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Western Lights #1
Dark Sleeper
In the fog-enshrouded city of Salthead, metaphysics professor Titus Tiggs and Dr. Daniel Dampe investigate a series of strange, impossible sightings-from phantom ships and ghosts to creatures long extinct. What they uncover is an ancient, mystical evil intent on destroying every person in the town.
Written in a style reminiscent of 19th century authors like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, with tantalizing elements of science fiction and dark fantasy, Jeffrey E. Barlough's Dark Sleeper draws the reader into a complicated plot featuring dozens of fascinating characters and culminating in a surprising and unforgettable climax.
Written in a style reminiscent of 19th century authors like Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy, with tantalizing elements of science fiction and dark fantasy, Jeffrey E. Barlough's Dark Sleeper draws the reader into a complicated plot featuring dozens of fascinating characters and culminating in a surprising and unforgettable climax.
484 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
3 people are currently reading
444 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey E. Barlough
16 books23 followersAuthor, veterinarian and research scientist, Author Jeffrey E. Barlough has been publishing scientific journal articles, novels, and non-fiction books on a variety of subjects since the 1970's.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
December 9, 2016
sleepy Dark Sleeper, a book that felt like it sprung from my own dreams. cozy dreams of being in a warm place with a wet, cold world outside, a strange world full of mysteries. cozy mysteries! a strange world like Dickens' England transformed into a place locked out of time, with prehistoric beasties and sinister Etruscans wandering about; a place with magic in the shadows. quirky characters full of charm - the author's fondness for his heroes made me fond of them in turn. villainous characters full of malice - the author's glee in creating these gargoyles made me smile along with him. surprisingly deep emotions slowly filling the narrative, making it less light but more resonant. a careful calibrated yet happily eccentric prose style, always keeping me engaged and interested. a less than admirable but still quite lovable tomcat. a story that reads as if a hobbyist decided to turn his various peculiar interests into one peculiar book. peculiar but full of familiar things. peculiar but wonderful! I'm looking forward to reading more.
April 24, 2008
First, I would classify this book as science fiction more than anything else. Although it does indeed deal with the supernatural, it is set after a time called the Sundering, when a giant comet or asteroid or something put an end to the normal geography of the earth and killed off most of its inhabitants except for the little corner of the world wherein the story occurs. Second, if you want a fast-food, give it to me now story, DO NOT pick up this book. The first part, in which the characters are introduced & the first series of weird events take place, is very slow, and after having finished, I can totally see why. But if you are NOT a patient reader, and if you don't like the sort of Victorian feel in a tale, this book is NOT for you. Third, I totally LOVED this book!
brief plot summary, no spoilers:
In the vicinity of Salthead, life goes on, complete with the normal characters you might find in any sort of Victorian/Dickensian-type story...the crusty miser who sits around thinking of ways to make people miserable; the venerable professor, who is raising his niece to be a finely-educated young woman with the help of her governess; the publicans at the inns where the townfolk gather for ale & socializing, yada yada yada. It is a place where mastodons are used for travel, and one might see the occasional megathere or saber-tooth cat. However, what is not normal is the appearance of a sailor, drowned long ago after he set sail to forget the love of his life or the little boy with the red hair whose face melts, or the appearance of said sailor's ship out of nowhere moored at the town's docks. Titus Tiggs, the above-mentioned professor, hears about these weird things and after a while, finds that there is someone who might hold the key to the mysterious happenings. So off he and a party of friends go to talk with this friend, where they learn just what's going on. Now they must take action, because things could most easily go from bad to worse. Set in three parts, the first part covers the intro to the characters, the place, and the supernatural events plaguing the townspeople; part two is the discovery of what is causing these things, and part three of course is the denouement.
