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 Published in 1993, A Night in the Lonesome October was the last novel from weird quasi-New Wave SF/Fantasy author Roger Zelazny, most known for Lord of Light and the Amber series. Rumor has it he wrote it on a bet to see if he could write a book that would get the reader earnestly rooting for literally Jack the Ripper, with the story being told from the point of view of his dog Snuff, narrated in the trademark Zelazny "humorous pastiche of a film noir detective" voice. The book is broken up into 31 chapters, with tradition dictating reading one each day of the month of October. Follow along to untangle a web of mind games, shifting alliances, a whole bunch of references to public domain spooky characters like Sherlock Holmes and Dracula and poo poo, grave robbing, the struggle between those who would throw open the gate to the Old Gods and those who would close it shut, and Good Kitties.
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Oct 2, 2023 01:12
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| # ? May 10, 2024 01:44 |
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i'm in!
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Oct 2, 2023 01:14
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Is Jack the Ripper going to Rip Cthulu?
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Oct 2, 2023 01:25
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RBA Starblade posted:Is Jack the Ripper going to Rip Cthulu? You'll find out in 30 days (or sooner if you read ahead, I'm not the book police)
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Oct 2, 2023 01:26
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the amber series is wild nonsense and really fun. i'm into this.
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Oct 2, 2023 01:58
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Dynamite Dog posted:the amber series is wild nonsense and really fun. i'm into this. Now imagine if Corwin was a dog! 
Asterite34 fucked around with this message at 14:38 on Oct 2, 2023 |
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Oct 2, 2023 02:05
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I read this last year for the first time but I'll do it again this year hell why not
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Oct 2, 2023 02:41
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Asterite34 posted:
I was just about to start a re-read. But this book can seriously be finished super fast. I think I should use this thread for a doodle a day, since the book inspires doodles every time I read it. Maybe not good doodles, but doodles all the same. This is one of the few books I still own in non-digital format.
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Oct 2, 2023 04:24
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I'm going away to Europe for a while. Hope the book is good
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Oct 2, 2023 04:28
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this is one of my yearly halloween favorites, hell yeah. there's an old as poo poo audiobook version voiced by Zelazny himself, which is very charming. listened to a ripped mp3 of it on a roadtrip and it had authentic cassette tape distortions which really add to the experience
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Oct 2, 2023 04:51
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It's a really fun book and makes ol' jack very easy to sympathize with
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Oct 2, 2023 05:03
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Sounds fun! I haven’t read it but just borrowed it from my library on Hoopla. It’s going to be hard to limit myself to just a chapter a day though. 
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Oct 2, 2023 05:50
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read this book years ago and it ruled. i haven't a clue where i got the thing or what but it surprised the hell out of me. good stuff
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Oct 2, 2023 06:07
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This sounds kickin rad, totally in
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Oct 2, 2023 07:46
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I'm still mad that the Closers won in 2020, I was so ready for it all to end.
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Oct 2, 2023 12:48
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Bored posted:
This would be quite appropriate, as each chapter is accompanied by a weird Far Side-esque cartoon drawn by Gahan Wilson!
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Oct 2, 2023 13:02
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Graymalk and Snuff are great pet names, this book is already off to a good start
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Oct 2, 2023 13:13
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HermitSupplier posted:Graymalk and Snuff are great pet names, this book is already off to a good start Greymalk is a reference to the cat owned by one of the witches in MacBeth btw Snuff is a slightly more complicated literary reference. I've heard it's a nod to Virginia Woolf's Flush: a Biography, which was a commentary on Victorian society in the form of a semi-fictionalized biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning... told from the point of view of her Cocker Spaniel, Flush. Asterite34 fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Oct 2, 2023 |
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Oct 2, 2023 13:22
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I know the podcast that was formerly the HP Literary Podcast covered this once so I’m in!
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Oct 2, 2023 18:35
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Okay, time to play catch-up a little bit. Thankfully, the chapters this early are pretty short A Night in the Lonesome October Now, when I said that there were 31 chapters covering every day in the month of October, that was strictly a lie. There is a prologue chapter that sorta just introduces us to our main charater, the faithful watchdog Snuff. He wasn't always a watchdog, and there's a distinct possibility he wasn't always a dog at all, but whatever he was before he is a watchdog now, faithfully serving Jack the loving Ripper. Jack does a lot of odd jobs, most of which he has to do at night. He has a lot of odd friends he keeps mystically bound inside his house for Snuff to watch in case they break free and rain destruction upon the land. And he has a lot of odd hobbies and collections. In this prologue bit he's adding to his collection by digging up a graveyard. Snuff intimidates/bribes the mundane guard dog and talks shop for a bit. A real hallmark of this book is the sort of Ralph the Wolf/Sam the Sheepdog rapport characters have who are in theory on opposite sides of ideological conflicts but are nonetheless cordial and friendly. Pretty sure the guard dog literally says "It's a living." Really sets the tone early.
