The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
At an ancient and crumbling estate, overrun by wild gardens, resides a man who has a most unusual story to tell--a story that blends horror, fantasy, and science fiction. He recounts his descent into the Pit, his desperate battle against sub-human creatures and his voyage across the dimensions of time.
As a beautifully written work of pure imagination, it has few equals, and has been compared to the writings of Poe, Machen, Blackwood and Lovecraft.
Though some might compare Hodgson’s writing to the other horror writers of his time, and the reason I decided to read the book, I’m not sure how true that comparison is. Though Hodgson does use some of the tropes used by Lovecraft in this novel, he doesn’t seem to know what to do with them.
The book starts well enough. Two men on a camping trip stumble across a decaying castle and a manuscript written by the estate’s previous owner. The man’s battle with the creatures unleashed from the Pit is suspenseful, though some of his actions border on the absurd.
It’s the second half of the book that I found somewhat boring. The voyage through time is a situation where much is going on while nothing is going on. The man describes his voyage, but he’s little more than a passive passenger. It seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the book, a side trip to pass the time. No pun intended.
The campers finish reading the manuscript and then leave the area, never to return. What becomes of the sub-human creatures remains a mystery.
Mount TBR 2023 Book Links
Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.
1. Alexander's Tomb: The Two-Thousand Year Obsession to Find the Lost Conquerer by Nicholas J. Saunders
2. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
3. Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1) by Chuck Wendig
4. Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
5. After Appomattox: Military Occupation and the Ends of War by Gregory P. Downs
6. The Wolf's Hour (Michael Gallatin #1) by Robert R. McCammon
7. Bag of Bones by Stephen King
8. Substitute by Susi Holliday
9. Fairy Tale by Stephen King
10. Huxley: From Devil's Disciple To Evolution's High Priest
11. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
12. The History of Bees (Climate Quartet #1) by Maja Lunde, Diane Oatley (Translator)
13. The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley
14. The Hunter from the Woods (Michael Gallatin #2) by Robert McCammon
15. The Far Arena by Richard Ben Sapir
16. The Humans by Matt Haig
17. Craven Manor by Darcy Coates
18. The Alpha Female Wolf: The Fierce Legacy of Yellowstone's 06 by Rick McIntyre
19. The Last Town (Wayward Pines #3) by Blake Crouch
20. Faerie Tale by Raymond E. Feist
21. The Magpie Lord (Charm of Magpies 1) by K.J. Charles
22. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed: Revised and Updated by Eric H. Cline
23. Wanderers (Wanderers #1) by Chuck Wendig
24. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
25. A Dog's History of the World: Canines and the Domestication of Humans by Laura Hobgood-Oster
26. Bethany's Sin by Robert McCammon
27. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
28. The Tea Party by Charles L. Grant
29. Seeker (Alex Benedict #3) by Jack McDevitt
30. Jizzle by John Wyndham
31. The Taking by Dean Koontz
32. Frozen in Time: An Epic Story of Survival and a Modern Quest for Lost Heroes of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff
33. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
34. Hamnet: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O'Farrell
35. Only the Beautiful by Susan Meissner
36. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson
Set in the past
1. The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson