection, and is a must for any serious Hodgson fan.

I am pleased that Eater and An Exhalation of Butteflies have obtained honorable mentions in Gardner Dozois' YEAR'S BEST SF for 2002.

Anne M Stickel's poem The Seer. Anne has had a lot to do with forming the ideas behind our vision of the Night Land, though she has not been published here before now.

Brett Davidson's new story Narcissus.

Also a curiosity explicating THE NIGHT LAND according to the vile Freudian heresy, from a 1964 edition of the Riverside Quarterly: sent to us by our friend Cuyler Brooks.

A short fiction piece. By Anne M Stickel is available in this month's "Deep Magic" e-zine (for download).

Marks. Sheer self-indulgence this one, I confess.

An exceptionally fine artistic tribute to Hodgson comes to my notice. By the kind permission of its author, Andrea Bonazzi, we now have it and one other work posted in Night Scapes.

Two long stories are in preparation and will soon be posted. Meanwhile review copies of NIGHT LANDS I will soon be sent out.

The Seeker, by Carole Carmen: in Others' Night Lands.

The Guild of the Last Migration, by Welleran.

I found "The Little Watcher" to be an enthralling read, full of much of the mystery, imagination, and sense of wonder that made Hodgson's original classic so memorable, whilst being unburdened by the florid, pseudo-archaic biblical literary style that Hodgson for some strange reason imposed on the original novel, and which makes it pretty much inaccessible to all but the most determined modern reader. Stripped of that hindrance, we're now getting a good look at what makes The Night Land such an incredible creation . .

"My story 'The Seeker', which is set in 'The Night Land', has been taken by GW Thomas at Cyberpulp (USA) for an anthology of pulp-styles, (called 'Amazing Heroes').

Congratulations, repected lady.

I thought this was very interesting, because about the first thing I thought upon reading the book, was that it seemed almost cliched and reminiscent of pulp adventure stories. But I suppose those stories must have been based on early books like this?"

Perhaps not.

Dream. A short piece written some time ago.

Happy, blessed, Ostara.

The Voice of the Lacuna by Gerard Houarner, whom we welcome to these pages.

Kiss. Scyrr's return from the Land.

James Stoddard has sent me the entirety of an early draft of his revision of THE NIGHT LAND, not for publication here. I read with interest.

NIGHT LANDS I - Eternal Love has been delivered to its publishers. In addition to what is available on this website, it will contain the full text of Nigel Atkinson's 40,000 word novella "A Mouse in the Walls of the Lesser Redoubt", and an entirely new story, "Imago", by Brett Davidson.

Discussions about the possibility of NIGHT LANDS II - Nightmares of the Fall are underway. We have a number of fine stories in hand.

A new story, The Siege of Humanity, by Sean McLachlan.

Brett Davidson came by, visiting, from the far antipodes. A fine time was had by all.

But I was concerned to discover that he thought me likely to be small, bespectacled, and studious of mein.

Therefore let it be known by all that I am an inch over six feet in height, weigh nearly 250 pounds. I wield the screaming dyskos like a good 'un, and I will drink you off your feet.

This I swear :-)

A new story, Awake In The Night, by John C Wright, whom we welcome to these pages. Read also his fine short explanation of why he was moved to write, and his essay And No Female, Ever .

Happy Christmas.

To those of my own Asatru faith, HAILSA!

Coming next year. "Imago" by Brett Davidson. "Awake in the Night" by John C Wright. "The Siege of Humanity" by Sean McLachlan. Possibly more stories as well.

In the night, let us be friends.

A new story in Others' Night Lands, Fountain Of Light, by Anne M Stickel: Hosted on Colin Harvey's "Showcase".

Brett Davidson's new story Little Watcher. Our first story of the aeon before the Fall.

A new story, Catharsis, by Nigel Brown. Set within the closed and lost lower half-mile of the Pyramid during the first aeon of the Seige.

A new essay Narrative Technique and THE NIGHT LAND, by Nigel Brown. This essay first appeared in SCHEHERAZADE magazine.

A new map in Night Maps, by James Stoddard.

A new poem, Little Rituals, by Lucy A E Ward.

Some very interesting pictures, sent by Raymond Leung.

The worthy James Stoddard, author of THE HIGH HOUSE and THE FALSE HOUSE, is working on a revised and "modernised" version of THE NIGHT LAND.

You may read a portion, The Testament of Andros, which will appear in NIGHT LANDS, here: and a draft of the first two chapters entire in Others' Night Lands.

Please be informed that the lady Luna García y García is to be married to Nick Macro, a gentleman of our City. We wish her in bliss.

A new story by "Little Watcher", by Brett Davidson, is in preparation. It will not be posted until Yuletide, unfortunately, because I cannot afford to purchase it before that date: but an illustration and a short extract are in Night Scapes .

Hodgson's entry in the Commonwealth War Graves registry may be found Here

It's been quiet. A long story A Mouse In The Walls Of The Lesser Redoubt is in preparation.

An extract from this will be placed here on the web site: the full text will only be available in NIGHT LANDS.

Real Soon Now

Lo!

