Review: Roger Zelazny, A Night in the Lonesome October
I am a watchdog. My name is Snuff. I live with my master Jack outside of London now. I like Soho very much at night with its smelly fogs and dark streets. It is silent then and we go for long walks.
This is the opening of A Night in the Lonesome October. This is my favorite novel by Roger Zelazny after Lord of Light, which I consider a masterpiece. A Night in the Lonesome October is the last book that Zelazny finished, and it was nominated for the Nebula in 1994.
The story is told in a prologue and thirty-one chapters, one for each day in October. It is sometimes said that it should be read one chapter at a time throughout October. I had read it several times, but always in one go, so I decided to give one chapter per day a try, albeit a month and a half early. Frankly, I can’t say that the book gained from the experience. But if you haven’t read it, you might give it a try. Read in one sitting or 32, it’s a good book either way.
Beyond the fine story, what I like about Zelazny is his mastery of style: so simple, so fluid, and yet so compelling. He does not use big words or big sentences. And even for him, the style in this story is appropriate for a dog, yet not dumbed down. The story simply flows from the page.
The novel tells the story of a strange Game, a metaphysical conflict between those who want to open the way for the Old Ones, and those who would thwart them. Every few decades, when moon is full on the night of Halloween, players spend the month of October preparing for the night when the fate of the world is to be decided. Each player has an animal companion.
This time, the Game is played in the suburbs of London. The players are a motley crew. Besides Jack, who prowls the streets of London at night with a knife and his faithful dog Snuff, there is Jill and her cat Graymalk. Other players are the Count, a seclusive being, and his equally nocturnal familiar Needle (a bat); Owen and the squirrel Cheeter; the Mad Monk Rastov and the black snake Quicklime; Morris and McCab, whose familiar is the owl Nightwind. Then we meet the vicar, by all appearances a respectable clergyman — but those who know of his secret activities would differ, and he has a companion, the raven Tekela. Other colourful characters include the Good Doctor, who seems to not only have an animal companion, the rat Bubo, but also a human one, a very large man sometimes seen lumbering about his house; Larry Talbot, who could be his own companion; and the Great Detective, a master of disguise.
As the story progresses, the players learn about each other, form alliances, turn traitor. Friendships are formed, too, not always following the alignment of the characters as players. The last night may yet reveal some secrets.
Jack and Jill went down the hill. Gray and I ran after.
The Fall TV season has begun, and so starts a torrential stream of new shows and new episodes of returning shows. Here’s a quick rundown of many of the returning and new Sci-fi and Fantasy shows. Dates are for the USA – feel free to leave a comment with dates in your country. Note that if you haven’t seen the latest seasons of currently running scif-fi/fantasy shows (e.g. if they are delayed in your country), then there may be spoilers ahead.
Mike Meyer had his prized Superman collection stolen from him.
A story broke last week that spread across the internet, shocking everyone that read it. As STL Today reported, Mike Meyer, who has been on Social Security for a mental disability for over half of his life, was robbed of his nearly all of his enormous collection of Superman memorabilia. Six decades worth of comic books and items ranging from old-time radio and a television bearing Superman’s likeness, were all stolen by a former co-worker of Mike’s. After this news broke, it traveled faster than a locomotive to comic book news sites, among them Comic Book Resources and Comics Alliance, where the outreach to help Meyer replace his stolen collection has been truly heroic.
Midtown Comics' Times Square location, where nerd dreams come true
After Stack Exchange’s CHAOS team was made aware of the “replace-the-collection” campaign, we decided to act. Thor Parker, Midtown Comics’ Marketing and Events Coordinator, directed me to this post on the Midtown Comics blog which contains an address where replacement Superman items can be sent. Midtown themselves have been champions of this cause, donating some choice Superman items to Mike (including a copy of Justice League #1 signed by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee at a recent Midtown Comics event). Inspired by their act of generosity, the Stack Exchange CHAOS team took a field trip to Midtown Comics.
I’m an account-holder at Midtown Comics, so I know that they’re kinda the place to go for comics in New York City. We went to the big store near Times Square, which has a mighty selection of statues, graphic novels, statues and action figures to choose from. The graphic novel and trade paperback collection is massive. We settled on an over-sized edition of Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee’s Superman story “For Tomorrow.”
Stack Exchanger Katey peruses the selection upstairs at Midtown Comics
The store always has exciting sales going on, and this unofficial company trip was in the middle of a 40% off back issues sale. To the back issue bins! We picked out a healthy stack of Action Comics and Superman back issues as well as current Superman adventures published monthly by DC Comics. CHAOS agents Katey and Aarthi picked out some cool items (wall decorations, hats and magnets!), but we all had our eye on one thing…statues.
Statues galore!
I’ve never bought a statue at Midtown comics, but the Superman vs. Bizarro Ultimate Showdown statue was crazy tempting. We had to get it. The Midtown employees were more than happy to track the statue down and even took it out of the box to let me inspect it. They were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable and have probably convinced me that I need to buy a lot more statues for myself.
After finalizing our Superman swag, we checked out, returned to the Stack HQ and shipped the items off to Mike. Stack Exchange was very excited to be able to help out a person in need, and is very thankful to Midtown Comics for making us aware of this initiative, having a great selection of items, and generally being a great store.
