Another Night of Fate

So. A Night in the Lonesome October. I really, really love this book. And I think that it’s a book where you get the most from it if your first read comes mostly blind. So once again (assuming you came through from my other post) I’d ask you to trust me and just try it out yourself. It is one of my favorite books and comes with my utmost recommendation, for what that’s worth. And if you did not come from my other post, by way of explanation — there’s a tradition among some readers of this book to read one chapter a day, one for each night of October as the book is structured. I encourage you, if you’re interested in the book, to join me in doing so this October.

Now then, if you’re still here, I’m going to assume my word isn’t enough (or you’ve already read it). So in that case, I’ll give you a bit of a blurb to try and give you a bit more context and perhaps pique your interest a little more. So that’s forthcoming, if you don’t want any information going in, then leave now.

Every so often, a full moon falls on Halloween and the conditions are right. When this happens, the Players make there divinations and find the proper location to gather for the Game. But most of that is over Snuff’s head. That’s his master’s work. Snuff is just a watchdog. He watches the Thing in the Wardrobe and the Thing in the Circle. He watches the Things that Slither and the Thing in the Steamer Chest. And he watches for any other animals like him, that might be a Player’s companion. It’s usually easy enough to figure out — they tend to be a bit smarter than other animals for one — but it’s always helpful to know if you’re talking to someone in the know. They might have useful information and you never want to let anything secret slip, though Snuff’s usually careful about that. It’s important, of course, because even if they are with another Player, you never know if they’re an Opener or a Closer. At least not this early in October. But that hardly ever concerns Snuff or his master. They’re old hands at this point and they’ve been alone before. All Snuff can do is watch his master’s back. London’s busier than some of the other sites of the Game and while his master’s curse keeps him safe from a lot, it can’t help him see through the mist. After every night out, dodging police among other things, Snuff can’t help but let out the dog equivalent of a sigh. It’s going to be a long month.

Alright. With all of that being said, if you’re still here I’ll assume that either you’ve read the book or nothing I can say can convince you to go in blind. So without further ado, we’ll start on what this book is actually about and why I love it so much. I’ll be coming out swinging with spoilers, so make sure you’re ready for that.

A Night in the Lonesome October is about a ritual that takes place every so often, where one side attempts to open a door in the fabric of reality to let the Outer-gods [Footnote 1] into the world and another side attempts to keep that door closed. Each Player, whether Opener or Closer, has an animal familiar with them that helps them keep track of things as they make preparations over them month of October. And there are a lot of preparations to be made. It’s impossible to tell who’s an Opener or Closer until after the new moon, so the first half of the month consists largely of Players trying to decide who’s actually a Player and who’s on their side. This is also important because the actual site of the Halloween ritual depends on where each Player takes residence for the course of the month, so you need to determine who actually is a Player otherwise you might end up missing the main event. And that’s without mentioning the mechanical preparations you might want to take. Rituals to gain power, wards to protect yourself from interference, putting together a proper sacrifice for the banefire on Halloween. Or investigation to figure out who has one of the objects of power. There are five particularly attuned items — the dagger Snuff’s master carries is powerful, but it’s not one of those artifacts — of which three are neutrally aligned and the remaining two are associated specifically with opening or closing. They don’t necessarily mean one side will win if they have more, but they can certainly tip the scales.

But with all I’ve said, I haven’t even mentioned the Players themselves. The ritual always seems to attract peculiar people, each with their own reasons for wanting the world to change or stay the same. Snuff is a watchdog [Footnote 2] to a man named Jack. Jack tries to be a gentleman, but sometimes that strange light comes in his eyes and he can’t hold his curse back anymore. And well, when that happens he can show you what he’s really capable of with the ancient dagger he has, the runes along its blade traced in starlight. And it’s hard to say why Jack — and by extension Snuff — want to keep the door Closed; might just be that they’ve been at this so long it would feel like a waste if they changed sides now. As for the other players, Snuff can’t tell for sure, but there are some telling signs. Needle the bat’s certainly with a player, and given all the other bats flitting about at night, it’s easy enough to assume the Count’s in town. Then there’s that strange farmhouse with a storm-cloud always overhead. Snuff doesn’t quite know what to make of the Professor living there, but he’s seen him about in some of his master’s treks to the graveyard and Bubo the rat seems a friendly enough familiar. And Quicklime is pleasant most of the time, except when his master’s been drinking. But, well, that Mad Monk has enough on his mind that he could use help taking the edge of sometimes. And Player’s aside, there are some other frustrating interferences. The Great Detective is too good at his job and might find himself out of his depth if Snuff can’t lead him away from the Game and the Vicar is too concerned with all of the ‘dark creatures’ lurking about at night. Someone might get hurt if he keeps leading a mob around, taking shots at every shadow that scurries by. But the lonely howling Snuff hears out in the moors interests him the most. He can’t quite tell who it is, but it seems like he can make out one word: ‘Lost’.

