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Darker Than You Think  By  cover art

Darker Than You Think

By: Jack Williamson
Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
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Publisher's summary

Who is the Child of Night? That’s what small-town reporter Will Barbee must find out. Inexorably drawn into investigating a rash of grisly deaths, he soon finds himself embroiled in something far beyond mortal understanding.

Doggedly pursuing his investigations, he meets the mysterious and seductive April Bell and starts having disturbing, tantalizing dreams in which he does terrible things - things that are stranger and wilder than his worst nightmares. Then his friends begin dying one by one, and he slowly realizes that an unspeakable evil has been unleashed.

As Barbee’s world crumbles around him in a dizzying blizzard of madness, the intoxicating, dangerous April pushes Barbee ever closer to the answer to the question “Who is the Child of Night?”

When Barbee finds out, he’ll wish he’d never been born.

Jack Williamson (1908-2006) published his first short story in 1928. The second person named Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America, he was always in the forefront of the field, being the first to write fiction about genetic engineering (he invented the term), antimatter, and other cutting-edge science.

©1940 Street & Smith Publications, Inc.; 1948 by Jack Williamson (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

Darker Than You Think yields sheer enjoyment, generating wonder and suspense as Williamson springs his sequence of trap doors with the effortless agility of a master.” (Peter Straub, New York Times best-selling author)
“Outstanding fantasy [with] excellent plot design, fast-moving action, and suspense which explodes into high-tension horror.” ( Astounding Science-Fiction)
“Williamson’s story asks, not merely ‘How do you plan to fight a monster?’ but ‘Do you want to be a monster?’ - a much more disturbing question.” (William H. Stoddard, author of Gurps Fantasy)

What listeners say about Darker Than You Think

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

If I have to hear one more description about April’s eyes...

I wanted to like this book. It’s free. I just can’t get past the sloppy writing. I get that the mysterious character of April is attractive and all, but the author writes about her “long eyes” and “slightly oriental eyes” and “long green eyes” and “large eyes” after every freaking sliver of dialogue. Every time Barber talks to her he’s captivated by her perfection to the point of obsession and idiocy. Home girl stabbed a kitten and because she’s preternaturally gorgeous he suddenly forgives her for being shady af. This just after writing about barbees cleverness and his hunches and his imperviousness to the charms of women. I can’t do it. Poor author needs to take a class.
Please write something about a beautiful woman that isn’t about her looks and constant expressions and her appeal to men. Write about her preternatural stillness, intense stare, predatory presence, silent breathing, anything other than her “long green eyes.” It’s every other sentence.
It reminds me of an occult fiction I tried to read as a teen. Some vampire novel that constantly mentioned the “nape” of the leading lady. Got tired of reading minutia about the state of her “nape.”
Also, it doesn’t really mention much about Barbee, except he drinks too much and he wishes he were in better shape.
I’ll change my review if it gets better soon but I can’t handle 10 hours of April’s attractiveness and her eyes and facial expressions and goofy mannerisms.

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24 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly sophisticated

I was surprised when I heard at the end of this novel that it received its original serialization in *1940* (and it's original book publication in 1948).

All things considered, the venerable Williamson did a remarkable job of hand-waving his way through some of the concepts of theoretical physics at mid-century, coming up with a basically plausible explanation for witches and lycanthropes. I was impressed by the plotting, to be sure.

The downside, alas, is that Williamson demonstrated his limited ability to use the English language in a sophisticated way. Although he apparently never worked as a journalist, "Darker Than You Think" feels very much as if it were written by a journalist from the 1940s. Rather than search for revealing, rich ways to express himself, Williamson defaulted time and again to the same, tired old descriptions.

I will point out in particular that I had to stop *reading* the book, and eventually opted to listen to it, because of his egregious, repetitive use of eye descriptions as some kind of stand-in for character. On the printed page, I couldn't tolerate his tiresome description of April Bell's "long" and "green" (or dark) eyes, and the man simply was in love with the word "long" as a slightly off-kilter description of many things in the narrative.

