Stoddard applies those bandages by ‘modernizing’ the language and trimming it down to a comfortable 200-some pages. However, the original Night Land is finished, and while it truly is a masterpiece in concept, William’s sometimes-awkward voice needs some mending (no offense to this genius of the genre). This is done in a somewhat similar way to when Robert Bloch completed Poe’s last unfinished work “The Lighthouse”. The Night Land: A Story Retold, attempts to fix those errors, and does so without damaging the voice and imagination of the original author. Not even The Dream of X, the American counterpart with a substantial amount of the useless prose cut out in order to make the copyright, still held some of the tragic flaws. However, it’s redundancy and archaic phrasing make it a tedious adventure, one that requires grit to endure (at 600+ pages no less). The original Night Land by William Hope Hodgson is one of the best kept secrets of the weird/fantasy genre. The monsters surround the pyramid in a perpetual siege lasting for eons, waiting for the moment when its defenses will fail.But one man, born out of his time, must leave the pyramid to seek his long-lost love though all the perils of the Night Land. Over the ages, monsters and evil forces have descended to the earth, compelling the surviving humans to take refuge in a great pyramid of imperishable metal built in a miles-deep chasm. The story opens in the 19th century, but quickly moves to the far future, where the sun has gone out, leaving the world in a darkness broken only by strange lights and mysterious fires.

As a labor of love, James Stoddard has rewritten Hodgson's book to bring it to a wider audience.

Penned in 1912, The Night Land is considered by many to be a work of genius, but one written in a difficult, archaic style that readers often find impenetrable. An adventure of both science fiction and fantasy-one of the great love stories-this is William Hope Hodgson's masterpiece, rewritten for the modern reader.

The Night Land by James Stoddard