This is just a nutshell overview and doesn't begin to cover the breadth of this amazing story. My advice to readers who are interested in the book: BE PATIENT!!! Everything in the beginning (which may be a little slow for many readers) has a reason for being there. If you are just patient, you will definitely be rewarded with a wonderful tale. Now it's on to the second book!
brief plot summary, no spoilers:
In the vicinity of Salthead, life goes on, complete with the normal characters you might find in any sort of Victorian/Dickensian-type story...the crusty miser who sits around thinking of ways to make people miserable; the venerable professor, who is raising his niece to be a finely-educated young woman with the help of her governess; the publicans at the inns where the townfolk gather for ale & socializing, yada yada yada. It is a place where mastodons are used for travel, and one might see the occasional megathere or saber-tooth cat. However, what is not normal is the appearance of a sailor, drowned long ago after he set sail to forget the love of his life or the little boy with the red hair whose face melts, or the appearance of said sailor's ship out of nowhere moored at the town's docks. Titus Tiggs, the above-mentioned professor, hears about these weird things and after a while, finds that there is someone who might hold the key to the mysterious happenings. So off he and a party of friends go to talk with this friend, where they learn just what's going on. Now they must take action, because things could most easily go from bad to worse. Set in three parts, the first part covers the intro to the characters, the place, and the supernatural events plaguing the townspeople; part two is the discovery of what is causing these things, and part three of course is the denouement.
This is just a nutshell overview and doesn't begin to cover the breadth of this amazing story. My advice to readers who are interested in the book: BE PATIENT!!! Everything in the beginning (which may be a little slow for many readers) has a reason for being there. If you are just patient, you will definitely be rewarded with a wonderful tale. Now it's on to the second book!
August 28, 2008
Reading Dark Sleeper I was reminded of The Moonstone because both authors write in a style and with a pace not often encountered in modern novels. In both instances, for me, this was initially off-putting but once I got used to it, I found myself enjoying the cadences and the obvious fun the authors took in writing. (Upon reflection, I find that this is true of Shakespeare, O'Brian, E.R. Eddison and a number of my favorite authors.)
But to return to the book: The setting is an alternate Earth where mastodons (thunder beasts) and saber-tooth tigers (saber cats) still roam the countryside. A catastrophe -- called the sundering -- has laid waste the entire planet except for a relatively small region where survivors of an English colony persist.
The "ancient university town" of Salthead is the stage where immortal Etruscan priests (lucumones), a prankster demi-god, and the quixotic mortal inhabitants act. What plot there is revolves around the efforts of Prof. Titus Tiggs and his allies to figure out why so many strange things are occurring such as errant drowned revenants, mastiffs mutating into hybrid man-beasts, and a blue flying man. The real enjoyment in reading the book is in the characters and atmosphere evoked by Barlough, from the malevolent town miser Josiah Tusk to the affable but socially inept Dr. Dampe to the uncompromising Miss Honeywood, proprietor of the Blue Pelican. In fact, the denoument is anticlimactic: The machinations of the "bad guys" are forestalled in a couple of paragraphs and the threat to Salthead averted.
Another point in the novel's favor is that it's completely self-contained. The second book in the series, The House in the High Wood is an entirely new story with an entirely new cast of characters.
In the end, I can only say that I enjoyed reading this novel and would recommend it.
But to return to the book: The setting is an alternate Earth where mastodons (thunder beasts) and saber-tooth tigers (saber cats) still roam the countryside. A catastrophe -- called the sundering -- has laid waste the entire planet except for a relatively small region where survivors of an English colony persist.
The "ancient university town" of Salthead is the stage where immortal Etruscan priests (lucumones), a prankster demi-god, and the quixotic mortal inhabitants act. What plot there is revolves around the efforts of Prof. Titus Tiggs and his allies to figure out why so many strange things are occurring such as errant drowned revenants, mastiffs mutating into hybrid man-beasts, and a blue flying man. The real enjoyment in reading the book is in the characters and atmosphere evoked by Barlough, from the malevolent town miser Josiah Tusk to the affable but socially inept Dr. Dampe to the uncompromising Miss Honeywood, proprietor of the Blue Pelican. In fact, the denoument is anticlimactic: The machinations of the "bad guys" are forestalled in a couple of paragraphs and the threat to Salthead averted.
Another point in the novel's favor is that it's completely self-contained. The second book in the series, The House in the High Wood is an entirely new story with an entirely new cast of characters.
In the end, I can only say that I enjoyed reading this novel and would recommend it.
