Más tenebroso de lo que piensas

Darker Than You Think

by Jack Williamson

El profesor Mondrick trajo las pruebas de ello desde lo más oscuro de Asia... pero Algo le silenció para siempre antes de que pudiera revelarlo.

La mujer de Mondrick y sus tres discípulos continuaron su cruzada... pero Algo apuñaló a tres de ellos y marcó al otro como asesino.

El periodista Will Barbe estaba aterrorizado porque él sabía que era ese Algo... y que formaba parte de él.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Werewolves, Urban Fantasy, Classics

271 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1940

About the author

John Stewart Williamson who wrote as Jack Williamson (and occasionally under the pseudonym Will Stewart) was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction".

Reviews

[Michael Fierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeing this, I knew right away that April Bell was a huge Rock 'n' Roll fan, making it quite obvious that she's been ceremoniously singing along to some of her favorite songs!

♬ Ride the tiger
You can see his stripes
but you know he's clean
Oh don't you see what I mean ♫

~ Dio "Holy Diver"

Umm, yeah. So, anyways. I held out on purchasing Darker Than You Think for years until I could find the one with the cover pictured above; A naked red-haired witch riding a huge golden sabre-toothed tiger against a backdrop of brilliantly hued blues and greens. And this is considered a werewolf novel.

Though, it would be better defined as a book of lycanthropy and witchcraft.

I first became aware of this book after reading the precursor novella, Wolves of Darkness, in a fantasy anthology titled, Echoes Of Valor III, edited by Karl Edward Wagner. It contained very entertaining short stories by many of the best authors who contributed to the pulp era magazines of the '30's. Wolves of Darkness by Jack Williamson first appeared in the 1932 January edition of Strange Tales magazine. Strange Tales was a competitor to the better known Weird Tales magazine of sci-fi and fantasy stories.



The success and popularity from Wolves of Darkness inspired Jack Williamson to revisit his theme with a different cast of characters and new story with, Darker Than You Think, first appearing in the December 1940 edition of Unknown magazine, later expanded and published in novel form in 1948.



♬ I want to ride the tiger
I want to ride the tiger
It will be black and white in the dead of night
Eyes flashing in the clear moonlight
I want to ride the tiger ♫

~ Jefferson Starship "Ride the Tiger"

Wile awaiting the landing of his former Archaelogy Professor, newspaper journalist, Will Barbee meets the beautiful and alluring April Bell, an associate journalist, there also to write a story on the return expedition. But, as the Professor departs from the plane, ready to deliver a possibly groundbreaking speach shedding light on the mysteries that connect the natural with the supernatural, all with a mysterious ancient box in tow, he collapses dead on the spot. This brings Will Barbee and April Bell together to find and determine what the box contains and what it's ties are with someone or something called, The Child Of Night. And due to his budding relationship with April Bell, Barbee has to make decisions that put him up against his former scientific colleagues and best friends, a detriment to all parties involved. The threads to the mystery of who or what The Child of the Night may be climaxes in one of the most compelling reads of witchcraft and lycanthropic fiction I've ever read.



Darker Than You Think, reads more like a noir detective novel from the 30's than anything else though it is, and should be, considered a fantasy book.

With that said, you may be surprised to know that there is true horror in these pages that leave impressions hard to shake.

Interwoven throughout is a great occult theory that really stuck with me, adding a dimension to it I wasn't expecting.



Darker Than You Think has continued to collect great critical acclaim and fanfare over the years and has won many accolades from renown writers in different fields of writing. It has been praised as one of the greatest werewolf novels in print by Brian W. Aldiss (Sci-fi), Peter Straub (Horror), and Poul Anderson (Fantasy / Sci-fi), who went so far as to write his own short story sequel, Inside Passage, continuing the strong themes that are the backdrop to both, Wolves of Darkness and Darker Than You Think, published in The Williamson Effect edited by Roger Zelazny with an introduction by David Brin.



For those not familiar with pulp or serial writing, be aware of a few repeat phrases or overused words, as verbiage was habitually more common then from one magazine issue to another, and decidedly, to help you refamiliarize yourself from where you left off. Most of that can be charming but a few like, "shiver" "shivered" "shivering" and "the white bitch" can be a little aggravating. The multiple award-winning cover artist, David G. Klein, also did some fine memorable black & white interior illustrations that enhance the reading pleasure greatly. However, it may help to know, a couple are out of story sequence. And also, disregard that 1 star review. This is one of those where 70+ years of good to great reviews for this book wins. Sorry.

*WARNING!: If you are a kitty kat lover or very sensitive to small cats being harmed, be aware that something pretty terrible happens in the beginning pages. After that, we're all good! But, I found it to be by far the most horrifying sequence in the entire book! :(

Highly recommended!!!!!

