This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA.
The Sun has gone out: the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a Circle of energy, known as the "air clog," powered from the Earth's internal energy. For millennia, vast living shapes - the Watchers - have waited in the darkness near the pyramid: it is thought… (more)
Language: English
Published in: 1912
Word count: 197,404 words (≈ about 13 hours)
Source: http://gutenberg.net
Copyright: This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA.
Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction (or, in some cases, the more general category speculative fiction) that is concerned with the...
Classic Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Speculative Literature.
Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:34:42 +0200
This book can be difficult to read because of the continual repetition! However there are shades of brilliance in there. The trick I found was to try and equate what the author has written with modern day technology! Hodgson makes mention of "The thing that nods " I translate the image of an oil well-head and it's accompanying pumping machinery. Similarly could "The Watchers "
be abandoned radar stations?
By following this method I completed the book and have re-read it several times! It is a… (more)
This book can be difficult to read because of the continual repetition! However there are shades of brilliance in there. The trick I found was to try and equate what the author has written with modern day technology! Hodgson makes mention of "The thing that nods " I translate the image of an oil well-head and it's accompanying pumping machinery. Similarly could "The Watchers "
(less)be abandoned radar stations?
By following this method I completed the book and have re-read it several times! It is a dark and profoundly disturbing book which, although flawed, conveys pwerful imagery of a desolate
post-apocolyptic world!
Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:51:22 +0100
I made it 43% of the way through this public-domain book on my Kindle. I'd previously read and enjoyed the imperfect but engaging Carnacki: The Ghost-Finder and The House on the Borderland. But this is just silly. The frame narrative is cool...17th-century man loses his love then finds his memories in the mind of a man in the distant future on an earth whose sun has darkened and whose lands are filled with monstrous creatures and hideous supersized towers trying to destroy the last remnants of… (more)
I made it 43% of the way through this public-domain book on my Kindle. I'd previously read and enjoyed the imperfect but engaging Carnacki: The Ghost-Finder and The House on the Borderland. But this is just silly. The frame narrative is cool...17th-century man loses his love then finds his memories in the mind of a man in the distant future on an earth whose sun has darkened and whose lands are filled with monstrous creatures and hideous supersized towers trying to destroy the last remnants of humanity. Then the hero goes off on a quest through the Night Land, I kid you not, it is 100s of pages of: Walked, Slept, Ate tablets, Drank Water, Saw something, Hid, Fought, Hid again, Slept, I was really tired, Ate ...
It is perhaps one of the most tedious examples of fiction about travel that I have ever seen. I kept reading for page after page after dozens of pages once the hero left the last bastion of humanity, the Great Redoubt, because the tedium of the plot was strangely curious. How could a man write it and expect it to engage readers?
Oh well. I lose.
(less)