satanicguava reviewed The Night Land, A Story Retold by James Stoddard
hard to rate
3 stars
this is a rewriting of a book from 1912 in a more modern language and format. i've never read the original, but this was very well written. the character voice came through strongly. the world was fascinating, strange and unholy and melancholy. the plot was bare bones, a man goes to rescue a woman and bring her back home with him, more of a travelogue through a bizarre hell than anything else. it reminded me of a hieronymus bosch painting. the main issue i had was the characters and their relationship. the core of the book is a romance, a time-spanning universe-breaking one, and yet i was really never clear on whether the characters actually liked each other. they said they did. they proclaimed their undying love every 500 words or so. but there was no intimacy or closeness that felt genuine and not like a projection of some other …
this is a rewriting of a book from 1912 in a more modern language and format. i've never read the original, but this was very well written. the character voice came through strongly. the world was fascinating, strange and unholy and melancholy. the plot was bare bones, a man goes to rescue a woman and bring her back home with him, more of a travelogue through a bizarre hell than anything else. it reminded me of a hieronymus bosch painting. the main issue i had was the characters and their relationship. the core of the book is a romance, a time-spanning universe-breaking one, and yet i was really never clear on whether the characters actually liked each other. they said they did. they proclaimed their undying love every 500 words or so. but there was no intimacy or closeness that felt genuine and not like a projection of some other ideal. i mostly read this because i want to read several other things set in the same universe, and i'm glad i read it. i wouldn't read it again, but i did enjoy it, and i look forward to exploring more of this world in other stories.