[mark monday · Rating 3 out of 5]

they don't always howl at the moon but they do only come out at night, in all sorts of shapes, there and not-there, ready to kill and have been ready since the beginning of mankind. The Enemy! to humans and canines alike! masters of atomic probability: turning metal into mist and walking through walls; picking just the right place for an unfortunate accident, be it bloody car crash or a great fall from a high place. only silver holds them back!
Fantastic Plot

expert pacing: the plot moves like it has someplace to go and should have been there yesterday. the prose crackles and pops. the descriptions of transformation, of what it feels like to be wolf or sabretooth or giant snake or ancient flying saurian... brilliantly done. Williamson gets right in there.
Outstanding Writing well, at times.

the "hero" is as interesting and dynamic as a soppy mop. this idiot mewls like a kitten to a beyond-eye-rolling degree. seriously man, how many dreams do you have to have that appear to have actually occurred, down to the last detail, until you realize these are not dreams? well apparently nine-tenths of a novel's worth. get a grip and stop moaning about it, Princess Crybaby!
Tedious Protagonist

I really didn't enjoy how the novel rationalizes the burning of witches, the burning of Joan of Arc, and the Inquisition. reading that gave me a visceral and verbal reaction: I yelled BOOOO! LAME! to no one in particular, startling my cat awake.
Sorry, Digsy

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

5.0 to 5.5 stars. I just finished re-reading this FANTASY CLASSIC after originally reading it over 10 years ago. As good as I thought it was back then, I must have read it too quickly and not absorbed all of the nuances because this time around I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! Originally published in 1948, this novel is one of the definitive stories about werewolves. I certainly think it is the most interesting explanation for Homo lycanthropus that I have ever come across.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PLOT

Will Barbee is a correspondent for a local paper. As the story opens, Will is at the airport covering the return from Mongolia of an scientific expedition that has been exploring ancient ruins. The expedition has informed the press that they have made a discovery that will "change everything" and effect all of mankind and they plan to make their discovery known immediately as they fear they may be in danger from what they describe as "the ancient enemy."

The expedition was led by Will's old professor and the other members of the expedition are all close friends of Wills. In fact, Will had originally studied with the professor at the university and had believed he would accompany the group on the expedition. However, the professor, after doing a standard medical examination on Will refused to allow Will to join the group and effectively dismissed him from the team without any explantion. This led to Will having very bitter feelings for the professor who is once admired.

At the airport, Will meets April Bell, a reporter from another paper there to cover the same story. Will is immediately drawn to April and yet he feels that there is something "very dark" about her. April also appears hostile towards the members of the expedition.

Prior to making their discovery public, the professor dies of seemingly natural causes. However, Will (for a variety of reasons I won't give away) suspects April Bell. Afterwards, Will becomes determined to discover the truth about both (i) the expeditions discovery and (ii) what happened to the professor.

That is the basic premise of the story and sets the stage for the rest of the novel but all of that takes place in the first chapter of the book. As for the rest of the story, it is hard to discuss without giving away spoilers, so I will try and be very general. Despite Will's suspicions of April, he becomes increasingly attracted/obssessed with her. He also begins to have vivid dreams of changing into an animal and stalking members of the expedition with April. As more and more members of the expedition begin to die in mysterious circumstances, Will's grip on reality begins to slip and he becomes increasingly unsure of what is real and what is not to the point where he believes he is going insane.

This is what the story is really about. Will's personal journey from the beginning of the novel to the amazing ending. However, along the way there are so many fascinating ideas and plot points that I never wanted to put the book down including (1) an amazing "scientific" explanation for the basis of supernatural abilities that involves the manipulation of probabilities and (2) the "history" of an ancient war from hundreds of thousands of years ago that explains the basis for all of mankinds nightmare creatures (vampires, werewolves, demons, ogres, dragons, etc.).

Bottom-line, I thought this was an incredible read from start to finish and clearly is among the top two books that Jack Williamson ever wrote (The Humanoids: A Novel being the only other possible choice). In the introduciton to this novel, Jack Williamson siad that this story was his most "personal" story and I thought that came through in the writing. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!

[Althea Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read as part of the Retro Hugo Voters' Packet - although it was disqualified as a nominee: "The finalist “Darker Than You Think” by Jack Williamson was mistakenly categorized as a novelette. The story is a novella, but did not receive enough nominations to be a finalist as a novella."

Personally, I'd say this is definitely an actual novel - the pacing and structure give it that feel. It's really not that short, either.

Wait... ah-ha!

"Darker Than You Think by Jack Williamson, originally a novelette, was expanded into novel length and published by Fantasy Press in 1948. The short version was published in Unknown in 1940."

I'm pretty sure that I actually read the 1948 novel-length version. (Because it kept not-ending. Not that it really dragged on, but I thought I was reading a short piece, and I wasn't...)

Either way, I thought this would've made a great 1970's or 1960's horror film. It would sit on the shelf comfortably next to The Wicker Man and Rosemary's Baby.

Journalist Will Barbee is ready to meet the returning members of an expedition to far-off lands. He's sure that he'll get the scoop on whatever their discoveries were, because it just so happens that he was college friends with the researchers. However, while waiting for them to meet the press, he finds himself next to a young woman, April Bell, who introduces herself as a budding journalist and is eager for him to give her professional tips. Barbee feels an intense mix of attraction and mysterious repulsion regarding the young woman. The press conference ends up being prevented due to a shocking tragedy - and Barbee's feelings toward April begin to include a suspicion that she might somehow be guilty of a terrible crime. That doesn't stop him from asking her out to dinner, though.

As events progress, we learn that whatever ancient secrets or artifacts were discovered on the expedition may be a threat to a modern cult of witches or other supernatural beings. Against his will, Barbee is drawn into diabolical doings...

Not bad; glad I read it.

I wouldn't have voted for it to win a Hugo, however, mainly because it's horror and not speculative fiction.

