A Night In The Lonesome October
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15
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Average rating4
Zelazny manages to cleverly combine Jack (the Ripper), Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Frankenstein, and Dracula together with witches, werewolves, druids and many others in this amusing tale of an approaching confrontation that, on the Halloween of a full-moon, will change the cosmic balance of power between good and evil. Told through the eyes of Snuff, Jack's guard dog, who performs magical calculations in addition to accompanying his master on collecting expeditions into 19th century London. Twists and turns of magical espionage and adventure unfold as this unforgettable tale plays out over the course of 31 lonesome nights in October
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This book is an old friend. I read it again every October, though I never manage to restrain myself to the day-a-chapter pace I envision. It's always fun to check in with Jack and Snuff and the rest of the horror story gang, not to mention The Great Detective. Zelazny artfully pulls together a plethora of well-known characters, all against a Lovecraftian backdrop, while evoking a fun Halloween spirit.
I confess that, just as I do when reading Lovecraft himself, I skim the more Dreamquest-y passages. Still, it's a fun romp, and of course where else would a supernatural cat's home base be, than the lands that house Ulthar?
Update 2016-11-02 - Finished two nights ago, right on schedule, and it was as fun as it always is!
Update 2017-10-25 - I cheated and listened to the rest of the book last night. It was a lot of fun hearing Zelazny read his own work. Too bad it's only available on CD right now. Audible, get on that!
Zelazny was a writer of talent and promise who often seemed to underachieve: even when I like one of his books, I feel that he had it in him to do better. In this particular case, I'm not sure: he may have achieved with this book just what he wanted to achieve, but I'm not the sort of reader he was aiming at, so I don't fully appreciate the result.
It could perhaps be described as dark fantasy, but there are touches of humour in the way it's told, and some of the characters seem more friendly to each other than one might expect in such a tale. It's fluently told and readable, but I really don't know what he was trying to achieve with it, and in the end I'm mystified.
