A Night in the Lonesome October, by Roger Zelazny & Gahan Wilson. Avon Books, 1993

Roger Zelazny- a favorite author of mine for his ‘Amber’ series and ‘Lord of Light’- has written a marvelous romp of a horror story. The large cast of characters includes figures from horror stories, Victorian mysteries, and vintage monster movies. You figure out who these folks are as you go along; a couple I never figured out. Apparently there is a large site on the web where people have discussed all this!



Written from the POV of Snuff the dog, who is really the familiar of Jack; the tale has 31 chapters, one for each day of October. The characters have a countdown; on the 31 is a full moon, and a great magical working will take place. Some characters are Openers, who seek to open a portal for the Elder Gods to enter the world. Some, like Jack, are Closers, who seek to keep them out. Each has an animal familiar- Graymalk the cat, Bubo the rat, and so on.



Snuff is not just a guard dog; he’s a worker of magical mathematics. He seeks to find out where exactly the battle must take place; to figure it, he must know how many individuals will be there and whether they are Openers or Closers. He talks with the other familiars to see what they have seen and heard. And he tries to figure out who is murdering some of the contenders… killings that have not taken place before on any of the previous events.



Until the very end, the story takes its time, then it happens in a rush. In the beginning, there was a point where I was thinking “Where is this all going?!?” and then it started to make sense. It’s witty along with creepy and I really enjoyed it. The illustrations by Gahan Wilson (a rather morbid cartoonist) are nice, and I really love the cover illustration (not by Wilson) that shows most of the main characters. I heartily recommend this for reading in October to get in the Halloween mood!

The Monstrumologist, by Rick Yancey. Simon & Schuster 2009

Set in 1888 New England, orphaned Will Henry lives with his late father’s employer, Dr. Pellinore Warthrop, and acts as his assistant. Warthrop is the Monstrumologist of the title, a scientist who studies monsters. The story opens with the night time delivery of a body stolen from the cemetery. That in itself is not startling to Will Henry, but this time, it’s different. There are two bodies; the young woman the grave robber was after, and a monster with no head and a shark-like mouth in his chest. This is the anthropophagi, a species found in Africa and no where else. What is it doing in a New England cemetery?

The story unfolds with constant action in dark, fetid places: the doctor’s basement autopsy lab, open graves, tunnels underground. There is constant peril- the anthropophagi are stronger and faster than humans, and are eternally hungry. Needless to say, they are strictly carnivorous, preferring human meat to all else. Warthrop, Will Henry and the slimy, showy John Kearn, another monstrumologist, strive to find out how these beasts came to be in America and where their nest is before they can devastate the people in the area. This was one of those couldn’t put it down books for me. Not only is the mystery intriguing and the danger unrelenting, but the characters are compelling and interesting. After I finished the book, I was VERY happy to discover that it’s the first of a series- without the clumsiness that first books often have. This novel would make a great movie; Warthrop, of course, should be played by Christopher Lee. When I’d read John Kearn’s dialogue, I was hearing it in Kelsey Grammer’s voice.

One note: this book is marked Young Adult, and, indeed, I would have loved it as a tween. But there is a LOT of blood and graphic violence; some parents might think  twice about letting their kids read this if they are sensitive about these things. 

 

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