[David Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reserve the right to give this one three and a half stars.
Ooh boy! This is a toughie.
Early on at least, I enjoyed the 'pulpy' style of the writing in Darker Than You Think. The opening airport scene was terrific, and it succeeded in reeling me into the story. I also thoroughly enjoyed the pseudo scientific theories used to explain much of the plot. Hey, a secret and ancient cabal filled with malice and ill intent, it works for me!
Also, as someone who is well read on astral/etheric projection, and instances where it has been used to explain werewolf-ism, I loved the premise.
All of this being said; I thought a great idea was spoiled by poor execution, and a plot which contained no surprises, and revealed itself almost from the get-go. Furthermore, I hated Will Barbee with a vengeance. Our protagonist (Barbee) is presented as a spineless, gullible, dumb-ass moron, who is all to easily persuaded to turn against his friends and dear ones.
Could have been five stars, but unfortunately fell waaayyy(!) short.

[Tim Pendry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally written at the very end of the 1930s and published in 1948, this is a remarkable dream-like (or rather nightmarish) paranoid fantasy about were-people taking over the world - it is also very sexy in that subdued way of the mid-twentieth century.

I can imagine this being filmed in 'noir', a greyscale of airports, small town life, redheads in apartments, cocktail bars and insane asylums, with the 'dream' or 'madness' or 'enhanced existence' sequences (it is not clear what they are and I will not spoil your own conclusions) in vivid technicolour.

The 'dream' sequences (let's leave it at that to make it simple) are embedded in the sort of psychoanalytic and scientific narrative that you might expect in a book of this era but they are 'darker than you think'.

Perhaps this is another example of one of my review themes - the unintended consequences of books since 'evil', in many ways conventionally presented, looks as if it is a damned attractive option here.

The narrative, drawn from the dark adventure tradition of the weird pulps, allows the 'dreams' to explore the link between freedom, sex and violence in a way that may still be repressed at core but which surges into the psyche regardless, certainly the male psyche.

Riding the ether as a wild beast in the accompany of a sexy were-wolf to slate your desires without conscience and defy common materiality scarcely seems like something to be avoided for most young red-blooded males.

The noir eroticism of Jacques Tourneur's 'Cat People' (1942) springs to mind here and there are similarities that suggest that Williamson was absorbing some of the story, either directly or by report.

Like the unintended consequences of the anti-pagan 'Wicker Man' in creating the English neo-pagan mentality, this book influenced Jack Parsons' vision of the scarlet woman in his Babalon Rising experiment, extending the fantastic into new forms that were surely equally unintended by the scientifically minded Williamson.

I have a bad habit of always positioning a text in its time against all the rules of the deconstructionists - it may be invented by me to a great extent but it is also something created out of a time and place. In this case, the time and place is an America of suppressed psychological violence and distrust.

The publication (though not the core drafting) appeared in a paranoid America not only terrified of the enemy within (the 'Reds') but of the beast within (mollified only partially by psychotherapeutic nostrums that were not always to be taken at face value).

Williamson did not go to war but was a late career academic (the 'literariness' of the text shows through sometimes) who made the transition from Merritt-influenced popular fantasy to this 'noir' realism through his own psychotherapeutic journey.

However, the 'mentality' of the book may well have tapped into the confusion of younger men who returned in 1945 to a world that was apparently ordered and modern but which merely repressed the fact that they had been permitted to be 'beasts' under state sanction.

The connection between the paranoid America of the McCarthy era and the fact that the 'beasts' had come home and needed to be reintegrated has perhaps never been looked at in any depth but Cold War paranoia may have been an ordering catharsis.

In other words, what we see as the 'evil' of McCarthyism today could have looked like the 'lesser evil' against threats in a war and this book reflects that mentality.

We have here a ruthless war of species, fought below the radar screen of an unwitting populace, and the final form of the book may have subconsciously reflected similar paranoid fears elsewhere in America.

Certainly, this book might be read in this way as part of a total culture of 'noir' distrust that originated well before the war.

The fantastic imagination has turned inwards, although Williamson was also a highly regarded science fiction writer and could also look 'outwards', to deal with the psychological fragility below apparent conformity.

There are references to a were-blood in our species that is at the root of war and violence and of selective breeding and eugenics that might well reflect popular interpretations of national socialist ideology so the analysis is not fanciful.

However, current and recent events, other than standard small town political fare, are signally absent with the back story being something straight out of Merritt's world of the 1920s.

Perhaps, the very lack of reference to 'big events' suggests denial or displacement as a strategy, especially in a book that relies heavily on popularised Freudianism but you may be the final judge of that.

Nevertheless, though not perfect, the book is a masterpiece of fantasy horror. Anyone who is a habitue of the dark fantasy shelves in their local bookshop (if any survive) may get great pleasure from a book that is one of the founding texts of the genre.

