Reviews - William Hope Hodgson
Jul. 7th, 2010 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wilderthanThe Boats of the Glen Carrig (William Hope Hodgson)
I first saw William Hope Hodgson's work published in the "fantasy masterworks" series, so I was curious to read these forerunners to modern fantasy fiction. It's a bit like fantasy, a bit like speculative fiction, and a bit like horror, all mixed in. Quite interesting to read, and to guess at who it might be an influence for.
I couldn't help thinking of Homer's Odyssey as I was reading this, although the men and women of this story don't have to go quite so far as Odysseus -- except perhaps the ones in the hulk, who have to endure seven years hanging around in the weed continent, fearing the monsters all the time... In any case, this book isn't really about any of the characters -- there are few named characters, and little dialogue, and not many descriptions of people -- but about the semi-supernatural monsters the luckless ship comes across. The writing is slow to read, and quite dense, but the descriptions and the tension of it are good. There's a touch of romance, too, and although Mary Madison isn't exactly a fully realised character, and the narrator isn't wonderfully sympathetic and human himself, that does add a bit of life and cheer to the end of the story.s
The House on the Borderland (William Hope Hodgson)
The House on the Borderland is weird to read. In about the first half of it, things are happening: an attack by supernatural "Swine-things", which the narrator has to repel. However, the frame story is about two men on a holiday discovering the narrative written by this unnamed man, and surprisingly little is made of that. Nothing supernatural happens to them, really, and for all they know, it's simply a fantastical story made up by someone with a weird imagination, or someone who is somehow deluded. That makes their part of the story dead and unexciting, and although they have little to do with it -- their frame story seems only there to give the old man's narrative a kind of vague authenticity, in the same way that Bram Stoker's Dracula is meant to be a collection of authentic letters -- it has a rather anticlimactic effect, especially at the end.
The unnamed narrator of the main part of the story is a relatively uninteresting character himself, and the best moments of the story are when he's fighting the creatures and, close to the end, when he struggles with himself against a compulsion to open the door. There's a wonderfully real feeling of horror when he notices the faint, luminescent scratch, as well. However, at least a third of the story is taken up with weird journeys through the cosmos, to little purpose or revelation. Some of the description is wonderful, but very little happens that's worth feeling anything about.
One thing that did strike a note of pathos was the dog, Pepper, who I was fond of, and who deserved better.
It's a weird story -- again, part fantasy, part horror, part speculative fiction, perhaps even more of a blend of those genres than The Boats of the Glen Carrig. Interesting, and weird, but not exactly emotionally engaging.
The Ghost Pirates (William Hope Hodgson)
Another horror/fantasy blend. There's not much by way of explanation in this one: the first line of the first chapter kind of sums it up: "He began without any circumlocution." Hodgson builds up the setting quite well, the slow beginning of the supernatural events and the spreading fear and paranoia. There's a lot of concrete detail about life on board a ship that serves to make it very much like realism, and then all hell breaks loose. The hows and whys of it aren't explained, only the events. Creepy and urgent at times, and a bit quicker paced than The Boats of the Glen Carrig and The House on the Borderland.
There are more named characters, in this one, though they're not very distinct from one another -- I might remember a few of them, Williams and Tammy for example, but mostly they were just Generic Sailors. There's also dialogue, unlike in the other two books I've read by Hodgson, which does seem to get things going a bit more urgently.
Atmospheric, and well-described in places -- not exactly fast-paced compared to modern novels, though.
I first saw William Hope Hodgson's work published in the "fantasy masterworks" series, so I was curious to read these forerunners to modern fantasy fiction. It's a bit like fantasy, a bit like speculative fiction, and a bit like horror, all mixed in. Quite interesting to read, and to guess at who it might be an influence for.
I couldn't help thinking of Homer's Odyssey as I was reading this, although the men and women of this story don't have to go quite so far as Odysseus -- except perhaps the ones in the hulk, who have to endure seven years hanging around in the weed continent, fearing the monsters all the time... In any case, this book isn't really about any of the characters -- there are few named characters, and little dialogue, and not many descriptions of people -- but about the semi-supernatural monsters the luckless ship comes across. The writing is slow to read, and quite dense, but the descriptions and the tension of it are good. There's a touch of romance, too, and although Mary Madison isn't exactly a fully realised character, and the narrator isn't wonderfully sympathetic and human himself, that does add a bit of life and cheer to the end of the story.s
The House on the Borderland (William Hope Hodgson)
The House on the Borderland is weird to read. In about the first half of it, things are happening: an attack by supernatural "Swine-things", which the narrator has to repel. However, the frame story is about two men on a holiday discovering the narrative written by this unnamed man, and surprisingly little is made of that. Nothing supernatural happens to them, really, and for all they know, it's simply a fantastical story made up by someone with a weird imagination, or someone who is somehow deluded. That makes their part of the story dead and unexciting, and although they have little to do with it -- their frame story seems only there to give the old man's narrative a kind of vague authenticity, in the same way that Bram Stoker's Dracula is meant to be a collection of authentic letters -- it has a rather anticlimactic effect, especially at the end.
The unnamed narrator of the main part of the story is a relatively uninteresting character himself, and the best moments of the story are when he's fighting the creatures and, close to the end, when he struggles with himself against a compulsion to open the door. There's a wonderfully real feeling of horror when he notices the faint, luminescent scratch, as well. However, at least a third of the story is taken up with weird journeys through the cosmos, to little purpose or revelation. Some of the description is wonderful, but very little happens that's worth feeling anything about.
One thing that did strike a note of pathos was the dog, Pepper, who I was fond of, and who deserved better.
It's a weird story -- again, part fantasy, part horror, part speculative fiction, perhaps even more of a blend of those genres than The Boats of the Glen Carrig. Interesting, and weird, but not exactly emotionally engaging.
The Ghost Pirates (William Hope Hodgson)
Another horror/fantasy blend. There's not much by way of explanation in this one: the first line of the first chapter kind of sums it up: "He began without any circumlocution." Hodgson builds up the setting quite well, the slow beginning of the supernatural events and the spreading fear and paranoia. There's a lot of concrete detail about life on board a ship that serves to make it very much like realism, and then all hell breaks loose. The hows and whys of it aren't explained, only the events. Creepy and urgent at times, and a bit quicker paced than The Boats of the Glen Carrig and The House on the Borderland.
There are more named characters, in this one, though they're not very distinct from one another -- I might remember a few of them, Williams and Tammy for example, but mostly they were just Generic Sailors. There's also dialogue, unlike in the other two books I've read by Hodgson, which does seem to get things going a bit more urgently.
Atmospheric, and well-described in places -- not exactly fast-paced compared to modern novels, though.