In other words, Williamson was a pulp writer, at least at that point.

But you know, it was a fascinating book, and as far as it goes, well plotted. Implausible, sure, but that's no surprise. I genuinely admire his effort to wrap supernatural concepts in a blanket of theoretical physics.

I confess that I found myself speculating about the identity of the big bogeyman at the center of the plot, and while Williamson did a nice job of turning my eye this way or that, I had a strong hunch who it was by midway through the novel, perhaps even a bit earlier.

I applaud his willingness not to wrap the whole thing up neatly at the end. You'll see.

The narrator was great, a perfect moderated "1940s radio" kind of voice that well suited the story.

I love lycanthrope/werewolf stories, and unlike the vampire and zombie subgenres, there are surprisingly few truly "classic" shape-shifter works out there (I would argue that Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" was among the first and best). So I think Williamson did a nice job here, and given that he wrote it in 1940 (!!), it's impressive and worthy of the library of any lycanthrope fan.

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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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Science wept

I guess that for 1940 the dreadful misrepresentations of archaeology, evolutionary theory, genetics and inheritance are forgivable, but the heavy flavour of racist eugenics and the representation of mental illness as monstrosity are really hard to stomach.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Way Ahead of Its Time

An intriguing premise and good narration is only held back by two annoyances. The main character continually waffles between allegiances. “I shouldn’t do this or that to X person.” The ending is also quite abrupt, which undercuts the fun slow burn leading to the climax. Nevertheless, I appreciate a great story from 1940 that was way ahead of its time.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Better than you think

this book was much better than I thought. I had heard it was well-written, but it is very well written indeed. The story is excellent and the premise is smart. It's a great choice.

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4 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
  • CJ
  • 12-01-20

One-Dimensional Characters

I found the characters a bit one-dimensional. Barbie, the main character, immediately meets a pretty reporter and instantly falls for her and betrays long-term friends without a thought. He does switch allegiances back and forth but lacks depth. The plot, while taking a new turn on the werewolf theme, is somewhat expected. The story attempts to take a new view of an old horror plot, but falls a little short with stilted dialog and shallow characters.

However, the performance by Jim Mesklemen was very good. I thought the author did create a new variation on the werewolf theme and some of the plot elements were intriguing. The story felt like a first draft that could get better with some massaging of plot and characters.

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Hmm

I choose this book because of the description and reviews. I didn't like this book that much but I finished it just to see what the main character would do. The main character was simple and easily persuadable from the first sentence and didn't change thoughout the entire book.. I didn't enjoy this book, the narrator was better than the story, however, you may like the story.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Lycanthropic science / fantasy mystery

Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson is a late 1940's supernatural fantasy that comprises a battle between lycanthropic humans and normal humans. A newspaper reporter covering the story of an archeological discovery begins with dreams where he assumes an animal form and kills members of the archeological team who claim to have recovered artifacts critical for battling the lycans. While initially believing himself going insane, he gradually unravels the mystery of an even darker tale than he could have imagined,

While ostensibly a fantasy, Williamson utilizes some pretty sophisticated science (at least for mid 20th century) to weave a fantasy tale, but relying on modern principles of physics, genetics, psychiatry, and evolution to craft a credible tale of a parallel race of lycanthropic humans. He uses archeology as the basis for dissecting this mystery with genetic remnants sprinkled among regular humans to different degrees (akin to recognized Neanderthal DNA today). Although a simple, but rather dark fantasy, the tale is remarkable for attention to actual scientific principles in crafting the plot.

The narration is well done with good character distinction and quick pacing.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Couldn’t even finish it

One of the worst narrators I’ve ever listened to
Only could make it through a few chapters

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Williamson at his best

Excellent story, different spin. I'd never heard of this book, but I enjoyed it enough for a one nite listen. R.I.P. Jack Williamson, Ive enjoyed every book of yours that I've ever read. A truly unique American author and thinker.

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