The Night Land: A Story Retold

By: James Stoddard, William Hope Hodgson

Narrated by: Jason Mills

Length: 10 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

An adventure of both science-fiction and fantasy - one of the great love stories - this is William Hope Hodgson's masterpiece, rewritten for the modern listener.

Penned in 1912, The Night Land is considered by many to be a work of genius, but one written in a difficult, archaic style that listeners often find impenetrable. As a labor of love, James Stoddard has rewritten Hodgson's book to bring it to a wider audience.

The story opens in the 19th century but quickly moves to the far future, where the sun has gone out, leaving the world in a darkness broken only by strange lights and mysterious fires. Over the ages, monsters and evil forces have descended to the Earth, compelling the surviving humans to take refuge in a great pyramid of imperishable metal built in a miles-deep chasm. The monsters surround the pyramid in a perpetual siege lasting for eons, waiting for the moment when its defenses will fail.

But one man, born out of his time, must leave the pyramid to seek his long-lost love though all the perils of the Night Land.

©2005 James Stoddard (P)2012 James Stoddard

Awesome story

A glimpse into the dawn of sci fi . I could not get through the original I’m glad this is out there.

A must read for fans of the genra

romancing the abyss

Ultimately a romance story, with handfuls of passages that wouldn’t feel out of place in a 70’s Better Homes and Gardens series, drawn across one of the bleakest and terrifying landscapes imaginable. You can really feel how novel thes ideas in this book are. Fearlessly weird and dreamy and scorched. I loved every minute of it. I’ll probably crack the original if I read it again, in its original tongue. I wouldn’t guess it suffers much loss in translation, though. Well worth it.

An amazing journey

A tremendously faithful retelling of a classic tale of endless horror and eternal love and triumph. All the same wonder and splendor of the original, but with modernized and cleaned up grammar, actual dialogue, and much stronger characterization.

Absolutely recommend.

Wonderful sci fi/fantasy - recommended

This version of the book will go down as one of my all-time favorites. Remarkable imagination that makes me think it is a precursor of the accounts of Mordor by Tolkien, although actually more horrifying. And I thought I was not into love stories, but how wrong I was! The authors carry it off and I found myself incredibly moved and believing the story of ideal love by the last half of the book. The philosophy of nobility paired with a tenacity and unconquerable human spirit that can only succeed because love drives it relentlessly is inspiring, and if we can accept creatures of nihilistic dark intent operating in the world, surely we can also see legitimacy in glimpses of a force of good as well. I will have to dig up the (allegedly nearly unreadable) original to see what I think of the comparison, but I will always recommend this version as a work of art in and of itself. The idea of the rewrite will no doubt (understandably) offend purists but with a result like this the revision itself seems to me a true classic. There are plenty of classics not nearly as precious and enduring to heart and soul as this version of this work could be, IMO.

Hands down better than the Original.

No info lost but so much less frustrating, stuffy, and sexist than the original text.

A great retelling of the best story I have heard

Brilliant idea to bring the book out of the dark.
The narration was hard to follow at times but was done with love. The story of love and loss so real the fantastic events only serve as contrast to something all of us know is real. I will forever be charged by the telling of this story and am grateful for it.

Disappointing

A unique premise and active story line spoiled by a totally unsuitable presenter who seemed in a great hurry to get to the end and who was unable to proide the necessary emotion in his dialogue.

A decent retelling.

It does a good job of cleaning the book up and developing the characters however I feel like it losses somthing the the description of the world. I really do not like the narrator, he reminds me of a Southpark Canadian.

A truly infuriating performance… Can’t get past it.

How did this happen? I mean, the book is interesting and all but I won’t finish it because for the first time I detest this reader’s performance so much that I can’t get past it. Number one rule of any audiobook reader is to be understood, enunciate, use diction and inflection, DON’T drop off sentences or speak so fast that you’re unintelligible. It’s not even that I mind the thick accent; what I mind is the utter lack of dramatic emphasis - it’s as if he had no director and no experience as an actor or reader of any kind. They just picked a dentist off the street and said, “Here. Read this.” It doesn’t help that it all sounds muffled, like it was recorded on a tape recorder lost under blankets in the 90s. The dreadfully negligent production made this a total waste of a credit. Bummer because the story was fascinating! Please get a new reader pronto, because in its current state, this audiobook can’t be endured.

I enjoyed both the story and the telling!

It seems like the narrator is getting a lot of hate here in the reviews and I’m actually quite surprised! I could listen to this man speak all day, haha! The story itself is a bit long and ends with a whimper but I thoroughly enjoyed the story, more than I expected, even the sappy love angle. Anyway, I just wanted to write something in support of this narrator and his brogue which I think brought it’s “old timey” feel together nicely.