"I don't know if this will intrigue or disgust you, but there is a Dr Who novella being published Nov 23rd that features Carnacki. It's published by Telos Publishing, and is entitled Foreign Devils. Thought you might like to know,"
Tim Taylor

Actually, Sir, it both intriges and disgusts me.

The Wildside Press edition of THE NIGHT LAND is out, go thither and buy.

Coming soon: more fiction.

Chuck Owston sends us a link to the online Flash version of his play "Final Armageddon" (AKA "The Lazarus Man") on his daughter's website)

I must remark that Chuck and his family have produced some of the best Folk-rock music I have ever heard: go there now and buy his CDs. You will probably have to email him.

A new story, The Inward Seer, by Mark Valentine.

A picture of a contemporary proto-pneumavore in the low ionosphere. This structure, or entity, is 25 kilometers high. Courtesy of APOD.

Bah. Ezeboard adopted the Cunning Plan of making the forums unuseable with pop-up ads unless I pay them money. So I have paid up. In a few days the forum should be fit to visit again.

A very beautiful poem, by Lucy A.E.Ward.

Night Shade Books are bringing out the entire works of William Hope Hodgson, in a uniform edition.

"This series will collect all of Hodgson’s novel’s and short stories into an illustrated five volume hardcover set. It will include many stories that have not been available since their initial magazine publication, or only collected in the original Eveleigh Nash collections. Each book shall be over 400 pages long, and will feature over 200,000 words of fiction."

Here is a Forum, hosted by ezeboard. I would welcome all thoughts courteously expressed.

Rick Kennet tells me that the new 'Carnacki' book from Ash Tree Press will probably be published in June; and will contain twelve stories, including a 24,000 word novella. I find some details on his co-author Chico Kidd's site.

Two new Cover Pictures by the French artist Nicollet. Sent me by the amiable Monsieur Egger, to whom, much thanks..

A magnificent poem, by Hodgson himself; unpublished at his death.

Thanks to Robert Klimowski of the VCME: whose Spring Concert, I am pleased to hear, went well.

Belatedly, I correct the link to Marcus Rowland's magnificent FORGOTTEN FUTURES Carnacki RPG site.

Want the specs for an Electric Pentacle? It's all here.

A short note about a pilgrimage to Hodgson's Blackburn home reaches me.

The gentlemen-mohocks of SAVOY tell me they are planning a new edition of HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND, to be illustrated by John Coulthart.

Delight! I shall certainly buy this book.

"What comes into the world and disturbs nothing deserves neither consideration nor patience."

HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND has a graphic novel edition, by Simon Revelstoke and Richard Corben!!

I obtain this and read it with interest, enjoying Corben's always-fine art, but discovering with some dismay that the book follows the vapid doctrines of Iain Sinclair, who holds that the swine-things and the deeps symbolise incest. Though Sinclair is so fine a writer, I view this concept with disapproval.

More happily - Bob Weinberg tells me he may be pursuing the possibility of a graphic novel adaptation of THE NIGHT LAND itself!! Let us hope!!!

A new picture, by Druillet: and a link to some fine Hodgson-related art of his at Coolfrenchcomics

It seems the splendid Ash Tree Press are bringing out a new volume of Carnacki stories, NUMBER 472 CHEYNE WALK, modern pastiches by Chico Kidd and Rick Kennett. Information is scant as yet.

And the worthy John B Ford tells me that he has a long Sargasso Sea novella "The Haunted Ocean" that may soon be published!

Also that John Pelan assembling an anthology of Hodgson tribute sea stories SAILING ON STRANGE SEAS.

((Great news, great news, but .... this is 'prentice stuff, Sirs! It is tales of the Land we require: tales of the Night Land . . . .))

A fine poem, by lady Erin Donahoe.

Spring is here! The birds are singing! Pah!

A little tidbit I learned today.

In one of those remarkable literary coincidences, "Chad" Hodgson [WHH's brother] earned the ire of his family by running off with a divorced woman, some years older than he was. They had one child only, a daughter named Una Hope Hodgson, born in 1909 and who died in 1959. She married one Arthur Hillary Blair Machen, the only son of author Arthur Machen, and had one daughter, who was related to the two greatest British horror writers of all time.

from "William Hope Hodgson: NIGHT PIRATE" by R Alain Everts

Nigel Atkinson offers some interesting Comments on "The Lazarus Man". Not quite an article, too long for the guestbook, we must get a forum set up or something.

More from the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble about their new work based on Hodgson's "A Voice in the Night."

"The piece is written for chamber ensemble and narrator. We have the good fortune of having narrator George Guidall (of Recorded Books fame) reading the entire story while the ensemble provides a musical accompaniment. This concert will take place on Saturday, April 13th at FlynnSpace in Burlington Vermont. There will be a pre-concert talk by the composers at 7:15, followed by the concert at 8:00PM."

Be there, or be square.

A new story, Red Giant's Race, by Nigel Atkinson. This is not set in the Night land, but in the doubtful era when the Sun yet shone, just before the Cataclysm.

As promised Chuck Owston sends us a link to his religious play, "The Lazarus Man": in Others' Night Lands. I cannot admit this as canonical, but it is an interesting work: a Christian/Apocalyptic interpretation of the Night Land.

