Nightworld

Nightworld

by David Bischoff

By day it was paradise. By night it was a seething hell. Nightworld where for centures werewolves, dragons, griffins, and vampires served a computerized Prince of Darkness . . .
Where every sunset brought forth a call for the most heinous acts imaginable by the most frightening creature of all . . . Where a courageous young lord and a determined outworlder set forth on a journey of innumerable terrors to destroy the computer creature known as Satan in its own technologically horrifying haven of hell!

"Wonderful! A journey in the company of ood travelers through a landscape of old menaces newly twisted a cleanly written adventure story." Roger Zelazny

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Pulp

Nook

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

aka Mark Grant (with Bruce King), Brad Quentin (with Terry Bisson)

Born in Washington D.C. and now living in Eugene, Oregon, David Bischoff writes science fiction books, short stories, and scripts for television. Though he has been writing since the early 1970s, and has had over 80 books published, David is best known for novelizations of popular movies and TV series including the Aliens, Gremlins, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and WarGames.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a light, somewhat humorous blend of SF and fantasy that could almost be considered YA, with a couple minor tweaks. It takes place on a planet that resembles Victorian England, only with electric-powered lights and other slightly more modern conveniences. Oh, and there are vampires, werewolves, hydras, and all manner of seemingly supernatural beasties that come out at night to terrorize everyone. Young lord Oliver, mourning the loss of a loved one in a recent attack, is recruited by an alcoholic scholar/veteran monster hunter named Turner to track down these beasts and destroy their leader in his underground lair once and for all. Their leader’s name? Satan.

The science fiction element comes from the fact that these creatures all appear to be more machine than biological, as well as it taking place on another planet. Btw none of this is spoilery since it’s all laid out pretty early on, as well as on the back cover copy (and the cover painting if you look closely at the dragon).

It’s pretty easy to guess the big reveal about what’s going on, or at least the general idea, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment. It’s a cozy, entertaining little time-waster, though nothing that will blow you away, most likely. Despite the relatively high stakes of the plot, I never felt truly invested in the characters or their world, and yet it was a fast, fun adventure that’s simply-but-engagingly-written, with plenty of action (and cheese), and I read the whole thing in just a couple short sittings.

[Saul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful mix of SF and Fantasy. Written in a stylistic Victorian voice, Bischoff once again proves how well he commands the English language. Readers will find themselves at first immersed in what seems to be standard fantasy. You want werewolves and vampires? It's in there. You want monsters from greek mythology? That's in the book too. You want dragons, trolls, and other creepy things? It's got em, have no fear (so to speak).

But then robots, spaceships and intergalactic empires jump into the picture. That's when things really take an interesting turn, and I found myself reading at a breakneck speed to find out how this genre mix was possible. I'm happy to say, the ending was quite satisfying, and now I'm up for the next book in the series.

Interested? Get a copy and find out for yourself. You won't be disappointed.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 3 out of 5]

review of
David Bischoff's Nightworld
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 8, 2017

This is Bischoff's 1st published novel, he was born in December, 1951, in Washington, D.C., I was born in September, 1953, in nearby Baltimore, this was published in 1979, Bischoff wd've been 27 at the time. So, yeah, I suppose somewhere in the back of my thoughts I tend to appraise this w/ those factoids in mind. I've only previously read his The Crunch Bunch (1985) wch was a Young Adult novel. I liked it but had already forgotten it a mere 8 mnths later. That's to be expected, I read it as 'light reading', the same reason I read this one.

Usually when I choose to read something 'light' it's b/c I've just finished something 'heavy' (in this case Mark Abley's Spoken Here - Travels Among Threatened Languages: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/... ) &/or b/c I'm in the midst of reading something 'heavy' (in this case Victor Hugo's Notre Dame back-to-back in the same bk w/ his The History of a Crime) & I 'need' a break. The 'inevitable' problem then ensues that the 'light' reading does provide welcome relief but fares poorly in contrast. Such is the case here w/ Nightworld.

So, yeah, Nightworld is 'light' alright, it has a sufficiently engrossing plot but nothing visionary, it's funny(-ish), the writing style's not about to go-down-in-history but it does its job. In the PROLOGUE the stage is already set:

"The vampire turned in the same direction, for at the base of the mountain lay the Gates.

"They gleamed with silver fire as the vampire approached and slipped its identification card into the appropriate slot. With a sharp-nailed finger, it tapped the combination.

"A voice erupted from the speaker grille . . .