March 12, 2009
You know I read this book probably about 7-8 years ago, but it has always stuck with me. Its like Dickens and Lovecraft had a torrid love affair, died in childbirth (one died of the birthing, the other died of a broken heart!), left their child to be raised by a commune of victorian Melodrama and Gothic viction writers, and the unholy child grew up to be an Alternative-history book gone quite wrong (in a perfectly right kind of way).
This is with out a doubt the MOST unusual thing I've ever read. You mite think that so many different influential elements mite create discord in the book, but it was not so. I actually enjoyed this book (despite the secret war inside of me where half of me enjoys Dickensian stories, and the other half thinks they are sunshiney tripe), and intended to, by hook or by crook, read the other 4 books in the series. Check it out if you can find it, its like nothing else in Fantasy you will ever read (wow, thats a tall order, I hope it delivers).
This is with out a doubt the MOST unusual thing I've ever read. You mite think that so many different influential elements mite create discord in the book, but it was not so. I actually enjoyed this book (despite the secret war inside of me where half of me enjoys Dickensian stories, and the other half thinks they are sunshiney tripe), and intended to, by hook or by crook, read the other 4 books in the series. Check it out if you can find it, its like nothing else in Fantasy you will ever read (wow, thats a tall order, I hope it delivers).
July 16, 2007
What a remarkable and strange book this was. It reads very much like a victorian novel, say from Dickens or maybe Thackeray, and yet the subject matter is more like something out of H.P. Lovecraft. Highly recommended.
August 29, 2017
4.5 stars! It took me a while to get to this but I really loved it. I love Dickens anyway, and it's written in that 19th century style with evocative character names (Ephraim Badger, Dr. Daniel Dampe) plus mastodons too! Not to mention a battle against unleashed evil forces. What's not to like?
July 25, 2016
In an interview at Black Gate, Barlough said he loves mixing genres and imagining things what if "H.P. Lovecraft had written the Perry Mason mysteries, or if M.R. James had created Sherlock Holmes." In Dark Sleeper he did just the sort of thing. It reads as if Charles Dickens wrote a fantasy mystery novel.
Ancient terrors and ice age beasts threaten the residents of Salthead, a great city on the western coast of what in our world would be Washington state. On an Earth where the Ice Age never fully ended, medieval England spread out earlier and further across the globe. When a mysterious catastrophe struck in 1839 (perhaps a comet striking the planet), only the English colonists along the western coast survived.
With a cast of eccentric professors, imperious innkeepers, mysterious young men, and a miser who puts Scrooge and Marley together to shame, Dark Sleeper is a wonderful blast. If you like Dickens, Doyle, Powers, and Blaylock, this should be right up your alley.
Ancient terrors and ice age beasts threaten the residents of Salthead, a great city on the western coast of what in our world would be Washington state. On an Earth where the Ice Age never fully ended, medieval England spread out earlier and further across the globe. When a mysterious catastrophe struck in 1839 (perhaps a comet striking the planet), only the English colonists along the western coast survived.
With a cast of eccentric professors, imperious innkeepers, mysterious young men, and a miser who puts Scrooge and Marley together to shame, Dark Sleeper is a wonderful blast. If you like Dickens, Doyle, Powers, and Blaylock, this should be right up your alley.
February 29, 2012
Congratulations are in order. Not for this book, obviously, nor for its author either, who has succeeded only in creating a leaden, listless, dragging pastiche of 19th century literary styles, devoid of anything resembling wit, excitement, or an object of interest. No, congratulations to me, for having the tenacity and resiliency to see it through to the end. I will now throw myself a parade, award myself medals, commemorate a statue in my honor, and do everything in my power to forget all the fruitless hours wasted upon this book.
May 11, 2013
I normally only read children's fiction, but the title of this book intrigued me so, I had to read it. I was so glad I did. I could not believe Mr. Barlough is not a very popularly known name! What an excellent writer! Everything is just so well thought out and the story lines all converge into a wonderful tale! I have read every book in the library and interloan system he has written. My Mother's Day present to myself will be the 2 newest ones I found on Amazon yesterday, "What I found at Hoole", and "A Tangle in Slops". I absolutely love his most intricately woven tales!
