Other editions of book The Night Land

William Hope Hodgson's classic and genre-combining work of horror and science fiction. Set mainly in the far future after the sun has gone out, The Night Land explores a futuristic nightmare world in which the last humans have taken refuge inside an enormous metal pyramid, threatened by unknown monstrous creatures outside. H.P. Lovecraft called The Night Land "one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written". Hodgson introduces many concepts in what became the genre of dying Earth fiction. It's a tale of reincarnation, telepathy, alien monsters, and love. Written in faux-17th century prose as a framing device, The Night Land has been compared to Milton's Paradise Lost.

After a 17th century gentleman loses his beloved wife, he is given a vision of a far-distant future where their souls will be reunited. What he witnesses will forever change his understanding of the universe. He finds himself in a time where the Sun has gone out and the Earth is illuminated by a few stray volcanoes. Humanity has been reduced to scant millions, and those people who survive have hidden themselves away in a gigantic metal pyramid. Known as the Last Redoubt, this stronghold is under siege from unknown forces and Powers from beyond the dark. Some of those powers, creatures known as The Watchers, wait for the moment when the pyramid’s loses its last sparks of power. They are eager for the inevitable moment when humanity's defenses fail and they can finally descend. Against this backdrop, the gentleman sets out from the Last Redoubt in search of his lost love. He wants to find the girl who is the reincarnation of his past love, and he will succeed, no matter the cost.

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 they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle's power finally weakens and dies. Other living things have been seen in the darkness beyond, some of unknown origins, and others that may once have been human.To leave the protection of the Circle means almost certain death, or worse, but as the story commences, the narrator establishes mind contact with an inhabitant of another, forgotten, Redoubt, and sets off into the darkness to find her.