Here are the Superman items Mike will be receiving in the mail
UPDATE:Comic Book Resources reported over the weekend that Mike’s collection has been recovered and the criminal caught. A truly happy ending to this tale!
2 weeks ago, DC began an ambitious experiment that spans their entire line of comic books. DC has set aside existing continuity to begin a new continuity that’s similar but different to the prior one that’s existed for almost 80 years. They’re accomplishing this starting with the ending of the summer event Flashpoint, along with the first book in the new continuity, Justice League #1. Many, but not all of our familiar heroes are in this new continuity, but their histories are different, relationships changed. During the course of September, DC will be releasing 52 #1 issues. Every book in their lineup has been reset to #1. Each will help establish the new universe that’s spun out of the events of Flashpoint.
Personally, I’m a lapsed DC Comics reader. I read many of their books (especially Superman, Green Lantern, and Flash) up until early last year. As such, my knowledge of the old universe runs up to the start of Brightest Day. I haven’t read Flashpoint, but I know the premise that The Flash mysteriously ended up on a parallel Earth, and somehow after unraveling the mystery of that other Earth, this new continuity was created. Due to logistics, I don’t receive the new comics on Wednesday, as many comic fans do, so my posts here discussing the new reveals lags a bit behind what is currently known. At this point, I’ve read Justice League #1 and Action Comics #1. After the information we learned in Justice League, I knew my priority had to be to read the first Superman book that came out.
The new Justice League
Justice League gives us our first peek at this new world, and it does so with a flashback. The entire issue takes place 5 years prior to the present. It shows us Batman and Green Lantern meeting for the first time, and alludes to some of the changes this new world brings.
Batman and his prey are being chased by Gotham City Police Department (GCPD), and it’s clear they view him as an enemy. The criminal Batman is chasing has superhuman abilities, and soon attracts Green Lantern (Hal Jordan). Green Lantern came to investigate an “unauthorized extraterrestrial”, which turns out to be the criminal Batman is chasing, who reveals himself to be somehow connected to Darkseid. He plants a Mother Box and escapes in an explosion, which potentially was some sort of new violent Boom Tube. After a brief stop to introduce Vic Stone, the duo arrive in Metropolis, and the issue ends with Superman appearing.
So from this, we see that superheroes are still new on the scene. Batman clearly hasn’t developed a positive relationship with the GCPD, and for some reason even Green Lantern isn’t known as a hero to the GCPD. The heroes haven’t even met and teamed up, it seems like the next few issues will deal with origin stories and the initial formation of the Justice League. The criminal they were chasing establishes that the Fourth World and New Gods are a factor here. In the old continuity, they’d died in 2007’s and 2008’s events Death of the New Gods and Final Crisis. It’s unclear if they’re still dead in the new continuity, as this criminal could have been a non-New God alien that worships Darkseid and has a piece of leftover Fourth World tech in his Mother Box.
The story jumps to Vic Stone, high school football star. The name indicates this fellow is Cyborg, but he’s still fully human in the story so far. The story only devotes a couple of pages to him, but we learn he’s being scouted by several colleges and his father’s a barely-present workaholic. His father apparently is involved in studying the new superhuman menace. As we know his future role of Cyborg, there’s not too much new insight to the new world in his introduction, but he’s going to be a part of the new Justice League, which the old Cyborg wasn’t in the previous continuity. In the previous continuity, he was instead a member of the Teen Titans and later the Titans once they grew out of the “Teen” moniker.
After seeing the hostile treatment of the heroes in Justice League, when I received my comics from week 2 of the New 52, my first stop was Action Comics. This was because one of the ideas in Final Crisis was that each of DC’s parallel Earths had a Superman, and he was a key part of each universe. You could see this in some of the differences between New Earth and Earth 2. In Earth 2, he wasn’t a superhero, but instead a supervillain, and so the Justice League of that world was all evil, and the universe had the tendency for evil to triumph over good. So I sought some more information on this new world from the first Superman book I could read. And it definitely helps clarify things.
Action Comics #1 introduces us to a new Superman. This is a younger, angrier Superman who takes some pages out of Batman’s playbook. His powers seem weaker than the Superman in the old continuity, and this new Superman isn’t even capable of flight. I guess he’s back to just “leaping tall buildings in a single bound”. He roots out evil white collar criminals as well as your regular street criminal. This new Superman roughs up criminals and will scare them into confessing their crimes, decidedly more violently than Superman acted in the old continuity. This helps explain the way the authorities treated heroes in the Justice League issue. Superman is relatively new on the scene as well, and he is more of a violent vigilante than he was in the prior universe. Without the kind leadership that the older Superman provided, there’s no one providing a positive connection to the government in this new world. The story also introduces us to younger main characters. Clark, Lois, and Jimmy are all much younger than they were, and Clark isn’t an established journalist yet. So I expect our first month of #1 issues will give us similar glimpses into the early careers of many familiar and not-so-familiar heroes.
Overall, I’m very curious about this new universe. Part of me is not enthused by the decision to have the superheroes not on good terms with the police, as it comes off as an attempt to make this new world ‘dark and gritty’, which is a trope that’s been overused of late in all media. But the blank slate this universe offers has me excited by the possibilities that this offers long time comic book writers who are now freed from the previous status quo. I also appreciate the decision to add Cyborg to the Justice League as one of those changes, as more of the B-list heroes deserve to graduate up to the A-list.