August 16, 2025
Strange Cargo was a book I frankly found a bit of a slog, but which was enlivened in the final quarter by a turn of events I hadn’t foreseen, but which I frustratingly couldn’t talk about in a review because they constitute spoilers. It made me enjoy the book enough that I bought the first two in the series (Strange Cargo being the third, though they’re stand-alones) in spite of the exorbitant price. I will recap the bullet points of this alternate history gaslamp fantasy, which the author has dubbed the ‘Western Lights’ series:
1. The Ice Age never ended; mastodons and sabre-toothed tigers still walk the earth; European history appears to have risen unimpeded, but people never crossed the Bering Strait to become Native Americans and the English settlements along what is (but is never explicitly said to be) the west coast of North America do not bear their real-world names;
2. A horrific cataclysm called “the sundering” occurred some hundred-and-fifty years ago, which wiped out most of the life on Earth, worsened the extant Ice Age, and has reduced the known world to a rainy and foggy string of cities along a wild coastline and mountainous hinterland (again, though this is never explicitly said, it’s roughly what would’ve been Seattle down to roughly what would’ve been southern California, with all the rest of the world reduced to an unknowable wasteland);
And the third factor, which I didn’t want to say about Strange Cargo but which I can do for Dark Sleeper because it’s front and centre from the first chapter:
3. The supernatural is in fact real.
It is a deeply Dickensian world, the sundering having frozen technological and social progress in amber, and I suppose it’s appropriate for the supernatural to be real since Dickens did in fact touch on the subject and provided us with many ghosts. The opening chapter of Dark Sleeper – itself a tribute to the foggy opening of Bleak House, though I admit I’ve never read that novel and only recognised it from the recent discourse – has a man encountering a walking and talking corpse in the misty, atmospheric late-night streets of the city of Salthead, which is only the beginning of the uncanny perils that bedevil the city. Soon sunken ships are rising from the deep; a ghost boy is spotted in a local inn; and our heroes Professor Titus Tiggs and his colleague Dr Daniel Dampe are drawn into an investigation of further paranormal, uncanny and downright weird events.
These books are Vibe Fiction. They very strongly carry a mood. They are foggy, misty, rainy, and cosy; they are about Victorian manners and social hierarchy, they are about fireplaces in studies and sitting rooms and pubs, they are about coach-rides to country manors and a spawling cast of peculiar characters or, very often, caricatures. They have a tremendously good sense of humour. They are not books in which to seek great narrative frisson or subtle emotional moments or even, ultimately, a coherent plot – the events of Dark Sleeper are resolved by an almost literal deus ex machina. But I enjoy them a lot, and if sinking into some wintry Dickensian Vibes with a touch of gaslamp fantasy and sabre-toothed tigers sounds appealing, I expect you’ll enjoy them too.
1. The Ice Age never ended; mastodons and sabre-toothed tigers still walk the earth; European history appears to have risen unimpeded, but people never crossed the Bering Strait to become Native Americans and the English settlements along what is (but is never explicitly said to be) the west coast of North America do not bear their real-world names;
2. A horrific cataclysm called “the sundering” occurred some hundred-and-fifty years ago, which wiped out most of the life on Earth, worsened the extant Ice Age, and has reduced the known world to a rainy and foggy string of cities along a wild coastline and mountainous hinterland (again, though this is never explicitly said, it’s roughly what would’ve been Seattle down to roughly what would’ve been southern California, with all the rest of the world reduced to an unknowable wasteland);
And the third factor, which I didn’t want to say about Strange Cargo but which I can do for Dark Sleeper because it’s front and centre from the first chapter:
3. The supernatural is in fact real.
It is a deeply Dickensian world, the sundering having frozen technological and social progress in amber, and I suppose it’s appropriate for the supernatural to be real since Dickens did in fact touch on the subject and provided us with many ghosts. The opening chapter of Dark Sleeper – itself a tribute to the foggy opening of Bleak House, though I admit I’ve never read that novel and only recognised it from the recent discourse – has a man encountering a walking and talking corpse in the misty, atmospheric late-night streets of the city of Salthead, which is only the beginning of the uncanny perils that bedevil the city. Soon sunken ships are rising from the deep; a ghost boy is spotted in a local inn; and our heroes Professor Titus Tiggs and his colleague Dr Daniel Dampe are drawn into an investigation of further paranormal, uncanny and downright weird events.
These books are Vibe Fiction. They very strongly carry a mood. They are foggy, misty, rainy, and cosy; they are about Victorian manners and social hierarchy, they are about fireplaces in studies and sitting rooms and pubs, they are about coach-rides to country manors and a spawling cast of peculiar characters or, very often, caricatures. They have a tremendously good sense of humour. They are not books in which to seek great narrative frisson or subtle emotional moments or even, ultimately, a coherent plot – the events of Dark Sleeper are resolved by an almost literal deus ex machina. But I enjoy them a lot, and if sinking into some wintry Dickensian Vibes with a touch of gaslamp fantasy and sabre-toothed tigers sounds appealing, I expect you’ll enjoy them too.
February 15, 2017
1st in a (fairly long, apparently - I lost track when they switched from Ace to a small imprint and am anxious to catch up) series of extremely bizarre mystery novels set in one of the more unique world settings I've yet to encounter. A very Victorian-esque civilization survives, after a cataclysmic event, only on the West Coast of North America. The world is in an ice age, replete with ice age mega-fauna like sabretooth tigers, giant sloths and the mastodons that pull the coaches. But life in what reads like very English country villages goes on. Very unique and quite remarkable. Each novel is essentially a standalone and they may be read in any order. Elements of Dickens and Lovecraft and, dare I say it, Terry Pratchett.
I'm fairly certain that it was a review by Faren Miller in Locus that introduced me to this book and its 1st sequel (The House in the High Wood) and she recently reviewed the most recent volume (Where the Time Goes), putting me on notice that I have a lot to catch up on.
I'm fairly certain that it was a review by Faren Miller in Locus that introduced me to this book and its 1st sequel (The House in the High Wood) and she recently reviewed the most recent volume (Where the Time Goes), putting me on notice that I have a lot to catch up on.
February 23, 2020
Hello. My name is Marcia Wilson, and I am a Western Lights Junkie.
I first fell into my addiction at a library sale. I was (as always) broke as a midnight sundial, and it was a quarter. As I'm obsessed with Pleistocene magafauna, I was lost as soon as I saw the mammoths on the cover. I took it home and read the book from cover to cover in an increasingly amped level of tension. When it was finished I turned right around and spent the funds of my next paycheck on the sequel. So far I've bought every book in the series, and given others away to like-minded worthy friends. It pushes so many buttons--horror, humor, tragic pasts, lurking threats, science, dialects, twists and turns of phrase...If Austen married Le Fenu this is the resultant lovechild. Good doesn't always win, which makes these stories all the richer--and the books don't exactly end but leave you behind wondering what will happen next.
I first fell into my addiction at a library sale. I was (as always) broke as a midnight sundial, and it was a quarter. As I'm obsessed with Pleistocene magafauna, I was lost as soon as I saw the mammoths on the cover. I took it home and read the book from cover to cover in an increasingly amped level of tension. When it was finished I turned right around and spent the funds of my next paycheck on the sequel. So far I've bought every book in the series, and given others away to like-minded worthy friends. It pushes so many buttons--horror, humor, tragic pasts, lurking threats, science, dialects, twists and turns of phrase...If Austen married Le Fenu this is the resultant lovechild. Good doesn't always win, which makes these stories all the richer--and the books don't exactly end but leave you behind wondering what will happen next.
December 27, 2018
Ik weet niet goed wat ik van dit boek moet denken. De personages zijn kleurrijk en interessant en de wereld waarin het zich afspeelt is intrigerend. Maar je krijgt weinig informatie over het geheel. En het verhaal zelf is erg fragmentarisch verteld. Soms, midden in een interessante wending, gaat de vertelling over op het perspectief van een ander personage dat dan eigenlijk niet echt veel bijdraagt tot de plot. Daardoor is het moeilijk om meegesleept te worden. Ook is er af en toe een ik verteller die dan, als ik het goed begrepen heb, de kat blijkt te zijn. Geen idee waar dat op slaat. Het boek is toch wat een gemiste kans.
May 20, 2023
Decent book- no more, no less. I thought the setting was interesting(our world, but subjected to a cataclysmic event that cut off this area from the rest of the world{which may have been destroyed}). There is a pretty big cast of characters and quite a bit going on. I looked at the next book’s cast and did not see any familiar names so they be standalone. I will give the next one a shot, hoping for something a bit more interesting.