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Oct 3, 2023 00:51
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I started a day late and I'm still out of book in like five minutes, not reading ahead on this one is going to be tough but I will give it a shot. Current favorite Thing: wardrobe. I respect the attempt at bargaining more than the what the others have shown so far.
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Oct 3, 2023 00:58
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October 1st The first proper chapter of the book is a brief bit of SNuff doing the rounds, checking on the various demons Jack has imprisoned in his nice bucolic London suburb home (which was a common feature of homes in the 1880s). These guys are basically a running gag to give Snuff something to do in the early bits of the book before all the characters are introduced and the intruige begins in earnest, and are kind of a running gag. The Things in the Mirror writhe around a bit, the Thing in the Steamer Trunk thrashes around like an idiot. The Thing in the Circle has a recurring bit where it shapeshifts into various female dogs to try and tempt Snuff into crossing the threshold and freeing it, but it never gets the smell right so the ruse is kinda pointless. The Thing in the Wardrobe actually tries to properly bargain with Snuff and offer him bones and poo poo, but no dice. Snuff assures him that the whole affair is temporary and all these Things will get released in the near future anyway, but I guess if you're a bound demon it's an expectation that you try and escape anyway, otherwise no one will take you seriously.
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Oct 3, 2023 01:00
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October 2nd This chapter is where we start to get properly introduced to other characters, other Players in the Great Game. Specifically, Graymalk, the cat familiar of the witch Crazy Jill. There's the expected back and forth John le Carre spy novel banter as they talk about how sneaky they both are, though not much in the way of cliche cat/dog antagonism. Everyone's very professional. Here we're also shown the first instance of a big part of the book: exchange of useful information on other Players. Basically any chapter worth its ink has a bit where characters all compare notes and gossip and try and puzzle out what the other not-currently-present characters are doing. At this early stage of things people are pretty open to handing out info, because nobody knows anyone's affiliations yet anyway and you never know when you might want to call in a favor. Graymalk just openly reveals, just for funsies, that the Hermeticists Morris & McCab sent an owl to covertly curse Jack's house. Snuff, being an honorable sort, pays her back and shares that he saw Jill's house being mystically contaminated by the work of a snake that lives in the stomach of Legally Distinct Rasputin (wizards are loving gross). Nobody knows whose on what side (and we the reader haven't even really been made privy to what the sides even are), but some Players are already making brazen moves against other contenders based pretty much solely on vibes, and rapports and working relationships are being forged. Aaaaaaand we're all caught up. Like I said, early chapters are blessedly short as we start to feel out the situation, set the stage, put the pieces on the board.
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Oct 3, 2023 01:14
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Asterite34 posted:Okay, time to play catch-up a little bit. Thankfully, the chapters this early are pretty short Indeed, he does! I’m about halfway through the book right now, since I owe 2 doodles and am trying to get a clearer picture of Snuff, based off of the text and not the cover or illustrations-just wanna make sure I haven’t subbed in the mental image of some other fictional dog. I also hate most of the illustrations in the book, probably because I am a snob.
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Oct 3, 2023 01:27
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Literally named my dog Snuff here is a pic We did this book as a Book of the Month thread in Book Barn back in 2014 (so many moons ago!) so here are some good links we turned up then: Hieronymous Alloy posted:
The title of the book is a Poe quotation: quote:The skies they were ashen and sober; quote:
I have a first edition of this book and post the Gahan Wilson illustrations if people want me to.
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Oct 3, 2023 02:03
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Neato
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Oct 3, 2023 02:08
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Literally named my dog Snuff here is a pic That is an exemplary watchdog
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Oct 3, 2023 02:17
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Literally named my dog Snuff here is a pic Yeah, your dog is pretty much how I imagine Snuff whenever I remember that he is not a short-haired dog. Bored fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Oct 3, 2023 |
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Oct 3, 2023 02:32
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I have a first edition of this book and post the Gahan Wilson illustrations if people want me to. I'd love to see these! This is one of my favorite books, and I'd been thinking of re-reading it this year once I finished my current audiobook. But if we're doing a chapter-a-day-thread, I'll get started immediately.