I will not say anything further of the story line or characterisation (though much could be said) because the book depends on a degree of suspense. Let us just say that it may be 'darker than you (first) think'.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite being identified as “one of the best werewolf novels”, I found this book to be a crashing disappointment. Why? The reasons are as under: -

1. The protagonist is the worst one that I have EVER encountered in a book, in terms of believability. My arguments are:
a. In a style bitterly reminiscent of Hamlet and his procrastinations but without any of the literary paraphernalia that had made those lines so special, he spends the whole length of the novel without doing anything in his persona.
b. He shivers at the thought of the femme fatale and yet does absolutely nothing to expose her, and rather tries to protect her from people whom he had once looked upon as mentor or friends.
c. In his sleep, he becomes a werewolf and murders everybody who had meant something for him, and after waking up he makes himself drunk and offers consolations to the near ones of those whom he had murdered.
d. He is described as a small-town reporter who is supposed to be sharp as well as educated, but all he does is keep on babbling when he should kept his trap shut, and offering his tongue to the cat when he should have helped others by speaking the truth.
e. At the end of the novel he finds himself dead, but rather than taking any offence at that and taking the axe (tooth & claw, if one is literal minded) to those who had led to this, he revels at being the ‘Child of Night’ and ‘The Dark Messiah’.
That’s more than one impossible thing before breakfast. Where is the DRINK ME bottle?
2. The novella where the idea behind this novel had been explored for the 1st time (“Wolves of Darkness”) might have been ideally suited for the slim plot, but in trying to make it a novel, the author has only added to the flab, and had taken away the pace.
3. The scientific expedition, whose return from Mongolia (names of other exotic locales are thrown about to titillate the ignoramus gorging on the pulps, in a typical manner) acts as the starting point of the book, is led by a scientist who is an anthropologist, archaeologist, zoologist, geneticist, psychologist, …. you got the drift. In those post-war days such characters might have been credible, but today it’s impossible.
4. Every other character acts as if they are lifted straight from the worst possible stereo-typing experiments: women are perpetually distressed, men are sulky & silent (strangely, since they should have reported the whole stuff to the authorities and by not doing so risked becoming dubbed as frauds & charlatans), doctors are sinister, editors are hand (paw?)-in-gloves with conspirators, ….. again, you get the drift.

I can go on & on, but for a book that I strongly recommend TO STAY AWAY FROM, I think I have written more than enough. The only redeeming thing in this bloated piece is the pseudo-scientific theory behind shape-shifting and witchcraft, but that alone can’t justify reading this book. NOT RECOMMENDED.

[Lizz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

And until now, I haven’t read Williamson, a situation I am fortunately in the process of remedying. This was a fun little noir story, concerning an alcoholic newspaper man, Barbee, and his run-in with an evolutionary break-off species of man, known by many names: lycanthropes, jaguar-men, or simply, witches. It’s just one of these he meets in April Bell, whose mysteries, revelations, and seductions bring out a whole new Barbee. Is he really changing or is Barbee simply cracking under the pressure of drink, realistic nightmares, the death of his old friends and the fear of losing his mind?

I give this about 3.5 stars because it was clear how the original short story had to be a bit pulled and repeated and misshapen in order to be stretched into a full novel. I was taken in by the first scene of lovely characterization and creepy atmosphere at the airport.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping story from start to finish that provides a different take on the idea of lycanthropy drawing together strands from quantum mechanics, freudian psycology and evolutionary theory.

~ After re-reading this about 16 years later, I wasn't quite as impressed after I apparently was the first time I read it. The identity of the "Child of the Night" was so clearly telegraphed from very early on that it was hardly a surprise when it was eventually revealed. Still an enjoyable read though.

I don't usually do this but I'm revising my original rating by deducting a star.

[Jaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite werewolf stories.

[June · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book about a race of people (creatures?) with astral traveling abilities has a fantastic plot, and a frenetic pace and pulpy feel to the writing which drives the storytelling along; I loved it. The weak spot, for me at least, was the protagonist. Will Barbee is supposedly a sharp witted, small town reporter, with a drive for getting to the nitty-gritty of any story. In reality he is as sharp as a blunt egg.
Honestly, super reporter Will finds himself in a situation where he carries out numerous unspeakable acts during his bouts of astral traveling, and on each occasion he wakes up and procrastinates while drinking himself into a stupor. Even when it becomes apparent people are dying horribly, still he refuses to accept the truth of his situation.
Even once Mr. Slackjaw finally accepts the truth about who is the Queen Evil-Bitch, still he acts to protect her and her despicable actions.
Honestly, I absolutely loved the plot, the pace, and the pulp feel of this novel, but it was let down badly by the ineptitude of the protagonist. Nevertheless, this remains an intriguing read.

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised when I checked this out from the library that it was written in 1948. It is a dark tale and must be one of the earliest examples of urban fantasy.

It is a tale of lycanthropy rather than werewolves alone. It is pulp fiction that has quite stereotypical characters such as April Bell the femme fatale. It is great fun and a quick read with some interesting twists.

While it is of its time period it has aged well.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Williamson's "Darker Than You Think" is a one-shot horror-novel excursion for this science fiction Grand Master, but has nonetheless been described as not only the author's finest work, but also one of the best treatments of the werewolf in modern literature. It has been chosen for inclusion in David Pringle's overview volume "Modern Fantasy: The Hundred Best Novels" ("a relatively disciplined and thoughtful work," Pringle writes, in comparing it to the author's earlier space operas) as well as in Jones & Newman's "Horror: Another 100 Best Books" ("the most unique and original take written on...lycanthropy," illustrator Randy Broecker tells us). The novel originally appeared in a "short," 48,000-word form in the December 1940 issue of "Unknown" magazine (the fantasy sister of "Astounding Science-Fiction"), and was later expanded by the author for a 1948 book edition. Though dealing with werewolves, the novel presents us with a very different sort of monster than readers of earlier horror tales and viewers of Universal horror pictures were perhaps accustomed to. Williamson's werewolves are actually shape shifters, capable of becoming wolves or any other creature that strikes their fancy. Roaming at night, free of their corporeal bodies and invisible to human eyes, they have existed since the first Ice Age and for thousands of years dominated prehistoric Homo sapiens. Hidden and desperate by the mid-20th century, they await their so-called Black Messiah, the Child of Night, who will lead them to their long-awaited reconquest of man.