May 14, 2024
This is my fourth book read in the series (you don’t have to read them in any particular order). There’s a comfyness to them that I enjoy, this one being no different.
Be one of the few who’ve read this and desperately scour the internet to find someone to talk to about it.
Cheers,
Blaise
Be one of the few who’ve read this and desperately scour the internet to find someone to talk to about it.
Cheers,
Blaise
September 26, 2011
This is a novel by Jeffrey E. Barlough, whom I've never heard of. However, K mentioned it in passing on the yahoo list we belong to as the cover having a pair of "wooly mammoths pulling a carriage". That intrigued the heck out of me, so I was tickled when the book arrived in the mail.
The first thing that struck me when I started looking at Dark Sleeper is the sheer size of the novel. There are 484 pages and a character listing in the front. Hmmm. Character listings always give me a little pause - just how many people am I supposed to keep track of, anyway? Not to mention that Mr. Barlough names each character in the book - including the cats and horses and wooly mammoths and the one lone dog - but doesn't include all of them in the character list!
The novel takes place (mostly) in a port town known as Salthead. We never actually find out where Salthead is, only that a cataclysm happened previously which pretty much destroyed the world as we know it and killed off a great many people. The story is narrated by someone (we never actually get the name of our narrator), who witnessed the recorded events back when he was very young. The story starts out with the return of a sailor, who was lost at sea and is very much dead but wanders through the streets of Salthead, tormenting the woman who played him. From there on out, the story takes so many twists and turns, you almost need a scorecard not only to remember who is who and how that person is alligned with everyone else in the town but what little thing happened here that causes a ripple effect elsewhere.
The upshot is that an item is stolen, a monster is loose and our band of heroes, including a professor, a doctor, one of the landed gentry and Misses Mona and Nina Jacks, must solve the mystery of why the item is stolen and what is causing the strangeness in Salthead.
The book is quite engaging, the characters are all very well-drawn and the story meanders around like a drunken sailor. It takes a while for the story to actually start being told (mostly so all the players can be introduced - but not well enough for the reader to actually know anything about them, so some of them continually surprise up to the postscript).
My main problem with this novel was that the verb tense kept switching around from present to past tense, with no rhyme nor reason why. It's a bit disconcerting, especially when the story is to have taken place in the past. But if you want a long, odd read, Dark Sleeper is something you want to look into.
The first thing that struck me when I started looking at Dark Sleeper is the sheer size of the novel. There are 484 pages and a character listing in the front. Hmmm. Character listings always give me a little pause - just how many people am I supposed to keep track of, anyway? Not to mention that Mr. Barlough names each character in the book - including the cats and horses and wooly mammoths and the one lone dog - but doesn't include all of them in the character list!
The novel takes place (mostly) in a port town known as Salthead. We never actually find out where Salthead is, only that a cataclysm happened previously which pretty much destroyed the world as we know it and killed off a great many people. The story is narrated by someone (we never actually get the name of our narrator), who witnessed the recorded events back when he was very young. The story starts out with the return of a sailor, who was lost at sea and is very much dead but wanders through the streets of Salthead, tormenting the woman who played him. From there on out, the story takes so many twists and turns, you almost need a scorecard not only to remember who is who and how that person is alligned with everyone else in the town but what little thing happened here that causes a ripple effect elsewhere.
The upshot is that an item is stolen, a monster is loose and our band of heroes, including a professor, a doctor, one of the landed gentry and Misses Mona and Nina Jacks, must solve the mystery of why the item is stolen and what is causing the strangeness in Salthead.
The book is quite engaging, the characters are all very well-drawn and the story meanders around like a drunken sailor. It takes a while for the story to actually start being told (mostly so all the players can be introduced - but not well enough for the reader to actually know anything about them, so some of them continually surprise up to the postscript).
My main problem with this novel was that the verb tense kept switching around from present to past tense, with no rhyme nor reason why. It's a bit disconcerting, especially when the story is to have taken place in the past. But if you want a long, odd read, Dark Sleeper is something you want to look into.