A Bibliography of Hodgson's work, by Sam Gafford, S. T. Joshi, Doug Anderson, and Mike Ashley

Andy Sawyer of the Science Fiction Foundation Collection sends to me for comment an essay of his on Wells and Hodgson. He is eager to protest that the essay needs revising and is indeed in process of revision, but I do not spare him for that.

I receive this interesting note from the musician and pastor Chuck Owston

'Currently I am working on "The Lazarus Man" an allegorical/religious play to be performed at Bryn Mawr Church of Christ, White Oak, PA.USA on Mar. 23-24, 2002. The background is "loosely" based on the scenario of the Night Land. I've been a Hodgson fan since I read "The House On the Borderland" in 1964. I've decribed "the Lazarus Man" as The Road Warrior meets The Book of Revelation.'

Mr Owston is associated with Shogem. Pleasant memories of Cropredy's past and of FAIRPORT CONVENTION disturb my meditations of the end.

"a far vision, strangely hallowed with peacefulness and light".

Let us hope we hear more from him.

Just a note about Hodgson's career at sea with a relevant extract. And a new picture in CG art.

Happy Christmas. We'll get moving again in the new year.

The original for the Sphere books Cover.

Coming soon - I hope - piccies by an old friend & one of my favourite artists: SMS

There will be a hiatus in updates this month, for financial reasons, mostly. Coming soon, I hope, the original of the Sphere Books cover painting, and maybe another by the same artist.

A guestbook, ho hum.

A new picture in CG art. Surely this is the great Central Sun of the universe, witnessed by the narrator of THE HOUSE ON THE BORDERLAND?

Picture courtesy of APOD.

The Fifth Angel. At Don Muchow's Would That It Were retro-SF webzine.

This inaugaurates a new subsection of the site, Others' Night Lands, devoted to indexing off-site Night Land fictions, which I hope will become numerous.

Eater. Part 2.

Can you kill the machines? Can you Eat their souls?

Eater. Part 1.

And a new picture in CG art.

An interesting e-mail reaches me from the director of the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble about their plans to do a concert based on Hodgson's "The Voice In The Night". It's not on this site, but I thought it worth noting.

Coming soon: more stories.

Another essay by Nigel Brown, this one defending Hodgson's style. And yet, Nigel is a sane and pleasant person, I swear it.

Some speculations on The background of the Night land.

Children of the Hive. May surprise.

Second Stephen Fabian Gallery up. Some kissy stuff, moderate babe quotient. I have switched one of the pictures from the first gallery, so check that as well.

Steve Davies put Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani on Gaslight and gave us a massive plug there. Thanks, Steve!

A fine essay by Nigel. And a little something I got from the USGS.

A week without any story submissions :-(

We had quite a few to begin with, but it seems to have tailed off for now. Bah.

HEADS UP!!! ELEVEN CENTS A WORD, GUYS!!! - if we buy it for book publication. Half that for web rights only. Even the web-only rates are better than what most of the top Fantasy/SF mags are giving.

Still, I've got us on every possible market listing I can find. Maybe I'm just impatient.

Rather a nice new Picture of the house of silence in CG art.

"Skull Mountain" accepted and posted. Impressionistic and surreal rather than a representational work. Though I am led to believe this was not done with the Night Land solely in mind, it reminds me of the Fixed Giants within the Shine, and I have appended a suitable quote to it.

Hodgson's story Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani - scanned in. This story shares Hodgson's "Ab-natural" physics of monstrosity with THE NIGHT LAND and THE HOG. More to the point, it's a terrific story, in the public domain, but not available online elsewhere.

Steve Davies of Gaslight says they will host it, so I've changed my link to point to Gaslight's page.

Love in the Night - in some sort of shape. Very much a work in progress. Hmmm.

Extracts from Hodgson's letters - starting with a stunner written from the trenches six weeks before he was killed.

An Exhalation of Butterflies - our first Night Land story - accepted. Exactly the sort of work we want.

HOORAY!!

Some fine scans of the Robert Logrippo cover for the Ballentine edition, provided by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

Six rather nice maps by Dave Hall added to Map gallery.

Sharks of the Ether essay finished. Now for the one on love and sex. Help.

UP AND RUNNING . . . Conditions have been finalised and are being publicised.

Contacted Ralan.com and two or three other places that haven't listed us yet. Dropped a note to Dave Langford at Ansible, just for a laugh.

Revamp of appearance for "leaf" pages. Yadda nadda orange left-hand navigation bar bork bork bork.

Maps Gallery started ..

Gallery 2 started - Mostly book covers ..

Gallery 1 complete - the right to scan and display these pictures has been purchased from Stephen Fabian.

Timeline in reasonable shape - some problems with old browsers, maybe ...

Site started!

This is extra to Domain Science Letters, the MVS freeware pages, and Planet Zog. I don't have time to drop a lot of human wit in here. Will money alone do the trick?

I've always wanted to get something like this underway. I read THE NIGHT LAND when I was sixteen. That is nearly thirty years ago, now. It remains unique.