But "Darker Than You Think" (a strangely unsatisfying title for me, somehow; "Child of Night" might have been preferable) is mainly the story of Will Barbee, an alcoholic newspaperman living in the fictitious city of Clarendon (somewhere in the southeast U.S., I infer). Barbee meets a ravishing fellow reporter, April Bell, whilst covering a story at the Clarendon airport. Professor Mondrick and his three young colleagues, all old friends of Barbee, have just returned from the Gobi Desert with news of a monumental discovery. But as Mondrick and the others begin to die one by one over the course of the next few days, in exact conformity with some rather bizarre dreams of Barbee's--in which he assumes the forms of a wolf, a saber-toothed tiger and a giant constrictor, alongside April Bell--the befuddled reporter must riddle out what is real and what, if anything, is fantasy. It is not a simple thing for me to write about this novel's story line without giving away any of the book's many surprises, and indeed, perhaps I have already said too much. Suffice it to say that poor Barbee is thrown into an increasingly noirish and nightmare-filled world, and that Williamson keeps the suspense quotient ratcheted very high. Though not a science fiction novel per se, the author does manage to come up with a scientific explanation for the shape shifters' powers that invokes such disparate subjects as the Rhine experiments at Duke University and Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Williamson's background history of "Homo lycanthropus" is equally fascinating, incorporating ancient mythology, 15th century mass murderer Gilles de Rais and even Joan of Arc. As compared to Williamson's sci-fi output of the '30s, "Darker Than You Think" is certainly more elegantly written, and the author shows a much greater control over his descriptions and dialogue. The novel gets increasingly, uh, hairy as it progresses, with each chapter revealing some stunning surprise or shocking plot development. It is an extremely accomplished melding of fantasy, horror, sci-fi and pulp noir, and really almost a perfect novel. (The author does make a few flubs in the book, such as when he has a hungover Barbee thinking of the rum he had consumed the night before, when in actuality he had been drinking rum daiquiris TWO nights before.) I cannot say for certain whether or not this is Williamson's finest novel (I have only read a half dozen or so from this author's huge ouevre, which spans almost an 80-year period!), but it sure is a mighty gripping read that will undoubtedly appeal to any fan of those four genres just mentioned. The werewolves on display here make Lawrence Talbot seem like a weenie, and that's surely no easy task! More than highly recommended!

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeper than you think.

I’d heard of this book but never had a full description of the plot. I thought it was about a grizzled reporter on the trail of a werewolf.
it actually goes far beyond werewolves or monsters, it’s very imaginative and leaves you wondering what’s real or not as the protagonist descends into madness.

It’s full of ancient mysteries and colourful characters that might be friend or foe.

I don’t want to say too much, if you haven’t read it and you’re interested, just dive into it, it’s better that way. It’s only about 260 pages so even if you don’t like it as much as I did it’s not a huge investment

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Again I'm not as thrilled with a book as some of my friends. I need to remind myself that a lot of the cliches in this book weren't as cliched when it was written.

There is a scene early in the book that is written in the standard heavy dark portentous manner that left me in stitches. We've all seen it and read it sooooo often. The professor has already sent word that he needs to be protected and guarded until he makes his huge announcement. So he steps out of the plane and begins, not a quick announcement, but a long prolog. He stops and chokes and coughs several times....something must be wrong. But, he goes on for three pages , and of course dies before he ever gets any of his announcements out. I doubt anyone ever actually thought the professor would get his warning out. I was laughing so hard at the scene (which has been in movies, comic books, novels, short stories etc. so often ).

The book was well written and a good story. I kept seeing the thing in my mind in black and white like an old 1940s movie. Keep in mind it was written in the pulp era and wasn't quite so repetitive as it might seem now.

The same applies to the end. I was disappointed in the ending, but again at the time it was written this ending might have been a less common type than it is now.

This is remembered as one of the earliest lycanthrope type novels from America and may be worth running down for that reason alone. So, I suppose I go with a not bad on this one. It probably depends a lot on the mood you're in when you read it and "again" each person's taste.

[Stephanie Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this story! DARKER THAN YOU THINK, by Jack Williamson, is a classic old-school shapeshifter novel originally published in the 1940s.
Will Barbee is an alcoholic newspaper writer, who goes to greet his ex-colleagues at the airport after they have been digging for artifacts in Mongolia for two years. Something isn’t right and the lead researcher dies on the tarmac before he can make a big announcement.
Barbee wants to find out why the researcher was murdered and before long more people are murdered, only it seems to Barbee that it was HE who murdered the other ones in his dreams. He thinks it may be the alcohol fueling these incredible dreams. Is he really responsible for these killings? What does the red-haired woman have to do with all of this? Who are his friends and who shouldn’t he trust? The writing of Barbee's internal turmoil is great.
The novel sounds very much like something written in the 1940s – I could visualize it being a black and white film as I was reading. This made it just that much more wonderful to read!
Any horror fan would appreciate this early rendition of a vampire/shapeshifter story. Williamson won many awards over his writing career, including a Grand Master Nebula and a Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award.
This is a book that will stay in my library. I also recommend his story, THE HUMANOIDS.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early on the writing was a bit clunky, and with an abundance of oft repeated phrases. Thankfully it smoothed out a little as the story progressed.
This was an interesting tale about a secret race of shape-shifters - allegedly out for world domination, although there was little sign of that. I did enjoy the rather novel approach Williamson took with regards the creatures shape changing abilities, but felt the story was let down by the unlikely actions of a somewhat deplorable protagonist. Nevertheless, an entertaining slice of hokum.