February 23, 2017
Took me a bit to get through this one, but it was very enjoyable. Tweaky & bizarre in a great way!
September 8, 2019
There are a small number of books that, for me, cannot be categorized; I put them on a shelf I have labeled "Unique." They bear no relationship to each other aside from their refusal to be classified. Every single volume of Jeffrey E. Barlough's Western Lights series has found a place on this shelf. These books are wonderfully odd, and I know that no review of mine will succeed in conveying the impression they've made on me. Mr. Barlough names his unforgettable characters with a Dickensian flair, and his writing style is reminiscent of both Dickens and Wilkie Collins, with a touch of Conan Doyle. These are superlatively imaginative books that embody mystery, fantasy, the quirks of human nature, the supernatural, a deep feeling for the peculiar atmosphere of his seaports, villages and university towns, an atmosphere so palpable that you will think you're having an out of body experience. Mr. Barlough has the gift of creating stories that are both frightening and strangely cosy - for some of us, an irresistible and rare combination. I've savored every one of the books in this series, each of which I've read more than once.
May 8, 2015
If Charles Dickens had written his works for publication in Weird Tales Magazine, the result would have been very close to Jeffrey Barlough's Dark Sleeper. Darl Sleeper is set in a world where a second Ice Age has come about due to the impact of a large comet. Most of the world has been destroyed except for a few settlements along the coast of North America, and mastodons and sabre-tooth tigers have re-emerged and society has been preserved along a Victorian-Age model. The story proper takes place in the coastal city of Salthead which has of late been haunted by strange and unusual occurrences - a long wrecked merchant ship arising from the depths and harboring just offshore, a ghostly sailor jigging through town, a large vicious mastiff suddenly transforming into a bipedal monster, and more. Fortunately, Professor Titus Vespasianus Tiggs and his good friend Dr. Dampe have undertaken to look into matters discovering that these fantastic occurrences are merely reflections of a much larger and more ancient magic. Filled with a large cast of Dickensian characters and well written in a cozy style, Dark Sleeper is a leisurely read but one that I savored. It is the first in a series and I look forward to seeking out the rest of Barlough's work in this world. I would add a half-star and highly recommend it if you enjoy Dickens and the Weird Tale.
July 18, 2009
I finally finished Dark Sleeper by Jeffrey E. Barlough. I must admit it was not one of those books that so enthralled me that I could not put it down. Actually it was a struggle to finish it. Reviews indicate that later books in the series are better and that is the only reason that I actually finished it. It got 3.5 stars on Amazon. The House in the High Wood and Strange Cargo which are in the same Western Lights series both received 4.5 stars on Amazon. Admittedly simply looking at the stars on Amazon is not totally revealing but we will hope in this case it is true since I already have both of those books in the piles to be read. Bertram of Butter Cross and Anchorwick both have 5 stars and the newspaper review I read was actually quite favorably inclined toward Anchorwick. Those last two seem to be the fourth and fifth books in the series. I will not immediately find out if the later books are truly better since I feel compelled to next read something much lighter and quicker, something that I do not have to slog through, yes, some young adult or children's fantasy book. I must go forth to the piles and see what pops into my hands.
December 26, 2008
I'm trying to pinpoint why I can't give this book 5 stars. I think it's a liteness that I usuallly despise in books. That's got to be it. It needs more horror. It needs more Cthulhu!
But thats focusing on the negative and there are many great things about this book. The most notable would be the characters. There's a large cast and Barlough masterfully distinguishes each with unique physical attributes, dress, mannerisms and speech patterns (and personalities of course). The victorian period speech and attitudes are always a joy and the inclusion of mastadons and sabertooth tigers was interesting. The overall plot was good, but as I've mentioned could have used a bit more doom.
Overall I'm very satisfied at having read this and look forward to picking up more of Mr. Barlough's books set in the same world (I was surprised to find that there were at least 4 others).
But thats focusing on the negative and there are many great things about this book. The most notable would be the characters. There's a large cast and Barlough masterfully distinguishes each with unique physical attributes, dress, mannerisms and speech patterns (and personalities of course). The victorian period speech and attitudes are always a joy and the inclusion of mastadons and sabertooth tigers was interesting. The overall plot was good, but as I've mentioned could have used a bit more doom.
