Sunday, October 18, 2009

Darker Than You Think

Last night I finished reading the book Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson. The book was first published in 1948 and tells the story of small-town newspaper reporter Will Barbee who is reporting on the return of an archeological expedition to the Gobi Desert, when he meets the enigmatic April Bell. When the team, who consist of Barbee's oldest university friends, arrive they seem strange, terrified of something that they discovered in the desert and preoccupied with the safety of an old box they discovered and a mysterious and deadly enemy they call "The Child of Night". Shortly afterwards, Barbee finds himself tormented by strange dreams in which he commits horrific murders in the guise of a large wolf. It's a pretty good book and full of twists and surprises, although a lot of the dialogue is quite clunky at times. The style of writing owes a lot more to the pulp detective thrillers of the 30s and 40s than it does to more traditional horror writing. Also it comes up with science-fiction explanations for the apparently supernatural occurances. It's worth reading because it is pretty entertaining.

This morning I went along to the Gyle Shopping Centre with my Dad. First off we had a scone and some coffee, then we went and did some shopping seperately. I got a couple of books: The American West by Dee Brown and Best New Horror Volume 20 edited by Stephen Jones.

I went back to my parent's house for lunch (which was tacoes this week). The latest issue of Fortean Times magazine had arrived with an article about the occult history of London, which was quite interesting.

Labels: , , , , , ,