[Julie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story where "were" creatures are not confined to wolves. Though they are definitely dark and in conflict with humans. We see a weak man torn between the beautiful new woman of his acquaintance and the life-long friendships of those on the side of good.

At stake? Oh - only the fate of all humanity!

It was a bit of seasonal reading for me since Halloween is in a week and enjoyable enough.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had bought a paperback of this when I was a wee lad (the edition pictured above) - tried to read it, gave up, and later lost it. Looking at it as an adult, I can see why it was tough for me to engage with it, as I even had some problems reading it as an adult now. I like lots of different styles of writing , including some experimental stuff that drives most people batty, so saying I had a tough time may be taken as code by some that this book is poorly written. It isn't.

It's inelegant and clunky at the start (Williamson was trying to stretch beyond his 30's pulp roots) and so it's repetitious and redundant at times, with a frustratingly weak-willed main character in one Will Barbee, a near-alcoholic newspaper reporter still nursing hurt feelings towards his Anthropologist Professor father-figure - a man who rejected Will from participating in the Prof's exploratory archeology team, now returning from the Mongolian desert with a rumored world-shaking discovery dug up from an ancient tomb. But during a dramatic press-conference at the airport, the Professor up and dies mere seconds away from making his revelation and the rest of his team bolt into hiding to protect the secret from shadow forces arrayed against them. And what does all have to do with the alluring, sensual red-head April Bell, cub reporter in town, who sidles up to Barbee for info and may (or may not) have secretly killed a little kitten at press conference in an act of primitive, sympathetic magic?

If you're interested, I will say that the writing smooths out at about the halfway point where, water-treading exposition out of the way, the plot really starts to cook, eventually reaching a fine crescendo suffused with both sickly demonic glee and powerful dark fantasy imagery (the book is less horror, despite the folkloric/demonic figures, than it is a strange mix of dark fantasy and science fiction - nowadays it would be considered an "Urban Fantasy", I think). So if you're considering reading it, I'd say gird your loins a bit for the frustrating first half (although honestly, the opening scenes at the airport had a kind of Doc Savage feel to them) because it does get good. Beyond that, I have to enter.... the spoiler zone...

The desire to spin a science-fiction take on the werewolf myth seems to have been buzzing around quite a bit in the 40's and 50s. This book brought to mind the extended novella "There Shall Be No Darkness" by James Blish, which I reviewed in Zacherley's Vulture Stew - although Blish's scientific rationale for actual physical shape-shifting involving pituitary glands is here replaced with a much easier to swallow (if slightly more nebulous and ill-defined) projecting of the will out of the body into a malleable energy form which can also bend probability to its desires (but which is hampered by sunlight and silver) - all a mutation possessed by a secret parallel species of mankind, homo lycanthropus, who are, for lack of a better term, witch-people living amongst us since the Ice Age, responsible for stories of monsters, vampires, sorcerers, etc.

Williamson crams a lot into this novel, and honestly does it only somewhat successfully. Partly it's down to that repetition I mentioned, as the novel's voice is a very "internalized but still surface-level observational" POV - Barbee repeats and repeats himself and experiences things and then questions them and then experiences them again and then questions them while blocks of exposition appear in the middle of tense scenes. When we do get Barbee's feelings, they are an anguished conflict over his desire to be a good man and his being driven (not too strongly, it must be said) to commit acts of evil - which is fine, but it does get repetitious as I said and you begin to get frustrated with him. Partly, this is always the problem of a book in which a main character is having a vast conspiracy revealed to them - it's almost inevitable that they have to sit back and listen to exposition or conjecture at various points, while wondering how far down the machinations go and how deeply they and their friends are involved. For the time period, there's some nice attempts at psychological detail involving unrequited love, wish fulfillment, sexual desire, parental attachment, addictions and even the vaguest whiff of sadomasochism in some of the transformation sequences involving Barbee and April. Those transformation scenes are some of the book's strongest, as they allow Williamson to indulge in a little sense-based (scent/sound) atmospherics during the character's wild, passionate stalkings through the night (although the actual details of the transformations are clumsily deployed at first - I like the detail that the forms remain invisible to mankind unless the transformed wishes to be seen, but we can only assume that they are "talking" through telepathy, and the fact that they leave their bodies behind is not made clear until later).

Similarly, the race-war aspect of the narrative is potentially interesting (Barbee's secret nature fighting against enculturated social training), with an initial flirting with a question of whether the Lycanthropes are inherently evil, but for the plot to continue, that question gets settled fairly easily, which makes Barbee's continued waffling frustrating, as I said (he basically seems driven to continue to question it simply because of his lust for April and his deep-seated enjoyment of his exciting new form's freedoms - only that latter part seems justifiable). The hybrid status general humanity allows a bunch of "mixed blood" plot devices to move things along as well. Another level of frustration is found in the novel's decision to extend the "is it real or am I dreaming/crazy?" approach - understandable as a starting point but it continues on for far longer than the reader could desire or enjoy - perhaps more subtle writing at the start could have played this better, leaving the reader unsure and wary, perhaps even playing much more off Barbee's alcoholism (which, nicely, *is* subtly implied as extending from his rejection of his true nature), but Williamson doesn't seem up to it. Which is a shame, because April as Femme Fatale and Barbee as boozy sap, gradually transforming from that noir starting point and into something more mythic and horrific, would have really made this a classic. There are flashes of potential for that here but it doesn't seem to have been Williamson's particular approach of interest as a writer...