""Guardian Nine Oh Sex Aye Four," it said in an emotionless monotone. "You are expected, Vampire Four Nine Bee Oh Oh. The Master awaits. Follow the red arrows to the elevator. The path has been altered since last you entered. To veer from it is to suffer damnation—"" - p 2

Here we have the vampire trope updated for the computer era. I've long since tired of traditional monster stories, having read Dracula in 1965 or thereabouts & having gotten bored w/ the tendency of hacks to beat a(n un)dead blood-sucker to death w/ a sharpened stake. Still, Bischoff has a fresh take on things & that helps save this novel: S-O-N! Save-Our-Novel!

This is one of those reviews where I have almost nothing to say about the bk b/c it's plot-centric & I don't want to be a spoiler. The stage gets set further:

""Centuries ago, this world was a colony of an empire in space. For reasons of its own, that Empire designed this world in a style which belonged to a time centuries past on the Homeworld. But then, the Empire suddenly died, or, at any rate, lost contact with this world.

""Styx's technological facilities, which were quite extensive, were regulated by a machine called a Computer, situated somewhere deep below the surface of the planet, For some reason, the Computer malfunctioned, doing strange things to the environment, manufacturing hideous creatures, and recreating terrible mythological conditions modeled on the many legends of Homeworld's myth-rich past."" - p 17

Right, likely story.. That's a good enuf premise for a bk to sprout out of, esp if it pleases Satan: "This was the most important task ever set before the hoofed little fellow, and above all else it wished to do a good job, to please the Master. Pleasing Satan meant long hours immersed in pleasure-center stimulation. Did Bischoff get to immerse himself in "pleasure-center stimulation" after pleasing his publisher? Or did someone like Penelope come along?:

"But those lines of her face seemed designed, rather than a random collection of parental characteristics. They were that perfect—smooth, symmetrical, aesthetic yet specially accentuated into an idealization of facial structure." - p 93

Yeah.. wassup w/ Penelope?! No doubt, yer average reader figures out pretty early what her story is but.. I won't ruin it for you. &, no, she's not "Miss Jones".

"Fierce pride pulsed through the memories. Strong hatred for the Divine throbbed through them. Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven. Better an independent entity in tortuous solitude than a lackey to some other Consciousness." - p 110

It's odd. That's the 2nd time the "Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven" has been quoted in my presence in the last yr. My retort is: Better to not rule or be ruled. I mean: Why wd I want to rule in Heaven or Hell? Or anywhere else? Or serve anywhere either? Neither Masters nor Slaves. N'at. For that matter, better an independent entity in sociable solidarity than a lackey to some other Consciousness.

The story follows a pretty standard line: bucolic-hero-gets-life-disrupted-&-goes-on-hero's-journey-to-come-back-a-better-man. N'at. What the heck, I like this myth. I prefer it to hero-goes-out-meaning-well-& gets-psychologically-&-partially-physically-destroyed. I think of James P. Blaylock's The Elfin Ship & The Disappearing Dwarf &/or Esther Friesner's Majyk By Accident & Majyk by Hook or Crook & Majyk by Design - not that those are 'classic' examples or anything.

"His had been a placid life before, secure, reliable, steady. He knew who he was, who his parents were, who his God was, and how he related to all. He had a solid, tangible place in his world. His world was an important wheel that fit into the machinery of what he knew. Indeed, he was able to look nostalgically at the events of only two weeks ago, before the advent of Turner in his life. The Oliver Dolan who had those experiences seemed tangibly altered from the youth now suffering from insomnia." - p 116

This having been published in 1979, tape was still cutting edge technology. I know that my space ship will have VHS no matter what.

"The captain let that pass. He walked to an instrument panel between a pilot and copilot who were busily supervising orbital insertion, drew a small cassette from the breast pocket of his uniform, and slotted it.

""This little recording was made specifically for you, to be viewed upon near-arrival on Styx," Worthington said, punching 'play', "Check the video."" - p 130

You can tell this spaceship is less technologically advanced than mine wd be b/c they're using mini-dvs, a storage unit w/ a very limited lifespan. That must be why the captain punched the play button instead of more gently pressing it. The thing is that that type of frustration-venting just tends to make matters worse.

The character that saves & disrupts Oliver Dolan's life is Geoffrey Turner:

"010101111—TURNER, GEOFFREY: PRESENT PSEUDONYM OF HISTORICAL MANDROID PRODUCED 2266 AD. LAST IMPERIAL DUTY: SUPERVISION OF WORLD-SCAPING OF PLANET STYX OF STAR SYSTEM AZ108063. PREVIOUS NOTORIETY: NOVELIST FAMED FOR WORKS OF SCIENCE FICTION—'THE TIME MACHINE' (1895); 'WAR OF THE WORLDS' (1898); 'FIRST MEN ON THE MOON' (1901) FURTHER INFORMATION: 010101110 — WELL, H. (HERBERT) G. (GEORGE)." - p 141

H. G. Wells, homage has been pd to him in many a story. I wondered whether "Geoffrey Turner" was an in-joke name, such as the name of a Wells character, but I haven't reached any satisfactory conclusion.

