Loyally accompanying a mysterious knife-wielding gentleman named Jack on his midnight rounds through the murky streets of London, good dog Snuff is busy helping his master collect the grisly ingredients needed for an unearthly rite that will take place not long after the death of the moon. But Snuff and his master are not alone. All manner of participants, both human and not, are gathering with their ancient tools and their animal familiars in preparation for the dread night. It is brave, devoted Snuff who must calculate the patterns of the Game and keep track of the Players—the witch, the mad monk, the vengeful vicar, the Count who sleeps by day, the Good Doctor and the hulking Experiment Man he fashioned from human body parts, and a wild-card American named Larry Talbot—all the while keeping Things at bay and staying a leap ahead of the Great Detective, who knows quite a bit more than he lets on.
Boldly original and wildly entertaining, A Night in the Lonesome October is a darkly sparkling gem, an amalgam of horror, humor, mystery, and fantasy. First published in 1993, it was Zelazny’s last book prior to his untimely death. Many consider it the best of the fantasy master’s novels. It has inspired many fans to read it every year in October, a chapter a day, and served as inspiration for Neil Gaiman’s brilliant story “Only the End of the World Again.”
Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) is best known as the author of the critically acclaimed Chronicles of Amber series. He wrote more than 40 novels and won the Nebula award three times and the Hugo award six times. Gahan Wilson is an award-winning author and cartoonist whose artwork has appeared in numerous publications, including National Lampoon, the New Yorker, and Playboy.
October’s here, which means it’s time for us to read the books that leave shivers running down our spines and keep us reminding ourselves over and over that we did, in fact, lock the doors and no, there definitely isn’t anyone else in the house with us. If you were wondering what horror books our […]
Experimenting with the “voice” telling a story is a fundamental tool of the fiction-writing trade. Narrators come in a wide variety of styles, from first-person intimate, to unreliably distanced, to godlike in knowledge and perception. The way a story is told is just as important—sometimes more so—than the story itself. Still, most narrators are more or less conventional. They […]
Today is Bram Stoker’s 170th birthday, so it seems as perfect a time as ever revisit some of our oldest monster friends. These hulking stars of these classics of science fiction and fantasy literature cast long, looming shadows over the entire genre, and have remained icons for a reason. Books like Dracula and Frankenstein still […]
We decided to do something a bit different this month—instead of just one Mind Meld at the end of the month, we’re doing four, covering four times as many of our favorite scary reads. We’ve asked our bookish friends near and far about their current favorite horror favorites, and are breaking them out by the […]