The book's turning point is reached when Barbee checks himself into an asylum (even though he mentions his problems with booze, they assure him he can still have three bourbons a night, one before dinner and two after! Ah, the 1940s!) and the plot really picks up steam from that point. This was never going to be a deep, thoughtful book but as dark fantasy pulp yarn, it works a treat, getting more and more desperate and unnerving, verging on Cornell Woolrich territory (in plot and feel, if not actual writing), until a nicely nightmarish car chase in the rain and then the dramatic ending (this being a book about parallel races, sadly you do have to maneuver a bit of clumsy "who are your parents, really?" malarkey, which seems somewhat tacked on, along with an unsurprising revelation of "who is the Child Of The Night?", the answer to one of two pivotal questions in the book - the second question, "what's in the box" is really only half-answered, but that's okay). I liked that the ending is neither triumphant nor apocalyptic, but open-ended - a success for evil but a minor success for Barbee's better nature (I'll be interested to hunt down the otherly-authored sequel short stories in The Williamson Effect) and it occurred to me that this could make a quite entertaining modern cgi-effects film....

So, I liked it. It had problems, or maybe I had problems with it, but especially as the second half clicked along I could see how it had had such an impact at the time. Interesting read of a key text!

[MB Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished reading Darker Than You Think one night last week on the bus home from work. Gollancz reprinted it in 2003 as number 38 in their “Fantasy Masterworks” series. I don’t know if it’s a masterwork or not, but it’s definitely one of the best books I’ve read recently.

I haven’t read much werewolf fiction, but I’m fairly certain this isn’t representative of that sub-genre of horror/dark fantasy. It also doesn’t really fit into the urban fantasy genre. While it’s true that in the world of the novel most people don’t believe in werewolves (a typical facet of urban fantasy); this novel doesn’t exactly portray werewolves as supernatural.

Like the vampires in Poppy Z. Brite’s Lost Souls the werewolves in Darker than You Think are portrayed as a separate species of intelligent life living amidst us regular humans.

At least that’s one viewpoint presented in the novel. Another is that the supposed lycanthropy is one man’s descent into paranoia & depression.

The main character, Will Barbee, isn’t sure which he believes; and Williamson does a masterful job of keeping the reader unsure as well. Given the amount of sf/horror/dark fantasy in my reading list, I was predisposed to believe a supernatural explanation and more than willing to accept an alternate species, but I was never quite sure where the novel was going.

Overall I thought Darker Than You Think was excellent; well worth reading, even 60+ years after its original book publication (70+ years after the publication of the magazine version in Unknown Fantasy Fiction, December 1940).

For some reason, I’ve not read much (if any) Williamson before this. I find that somewhat surprising since his work has been around forever (his first story was published in 1928 and his last novel in 2005), he wrote in genres I tend to read extensively (Science Fiction and Fantasy) and he was well respected in both genres (in 1976 he was second author named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the SFWA; and in 1994 he received a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement).

I hope Darker Than You Think isn’t atypical of his work as I plan to read more.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Pulp deliciosamente previsible.-

Género. Narrativa Fantástica.

Lo que nos cuenta. Will Barbee, periodista de La Estrella de Clarendon, conoce a April Bell de El Faro de Clarendon mientras ambos esperan la llegada al aeropuerto del Doctor Lamarck Mondrick, responsable de la Fundación de Investigaciones Humanas, y de todo su equipo de arqueólogos e investigadores que vienen directamente desde Mongolia. Cuando el Dr. Mondrick trata de hacer un importante anuncio en una improvisada rueda de prensa, muere repentinamente. Publicada por primera vez como novela corta en 1940, extendida a novela ocho años después, y conocida en español también como “El hijo de la noche” y “Más tenebroso de lo que pensáis”.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Gregory Mele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting horror novel -- more because of its early date and the obvious influences it had in later fiction, than for itself. Written in 1948, this is a story of a hidden race of humans (or rather, human-adjacent) that are the source of stories of witches, vampires, shape-changers, etc.

Although not the first tale to suggest a hidden cousin-species to modern humans, nor that there is a hidden, alternative history to mankind, this is one of the first to pull it all together in quite this way, and then to try and explain the magical nature of these creatures via the (then) nascent field of Einsteinian and quantum physics. The science-babble is part and parcel of the era (fantasy was a hard sell in the mid-century, unless married to sci-fi trappings), but it works here. The overall result of the novel, however, is decidedly mixed. When we finally learn the "secret history" late in the novel, it is wonderfully chilling, and the overall explanation of these creatures and their powers obviously cast a spell on later writers -- you can see its tendrils in work as varied as that of Neil Gaiman and the World of Darkness RPGs created by Mark Rein*Hagen (both men acknowledged fans of the novel), in the alien-human hybrid storyline of X-Files, and even in the pseudo-history/conspiracy theory writings of people like Graham Hancock.

