The House on the Borderland

Rating:
Summary: Why isn't this book more popular? A damn unsettling yarn...
Review: This novel derives most of its genuinely creepy effect from all of the unanswered questions that will flow through your brain for days after you read it...who built that damn house? What exactly is it made out of? How is the "Recluse" able to have visions of the far future just by residing in the mansion? Does somebody (or some thing) WANT the protagonist to have these visions? If so, why? What is the significance of the violent, besieging swine-men and how can they exist in the "real world" of the 1900s and billions of years in the future (when the Earth is a frozen and dead sphere in a darkened solar system) at the same time? Who (or what?) created the swine-men? What do the gigantic statues of the ancient and evil mythological gods of Earth legend (Set, Kali, etc.) glimpsed in the "amphitheatre" have to do with the story? Hodgson (to his credit and to incredible effect) never gives the reader obvious answers to these questions in this skillfully crafted tale of terror that makes full use of mankind's fear of the unknown. To be sure, Hodgson knew all of the answers, but he wanted us to have fun (for the rest of our lives, no doubt) trying to figure out exactly what he was getting at. Hodgson was an author of startling originality, and "House..." is far more frightening than any other work penned by any of his contemporaries (Stoker, Wells, James, and numerous others) and it's easy to see why Lovecraft admired him so much...so why don't more horror and sci-fi fans know who he is? I'm clueless, so somebody please fill me in. Lovecraft fans will no doubt notice that Hodgson's "Universal Sun" (as seen in the terrifying visions of the Recluse, as it sends forth "messengers" into the void after all of creation has been destroyed) is the obvious prototype of HPL's Azathoth. This novel left me eagerly looking forward to reading more Hodgson books ("Nightland", "Boats of the Glen Carrig", others). It's a damn shame that he was killed in the First World War, because he would have certainly cranked out more ground-breaking horror classics.

Rating:
Summary: Overwrought but interesting
Review: This story is quite reminiscent of Arthur Machen's work, with a similar feeling of weird alienation. It's not as well done as Machen, I think, because Hodgson's style is one of piling on the creepy events with little coherence to the whole. But there are memorable images, and the overall effect is quite unsettling if you take it seriously.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best otherworldly and weird books ever written
Review: When I first read this novel I thought that the author had been heavily influenced by H.P. Lovecraft. Then I looked up the original date of publication (1908), which is several decades before Lovecraft published. I wouldn't hesitate to call this one of the best otherworldly and weird books ever written. It is not graphic blood and guts splatter- Edwardian gentlemen did not write such [stuff]. This is better, besides the psychological terror that builds, you have cosmically mind boggling themes of infinate time and space- and the world beyond this world, of which ours is but a pale inferior shadow.
I often wonder just who William Hope Hodgeson was. He was plainly a man of action, that much is clear from his battle with the pig demons, but he was also something more. I wonder what forgotten corner of the Empire he picked up his knowlege of things cosmic and beyond the veil....

Rating:
Summary: Classic Chiller
Review: William Hope Hodgson is an author who is pretty much unknown in America and who has been forgotten in his native Britain. This is a shame for as The House on the Borderland demonstrates, Hodgson was a brilliant horror writer. The House on the Borderland is one of the scariest books I have ever read and all horror fans should consider buying it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the 10 best fantasy novels
Review: William Hope Hodgson was a remarkable fellow. He was a sailor, a physiologist, but above all, an author. His life was cut tragically short by combat during WWI. By that time, however, he had written several masterpieces of fantasy: The Boats of the Glen Carrig; The Night Land; and above all, The House on the Borderland. A metaphysical story within a story, this short novel is both profound and entertaining. It is a "must have" for fantasy, horror or science fiction fans.

Rating:
Summary: mind blowing
Review: Written sometime around 1906, this book is farther out there than almost anything you could find written today. Its one of those books that the less you know going in, the better. But I promise you, it will change the way you look at the world, at least for a little while.

Rating:
Summary: mind blowing
Review: Written sometime around 1906, this book is farther out there than almost anything you could find written today. Its one of those books that the less you know going in, the better. But I promise you, it will change the way you look at the world, at least for a little while.