So yes, without dissembling [Footnote 3], A Night in the Lonesome October is a kind of mystical showdown of several classic gothic horror characters over an eldritch horror backing all set in Victorian (I think) London. The protagonist (Snuff aside) is all but stated to be Jack the Ripper; Dracula, Frankenstein (Professor and monster), and a werewolf figure in; Rasputin shows up for a bit; and Sherlock Holmes is the most unequivocally heroic member of the cast [Footnote 4]. Which is why I chose the particular title I did for this article: if I were to pitch the book to an anime / manga / VN fan, I’d probably call it a Western novel version of the same concept behind Fate/Stay Night [Footnote 5]. I won’t say you’ll like one if you like the other –if only because the gulf of medium is fairly wide — but they have a close enough elevator pitch that the similarity is worth note. But all of this is just the overview of what the book is about. None of this explains why you should read it, why I think that it’s such a great book. The latter isn’t something I could so easily answer — and might just come down to ‘Zelazny is a very good author’ — but I do have enough of an answer for this little rambling non-review. Without even touching on the fact that it is told from the point of view of a dog, which is a fun little twist on the formula.

Quite simply, A Night in the Lonesome October does exceptionally well something I think is lost a lot in modern literature: the short fantasy novel [Footnote 6]. All told, the book clocks in under 300 pages; ~85,000 words for a more useful yet opaque measure. The book is structured over thirty-one chapters — each chapter one day or night in the month of October — but those chapters vary somewhat in length with some as short as one or two pages. All of this means that the book is a very quick read. While I follow the tradition of reading a chapter a day, that’s just something I do for fun. I could easily finish the book in a day if I wanted to. And that’s a rarity in a lot of fantasy books these days. The reputation the genre holds of monolithic books in long-running series is fairly warranted [Footnote 7]. So something like this is a refreshing change of pace. Especially since it means you can read and reread it so easily. Because even after reading it… well, at least three times [Footnote 8], I have a slightly different experience each time. There are different things I pick up on each time, different things that stand out to me. There’s one chapter in particular that I was surprised by on a reread because I simply forgot about how it happened [Footnote 9]. There were things I remembered from it, but I only focused on one rather striking inclusion in the text and missed out on a lot of other things happening that were just as dramatic and worth attention. Every time I read the book now, I know exactly what will happen but I’m still happy to read it and find out what will stand out to me that time.

And really, this all speaks to another reality of the book; that Zelazny is a good author. It’s short, but it feels like it gives you just enough information. And withholds the right amount too. You can understand most of what’s going on in the Game, but there are still some rules and realities to it you can only guess on because they weren’t important to the story. It hints at a lot of things — see Footnote 2 — or the fact that it’s implied Jack might be more than one famous historical / storied figure, but leaves them open enough for the reader to keep guessing. The story is short because it does what it needs to and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s a one-shot and it doesn’t need or try to be anything more. And that’s worth a lot these days, where almost everything seems to be in service to building a broader narrative [Footnote 10]. I know this is a bit of a short write-up, but that might be fitting in this case. I don’t have much more to say than that it’s a good book and you don’t have to invest much time to find out. Anything else would be overworking matters. So why not give it a shot this October?

Footnote 1: Elder-gods? Great Old Ones? I’m not all that in touch with Lovecraftian lore, so I’m not sure which is the right one in this case. But you get the point; eldritch horrors.
Footnote 2: Definitely a dog. We promise. I don’t know what else he could possibly be.
Footnote 3: I don’t think that word means what you think it means — the Twisted Jerk
Footnote 3A: Quiet you.
Footnote 4: Probably. Maybe. I mean, it depends on how you interpret some characters’ situations.
Footnote 5: I mean, each Player in the Game consists of a human actor and their animal familiar. Snuff and co. are far less powerful than Servants, but it is an interesting comparison of dynamic.
Footnote 6: And yes, I’m not very good at this myself either. I’ve tried to keep things short with some of my in-progress side-works, but they always seem to spiral out a little bit. The only one which held the standard is my first draft of A Tycortuan Fairy Tale and I still think that one could use a little bit more to help the pace, explore the characters, and explain a bit about the world.
Footnote 7: As an interesting side-note, even though the kind of traditional codifier for this reputation is the Lord of the Rings, those books really aren’t that long themselves. Altogether, they’re about on par with one book from some of the more sprawling series. Which is to say, if you’re intimidated by the time investment, don’t be. Those books are classics for a reason and you should at least give them a chance.
Footnote 8: I kind of lost track of the numbers a bit and didn’t have access to a copy in college.
Footnote 9: I will be sure to note which chapter this is in my read-along this year, if I remember it.
Footnote 10: Again, I acknowledge my hypocrisy. I’m not good at this either.