The problem isn't the novel, or its plot, it is its protagonist. Will Barbee, a failed anthropology student turned embittered, alcoholic investigative reporter, is portrayed as so absurdly naive and incredulous as to be ludicrous. Imagine going to dinner with someone after watching your old mentor die, and she confesses to the murder...tells you how she did it.... but you know, she's really pretty, so you make another date? Or, you keep having dreams in which you are there when your friends die horribly, then learn it happened just like that...and you keep shrugging it off. These elements, handled differently could have worked, but as written, Barbee is so clueless, encounters so many clues that he misses that are all but readily apparent to the reader, that it becomes silly.

Three stars because of what was then a very original idea, and the long shadow it has cast. No more than that, because Williamson's choice in overly-lush prose (if I had to hear the phrase "sleek, white bitch with haunting green eyes" -- referring to a werewolf -- one more time I was going to scream), and a profoundly stupid central character made the work become a plod by the end.

[DeAnna Knippling · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reporter plunges (convincingly) into the roots of evil.

Sorry, my darling witch friends. The author really didn't need to blacken the name of witches, and...ouch. I cannot recommend this for you.

The book isn't really about witches, though, but about a-holes. Narcissists. Psychopaths. People with deadly charm and the seeming ability to control the people and events around them, a la Charles Manson. People who see the rest of us as so much meat.

The author posits that this element--whatever it is--comes from another race with which Homo sapiens bred. Too much of it, and you get these strange powers and a complete disregard for normal humanity. Personally, I suspect that that sort of easy answer will never be found.

This is an idea book, but keeps the explanations to a bare minimum. The action, characters, and plot are only just enough to make the ideas stick together--how do a-holes think? How could they possibly justify all this? Why can't they leave the rest of us alone? And is there any hope?

The answers are pretty convincing, including the twist at the end, or maybe especially the twist at the end, given our current situation.

Recommended for fantasy, sf, and crime fans. NOT recommended for Pagans. Please remember that a-holes are not Pagans, and vice versa, and Pagans don't need to be targeted for being "evil." If you're pre-emptively targeting a group that done you no wrong or has even provided a net benefit, you're the bad guys. Just a reminder.

[Donnell Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Darker Than You Think is the story of WILL BARBEE, a heavy drinking newspaper reporter assigned to cover the story of an archaeological teams' mysterious dig in the Gobi Desert. When Dr. Mondrick Lamarck and his team of scientists deplane, Will and a rival reporter APRIL BELL are there among other members of the press to meet the archaeologists at the airport. The team carries with them a mysterious trunk, but instead of being excited about what's in it, they're afraid -- intensely so. When Dr. Mondrick, the leader of the expedition, tries to explain what they found in the desert, which includes a secret enemy awaiting the coming of the "Child of the Night," he falls dead at reporters' feet, the apparent victim of a heart attack.

As for April Bell, a fellow reporter Will should see as his opposition, he finds he is intensely attracted to her, even though he senses she might have had something to do with Dr. Mondrick's death. As maddening dreams invade his waking life, and old friends start to die one after the other, Will stumbles onto a semihuman breed of shapeshifters who are waging an ancient war in the name of the Child of the Night.

For anyone who loves paranormal, Jack Williamson deftly combines elements of witchcraft, vampires and shapeshifters. His research, which includes history, archeology and probability and statistics was so realistic, I found myself wishing I'd built up my silver collection

[Bibliophile · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm no werewolf expert, so far be it from me to judge the wolves in this 1948 horror classic. My frame of reference is the adorable, furry Seth Green, so I didn't really expect them to be scary, but I also didn't expect them to be so human. When they shift, they act exactly as they would in their human form, which makes for hilarious scenes such as this:

"She trotted past the fallen chair, sprang lightly to the desk and grasped the dead man's pencil in her pliant paws".

Werewolf lady then proceeds to write a note while chatting companionably and ignoring her lack of opposable thumbs.

It's good pulpy fun, but not exactly horrifying.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is to the werewolf story what "I Am Legend" is to the vampire story. That is high praise and I enjoyed this book immensely.

The intermingled themes of folklore, anthropology, Indiana-Jonesesque archeology, quantum physics, pulp-noir detective, witchcraft, psychological and supernatural murder are handled expertly. As has been said by another reviewer, it is more a story of shapeshifters than a classic werewolf tale.

Settle down with this book and a hot drink, but first check the doors and windows are locked - not that that would protect you!

[Devero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cosa accadrebbe se un archeologo trovasse le prove che esseri come mutaforma, lupi mannari e simili fossero davvero esistiti un tempo, nella lontana preistoria? Se poi potesse dimostrare che quelle capacità, frutto di particolari combinazioni genetiche, non sono del tutto andate perdute ma permangono, oggi, in alcuni esseri umani?

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really enjoyable weird fiction of the 1940s

A story from the 1940s about a secret prehistory of the human race - a race of witches, werewolves, and vampires whose bloodlines are intermixed in modern humanity, and whose race may be rising again . . .A great piece, and a worthy item for Gary Gygax's Appendix N!

[Christiana Demetriou · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the first fiction books i read. Found it in a cafe selling used books in Toronto called bookworm fell in love with the cover and later on with the story. Great dark atmosphere, well written and seductive.

[Mohammed Abdikhader Firdhiye · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping,humane story that arent dated at all. Its about a very intresting and different take on lycanthropy. The best story about Lycanthropy i have read or seen.

A true masterwork.