Overall I'm very satisfied at having read this and look forward to picking up more of Mr. Barlough's books set in the same world (I was surprised to find that there were at least 4 others).
June 26, 2009
A neoVictorian fantasy with an interesting twist -- a comet/asteroid collision has brought on a new Ice Age, and the only remaining human settlements are on the coast of what appears to be North America; the culture is very Anglophile, and the technology, pre-railroad early Victorian, though Ice Age mammals roam the continent.
The book is quite Dickensian, in tone and in its large cast of characters. For the first 30-40 pages, it seemed too cute and self-consciously Dickensian, in fact, but either Barlough settled into his tone, or I got used to it (and I am both critical and cranky about neoVictorians, so my guess is the former). It turned out to be a quite enjoyable read -- I'd give it 3 1/2 stars if the system allowed, and I do plan on reading more of Barlough's series.
The book is quite Dickensian, in tone and in its large cast of characters. For the first 30-40 pages, it seemed too cute and self-consciously Dickensian, in fact, but either Barlough settled into his tone, or I got used to it (and I am both critical and cranky about neoVictorians, so my guess is the former). It turned out to be a quite enjoyable read -- I'd give it 3 1/2 stars if the system allowed, and I do plan on reading more of Barlough's series.
November 22, 2013
DARK SLEEPER is an interesting, fascinating book that creates a lush fantastic world inspired by Dickens, but so much darker and stranger. Recommended by Tim Powers and Suzanne Clarke -- and I can see why.
I enjoyed the novel... partially because I've never seen anyone do Dickenesque fiction quite so marvelously as Jeff Barlough. It's a strange, beautiful melange he creates, and because he writes in such detail of his world, it really does work.
The story lags in parts, but only in comparison with contemporary fiction.
If you enjoyed JONATHON STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL's long detailed digressions, you may enjoy this book.
I did, but it's probably not for everyone.
I enjoyed the novel... partially because I've never seen anyone do Dickenesque fiction quite so marvelously as Jeff Barlough. It's a strange, beautiful melange he creates, and because he writes in such detail of his world, it really does work.
The story lags in parts, but only in comparison with contemporary fiction.
If you enjoyed JONATHON STRANGE AND MR. NORRELL's long detailed digressions, you may enjoy this book.
I did, but it's probably not for everyone.
February 7, 2017
I am not sure how I stumbled across this author and series, but I am awfully glad that I did. This first volume in the Western Lights series was a fantastic read and Barlough is quite the story-teller. The story was exciting and the several plot threads wound around each other throughout the novel until they were finally resolved at the end, including a refreshing twist as well as a wonderful wrap-up at the end - a kind of what-happened-to final chapter. Barlough's chief strength is in his characters. I found myself spellbound by their adventures and peculiar personalities.
July 7, 2016
i found this highly entertaining, funny, and enjoyably -written. The characters were colorful and endearing as well as the setting, sort of Victorian/Dickensian. It is quite LO-O-O-NG and there were several times I thought i would abandon ship, even at the end when there were only 20 pages left. I got bored and confused at times and I actually felt the science fiction part very thin and did disservice to the characters - which I believe says a lot for the fact that I finished it and enjoyed it. I think this writer could do a lot more with his writing without the veneer of science fiction.
September 8, 2013
Funny thing. Though I was amazed by the virtuosity of this book, I stopped reading this because it was so slow! Then, I picked it up again, and became more engaged. Still, I can only read a few pages at a time. This is a real testimony to the mastery of the writing. I've heard future volumes move at an easier pace. I do recommend keeping with this one.
May 19, 2008
This is a book you can't rush through. I enjoyed the pace and the characters.
December 20, 2018
Even better upon re -reading. The Dicksensian /Horror combo is fascinating and the small details of every character, including cats, dogs and horses is wonderfully atmospheric.
November 7, 2008
All of Jeffrey Barlough's books are wonderful. They combine a Dickens-era setting (waistcoats and stagecoaches) with creepy horrific elements. Fantastic, gripping stories!
August 28, 2011
It took me a while to get through this, but I'm glad I persevered. The second and third parts of the book were fabulous and anything involving Etruscans will never fail to interest me.
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