- Darker Than You Think
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Darker Than You Think 
Dust-jacket from the first editionAuthor(s) Jack Williamson Illustrator Edd Cartier Cover artist A. J. Donnell Country United States Language English Genre(s) Horror
Science fantasyPublisher Fantasy Press Publication date 1948 (novel version) Media type Print (Hardback) Pages 310 pp ISBN NA OCLC Number 1126271 Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson, originally a novelette, was expanded into novel length and published by Fantasy Press in 1948. The short version was published Unknown in 1940. It was notably reprinted by Orion Books in 2003 as volume 38 of their Fantasy Masterworks series.[1]
Contents
Plot
The novel begins with the announcement from an ethnological expedition to Mongolia that among humanity exist people who can turn themselves into animals. When the expedition's leader is killed, his friend, journalist Will Barbee, suspects his alleged colleague, the fascinating April Bell. Determined to discover the truth, but also attracted by Bell, Barbee finds out that in a past era a war took place in which Homo sapiens defeated werewolves (Homo lycanthropus). The surviving werewolves continued to live hidden among humans and await the coming of the Child of the Night who will lead them to recover the supremacy.
Reception
Astounding's reviewer Catherine Crook de Camp praised the novel as an "outstanding fantasy [with] excellent plot design, fast-moving action, and suspense which explodes into high-tension horror."[2]
Brian W. Aldiss and David Wingrove chose Darker as "Williamson's best novel," declaring that "it is well worked out, full of genuine suspense and excitement, and primed with a good hefty sense of evil. The characters, though obvious, are clearly drawn, but the major advantage of the novel is that is full of the pleasure of wild life, of running free in the dark, of the forests, the mountainside, and of the scents of the breeze."[3]
R. D. Mullen described the novel as "Williamson's first serious effort to transcend the limitations of pulp fiction" and noted that it, like contemporaneous mainstream novels, "combines the fantasies of our darker superstitions with the revelations of psychoanalysis."[4]
Related
A sequel short story by Poul Anderson was published in a Williamson tribute anthology during the 1990s.
Influences and admirers
The story was particularly influential on rocket scientist and occultist Jack Parsons. Williamson's "Crucible of Power" had influenced his ideas about the former but it was Darker Than You Think that paralleled the his experiences with the latter:
“ Parsons had a particular interest in one of Williamson's stories that had recently appeared in the fantasy magazine Unknown. ...
The story's description of a scarlet-haired woman riding a great beast recalled Crowley's own personal mythology, and the tale of Will Barbee seems to have captured Parsons' imagination because it resonated with his own awakening fervor for the OTO.[5]
” Neil Gaiman has said he is a fan of the book.[6]
Notes
- ^ Brown, Charles N.; William G. Contento. "The Locus Index to Science Fiction (2003)". http://www.locusmag.com/index/yr2003/b56.htm#A1818.1. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
- ^ "Book Reviews", Astounding Science Fiction, October 1949, p.141
- ^ Aldiss & Wingrove, Trillion Year Spree, Victor Gollancz, 1986, p.264
- ^ "Reviews: November 1975", Science Fiction Studies, November 1975
- ^ Pendle, George (2005) Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist Jack Parsons. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, page 170.
- ^ bits, oddments, and, you know, stuff..., Neil Gaiman's Journal, November 2006 "Jack Williamson passed away, aged 98. I think the first SF novel I ever read was his book Seetee Shock, although it wasn't until I read his novel of shapechangers, Darker than You Think, as a teenager, that I knew I was a fan."
References
- Chalker, Jack L.; Mark Owings (1998). The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923-1998. Westminster, MD and Baltimore: Mirage Press, Ltd.. pp. 236.
- Tuck, Donald H. (1978). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. pp. 462. ISBN 0-911682-22-8.
Categories:- 1948 novels
- 1940s science fiction novels
- Novels by Jack Williamson
- Werewolves in written fiction
- Works originally published in Unknown (magazine)
- Novelettes
- 1940 short stories
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