The Night Land, a Story Retold
I loved this book.After reading John C. Wright's homage, Awake in the Night Land, and truly enjoying it, I was curious about the origins of the Night Lands mythos. As much as I usually prefer original texts, I decided to go with the vast majority of existing opinion and read this modernization by Stoddard instead of the reputedly nigh-unreadable original written by William Hope Hodgson in 1912.
This is one of the most gripping love stories I've ever read, as well as a brutal masterpiece of dark fantasy (I almost want to give it five stars, and I may come back and amend my rating later.) It's better by far than Lovecraft- especially in light of mythos-extending tributes such as Wright's-and indeed Lovecraft himself described it as as "one of the most potent pieces of macabre imagination ever written." I concur. A must-read for fans of the genre.