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Oct 3, 2023 02:46
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God I love this book. Everything about Snuff and Graymalk's first encounter is perfect. “Why do you tell me this?” “Perhaps because I am a cat and it amuses me to be arbitrary and do you a good turn." Yes, that's a cat right there. Somehow I always forget that Snuff wasn't originally a dog, but is instead Something Else that was summoned made into a dog, and enjoys dogging so much he doesn't mind being bound. What a great concept for a familiar. Lambo Trillrissian posted:this is one of my yearly halloween favorites, hell yeah. there's an old as poo poo audiobook version voiced by Zelazny himself, which is very charming. listened to a ripped mp3 of it on a roadtrip and it had authentic cassette tape distortions which really add to the experience This is how I've always experienced this book and it's great. Zelazny is not by means a professional narrator, but his voice is perfect for Snuff and he knows how his own work should sound. When they inevitably make a modern recording of Lonesome October, I dread that it's going to be read without the dessicatingly dry wit that Zelazny brings to his own work.
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Oct 3, 2023 06:58
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quote:A grimalkin, also known as a greymalkin, is an archaic term for a cat.[1] The term stems from "grey" (the colour) plus "malkin", an archaic term with several meanings (a low class woman, a weakling, a mop, or a name) derived from a hypocoristic form of the female name Maud.[2] Scottish legend makes reference to the grimalkin as a faery cat that dwells in the highlands.
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Oct 3, 2023 08:40
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Literally named my dog Snuff here is a pic So cute!!  Finished October 3 now, I like how details are skirted around. Jack got the "ingredients" he was looking for but it took a bit longer and was more trouble than usual, even ending with a chase. Can't a guy take a nightly stroll in search of ingredients without being harassed these days? Sheesh! Now we're throwing a bat and a Count into the mix. Having gone into this almost completely blind I'm half-expecting this book to turn into a giant monster mash towards the end, just waiting for a mummy and a Frankenstein to pop up! (Well, I guess the dust of a mummy has already popped up, so that's one down...) I wasn't expecting there to be more than one talking animal in this so the book keeps surprising me. The edition I'm reading from has these really goofy illustrations in each chapter that I'm still not entirely sure whether I love or hate lol - though the more I stare at this hosed up looking bat, the more it's growing on me.
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Oct 3, 2023 12:57
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October 3rd Lots of stuff in a short chapter. We see a method by which Zelazny endeavors to make Jack the Ripper a bit more palatable for the audience. It never really hides that, yes, he's still that Jack the Ripper, he still goes out and kills people and takes their bits, but 1) the narrative stays coyly removed from the grisly details, and 2) gives it context as being in service of some greater overall goal with will in theory justify it a bit. We also get a raising of the stakes with the Count loving Dracula being a Player now. This has gone beyond just vague wizardry and ritual into the explicitly horrifically superhuman. He's gonna be the guy to beat, here. I think this is also the first time we hear the terms "openers" and "closers." There are teams/factions/ideologies at play here, and so far nobody knows who goes where. A lot of the charm of the book is it's like being witness to a game of Mafia (or, perhaps more appropriately, Werewolf) with the animal familiars being the Intel gatherers and diplomatic go-betweens of the Masters while they sort out the technical Magic poo poo.
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Oct 3, 2023 17:19
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I was thinking this was the cute Ray Bradbury thing but I'm still gonna catch up
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Oct 3, 2023 17:45
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It is a very cozy book you could have a teenager or precocious kid read with no qualms.
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Oct 3, 2023 21:11
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i like this book, zelaznys cool
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Oct 3, 2023 21:20
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I swear, every chapter has a line that is just perfect. "They had already been out. The broom beside the rear entrance was still warm."
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Oct 4, 2023 06:15
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i’m planning to get caught up this weekend and looking forward to it!
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Oct 4, 2023 06:16
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October 4 has some more fun conversations between everyone's various pets, even introducing a new one by the adorable name of Cheeter. I love the casual conversations all of them have with each other. Snuff is pretty sneaky trying to coax some info out of Cheeter like that, I can picture the "Oh, you!" face that little squirrel gave him.
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Oct 4, 2023 15:13
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October 4thquote:"How's about a collie? You like redheads?" Here we meet another Player and his familiar, Owen and Cheeter. Honestly this feels like a bit of a de-escalation. Last chapter we learned Count Goddamn Dracula was involved in all this, and here we meet... some no-name Druid who isn't a specific literary reference I can think of, and his talking squirrel. It's a bit of a downgrade. But I guess in this sort of Game it might be an advantage to be a bit unassuming and not draw too much attention to yourself. I like the Gahan Wilson drawing of this guy at least, it's quite imposing. Kinda looks like one of those villainous craggy-faced space gods Jack Kirby liked to draw. 
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Oct 4, 2023 15:57
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