Seeing as it’s October, I can’t let the month end without reading this book. I usually read it one chapter a night (there are 320 in total; one for each day of the month and a Prologue), but seeing as time got away from me this year, I wound up racing through it in one day. It may not be an overly long book, but it’s an enjoyable one.
A Night in the Lonesome October tells the story of The Great Game, a sacred ritual that occurs every time a full Blue moon lands on Halloween; this time being the October of 1887, which in reality did have a full moon fall upon it. (Historical realism for the win!) Told from the perspective of Snuff, Jack the Ripper’s canine companion, it describes the gathering of the players and the machinations within, until the final confrontation on Halloween Night. The night when whether the Elder Gods come to our world will be decided, and the player’s lives hang in the balance…
It is truly rare to have a book where Jack the Ripper is one of the good guys, but here one is. Not that he’s alone; this book is chock-full of the best Who’s Who of literary (and real-life and cinematic) characters ever assembled; it ranges from Shakespeare to Stoker, from Conan Doyle to Louis Stevenson, from Shelley to Lovecraft, from Woolf to Ambrose Bierce Universal Monsters. And with the mild insinuation that Jack the Ripper is actually Cain, cursed to wander the world forever, making amends for his transgression, you shuffle the Bible in there as well. Though the main star of the show is Snuff, as well as Graymalk the cat and all the other Player’s familiars. Snuff is insinuated to not originally be a dog; the best I can guess is that he is either a Grim or a Hellhound that Jack has summoned as an assistant. Other than Graymalk, my favorite name out of the other familiars has to be Bubo, who is a rat; which goes to prove how brilliant Zelazny is working in those subtle witty nods to things (this is truly a thinking person’s book.)
Some people might say that it’s a long, drawn out path to the conclusion, which then happens rapidly over a period of maybe 10 pages; they would be right, but they’d miss what I think is part of the appeal of the book. It’s mostly about the machinations, alliances, betrayals, and lead-up to the event; besides, when you’re doing a ritual to summon Cthulhu and the others, would it go by at any other speed than blink-and-you-miss-it?
Take my advice; it’s going to be pricier, but try and pick up a copy with Gahan Wilson’s illustrations. The more readily available copy doesn’t have them, and I think that fact detracts slightly from the story. Gahan Wilson has a style that pairs so well with the text, and it brings a certain lightheartedness that fits the style. Also, the hardcover edition has a drawing of Zelazny and Wilson as Holmes and Watson on the book of the dust jacket. (Unfortunately, I have the paperback edition, so have missed what is probably a great illustration.)
This is not a dark and somber book; it’s frothy, enjoyable, and is heavy on the murder and bloodshed and ritual sacrifice, but it’s not dark, heavy, or somber. One prime example is the name of Graymalk’s human, Crazy Jill, which leads to one of the most groan-worthy yet great ending two sentences I’ve ever read. (By the way, the entire reason she was named “Jill” was for that ending sentence, a joke that I should have seem coming and yet missed completely.)
I keep meaning to pick up more of Zelazny’s work; this and Jack of Shadows are the only two books of his I’ve read, and I enjoyed them both immensely.
Make this one a Halloween tradition with you too!