Night

by Alan Rodgers

A gripping horror novel from the author of Fire and Blood of the Children.

Tim Fischer's grandfather protects the most powerful relic ever--the Cross upon which Christ was crucified. Tim's grandfather is murdered, and Tim becomes the next guardian just as dark forces converge to unlock hell's horrors.

Genres: Horror

439 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

Alan Rodgers (1959 - 2014) was a science fiction and horror writer, editor, and poet.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was quite hard to wrap my head around. Too much bouncing back and forth for me. This book will be donated I think.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not often that I give up on a book, but around the 300 page mark, I just couldn't take it any more. This book really needed a better editor. It felt like pages and pages and pages of a situation that could have taken 5 pages, at the most. It also had so many discrepancies. Was Tim Fischer five or six when he went to the attic room and saw what he saw? When was he in Kansas? Did he cross the border from Nebraska when he was out there? And why did he go to Tennessee again? It's so overwritten that I couldn't keep track. Was there pressure to write looooong books like Stephen King in 1991, with jumps between the present and the past? It was such a slog. I didn't even make it to the alien abduction part that another reviewer referred to (note: Tim Fischer was not the person abducted by aliens, so no real spoiler here).

An author can write long books and have them still be interesting. One of my favorites is Anne Rice's "The Witching Hour", at over 1,000 pages. It's a superb book. "Night", however, is not a superb book.

[Kyra Dune · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out good. I was drawn in. I was curious about the characters and their situation. But about a third of the way through, the pearl began to loose its shine. The plot started to get a little boring. And Tim is definitely one of the most annoying characters I have ever come across. And not just because every time he turns around he gets knocked unconscious, though that certainly didn't help. He is clueless. I mean he has all these "feelings" that are part of being what he is, but he doesn't understand them. He spends most of the time when he's actually conscious wandering around in a kind of daze. Sure, I've read books about characters with powers they don't understand, but Tim had someone to explain all this to him. He had his grandfather, who was the same as him, and a major force in his life, who certainly should have explained these things to him. Nobody was trying to hide what he was. Trying to protect him or whatever, like in other stories I've read. He's always known what he is, so for him to be so ignorant is ridiculous.

Things get weird in the middle. Really, really weird. Like some kind of fever dream. And what was up with the random dude who got abducted by aliens? I can't count how many times I seriously thought about putting this book down and saying forget about it.

Towards the end, there are a few good scenes. One that even had me tearing up a little. There's no doubt this book does a good job of describing a scene in such a way as to make the reader feel as if they are really there. But that doesn't make up for all the things I didn't like about this book.

And then came the ending. All I can say about that is, really? I dragged myself through this entire book for that?

[Zuli Bryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mom bought this book years ago at a used book store. She hated it. I took it, bored, and read it. I LOVED it! Admittedly, I was in 6th grade at the time, and it definitely had some themes that weren't appropriate for someone my age at the time, but aside from that I loved the plot. I actually liked the over-description (I've seen some criticize the book for this, but it made it much easier for me to read) of scenes and the characters inner thoughts. It helped me to paint the scenes in my head. I seriously couldn't put the book down when I was reading it. After I lost the book, I was devastated (was on my third read through). Only now finally found it again and still love it.
It can sometimes be repetitive with the narration, which can make it hard to read for most people, especially given it's length. But for me that's part of the charm of this book.
I give it a 5 out of 5 for my personal rating, as it's a favorite book of mine. But I wouldn't recommend it as more than beach/lakeside reading to my friends unless they have similar tastes and habits to myself.

[Erica Giambrone · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was confusing and hard to wade through at times and the ending was underwhelming to say the least... Very odd