Chris reviewed The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
None
3 stars
I'd heard better things about this book than I actually found. I discovered WHH years ago at school reading the tales of Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder and was astonished it was published as long ago as 1918. Then I happened across The Night Land with its ponderous depiction of a world that must have been very cold indeed (are we told this?). And WHH's tales of maritime terror including The Voice in the Night which must have influenced Stephen King in a good way.
And so we come to The House on the Borderland. Two chaps head for the West of Ireland to do a spot of camping and other outdoorsy stuff among the people whose language they don't even speak. Now you might expect the locals to wind them up (locals wind up outdoorsy outsiders is something I've done a few times in my own fiction, and WHH was really …
I'd heard better things about this book than I actually found. I discovered WHH years ago at school reading the tales of Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder and was astonished it was published as long ago as 1918. Then I happened across The Night Land with its ponderous depiction of a world that must have been very cold indeed (are we told this?). And WHH's tales of maritime terror including The Voice in the Night which must have influenced Stephen King in a good way.
And so we come to The House on the Borderland. Two chaps head for the West of Ireland to do a spot of camping and other outdoorsy stuff among the people whose language they don't even speak. Now you might expect the locals to wind them up (locals wind up outdoorsy outsiders is something I've done a few times in my own fiction, and WHH was really outdoorsy) but what really happens is they go a-wandering along the unbeaten track and find the ruins of an old house and conveniently a handwritten book.
Which contains the diary of the house's past inhabitant. And a tale ensues of hostile pig-men and an apparent trip into the far future, like a cross between The Time Machine and Ambrose Bierce's An Inhabitant of Carcosa. We see the Green Star (possibly the home of the pigmen) draw Earth into the Sun (I think that's what happens).
Pigs. That's what you get in one of the most effective stories in "Carnacki," and here. I think WHH like the proud sailor he was, didn't like our porcine friends. I'm also reminded of "The Island of Dr Moreau."
And a darkened planet where all is cold and the sun has stopped shining and there are huge creatures that resemble the Gods of Old Earth. That's "The Night Land"!
So it's fairly derivative of WHH's own stuff, but that may not matter. The trouble ensues when the real threat of the pig-men is thrown over for the almost certainly hallucinated trip into the far future. Ambrose Bierce ("and I knew these were the remains of proud Carcosa" or whatever it is) did this better. Yes, the character has probably gone mad due to the attack and the death of his beloved dog, but it's now all descriptive wow and trying for sensawunda.
It's ok but it isn't that great.