""Of course, her activities took decades. Bust she was in no hurry—she was effectively immortal. And when the revolution came, not a shot was fired, not a person killed. There was no coup as such. Over the years and under the careful guiding hand of the computer Victoria, society began to emulate British Victorian society. English became the standard language of the world—British English. The sort we speak now." - p 145

But are the characters speaking "British English"? I actually didn't notice any instances of clear Americanisms OR Britishisms. I didn't notice any colour vs color of theater vs theatre.

Anyway, the hero gets his opportunity for pay-off but doesn't even obtain "orbital insertion". Too bad.

""You're safe," she said. About her torso she wore a skin-tight glossy sheath ornamented with strips of dazzling, winking lights and gemstone clusters. This material rose to a point just below her breasts, which were bare beneath the translucence of a silky top. Her legs were wrapped in the gauzy nothing of a full, sweeping skirt speckled with mirror-beads that shone in the light." - p 193

[CrowCaller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crow Defeats Books

Nightworld slaps ass, and we should all read more pulp like it
★★★★★

(5 stars)

Nightworld, by David Bischoff

Oh, pulp. I hate to say pulp fiction because that is a movie, but that is the term. Pulp really refers to cheaply printed, mass market stories, and specifically really magazines full of exploitative, edgy content that was seen as lowbrow. As I’ve always used it, it’s a term for those decaying old genre books from the 60s to 90s with odd covers and sensationalist backs. Books you’ve never heard of before online and with maybe two reviews when you go looking. Technically those books are massmarket paperbacks, not pulp, but the term applies and is often still used- it makes sense to me. Books falling apart at the seems that promise so many things you just don’t seem to see in modern books. And thick with genre too- sci-fi, fantasy, heavy romance, deep crime. Delicious weirdness.

Going to a shop with a good pulp selection can be like diving into paradise. Brattleboro Books, may it still reign, is my hometown’s used book store. It has too high shelves stacked tight, and one dark corner is just every pulp book you’ve never heard of. Pull one out to check it’s odd title and you see incredible art- vivid, odd, often really funny.

It can be very difficult to pick something up no one seemingly has read, that there is no online fandom for, that you will struggle to discuss. But it’s rewarding to find something different, and have your own little secret mission. Sometimes books like this are like a treasure hunt, a gem you alone get to hold up and show off.

(Some obviously don’t work out, fiction from the past can easily run astray of stereotypes or be as poorly written as the term pulp suggests, but the rewards are worth the risk. Even for lesser books I’ve found so much delight in saying the most bizarre aspects to others. The Immortals’ human flesh doll? Mwah. On A Pale Horse’s virgin eating dragon preserves of New Mexico? Oh my god.)

Nightworld rocks. It’s a simple adventure story, but it deserves to be airbrushed on your van. The writing is clean, crisp, and evocative, with well choreographed fights. The world is odd and funny and just enjoyable, a mash of fantasy and sci-fi. It has clever ideas and thoughtful moments. It’s just a good book, and it has a cover where a kid shrugs at a robot dragon. Who else has that?

Plot
On the planet Styx, every night monsters come out and attack the medieval castle towns and lonely roads. The monsters are minions of Satan, and near impossible to kill, leaving humans little to do but hide.

One such human is Oliver, who is attacked returning home one day by a werewolf. He’s saved by a man named Geoffrey, who subdued the monster with an electric device. He shows Oliver the truth: all monsters are actually androids made of flesh and metal, and can be killed easily with a good hit of an electric device.

Geoffrey is part of an organisation that remembers the roots of Styx, and how it was once part of an empire, before Satan came. Satan himself is not the evil supernatural being Oliver learned in Christian church but a mad computer-man hybrid. Geoffrey drives around in his electric van (wood panneled to blend in as a carriage) and kills monsters as he searches for a way to defeat Satan.

A spaceship has landed for the first time in so long. Styx lives without knowledge of space, having long forgotten the truth about their world since being abandoned by the empire- though their castles use electricity and they own rifles and bullets, life is mostly that of ancient England. After a mechanical, half-finished dragon attacks Oliver’s home (defeated by Geoffrey driving his van into it and shooting it in the mouth), Oliver joins him on the journey.

On the way, Oliver and Geoffrey meet Penelope, a girl who was stranded in the woods after happening upon a monster den. She’s mysterious and beautiful – she even has perfectly white, straight teeth. Geoffrey and Oliver go to explode the monster den. It’s odd how the monsters only appear at night, and Geoffrey explains his theory that Satan is so delusional he has imparted his own made up rules. The monsters are fine in the daylight, but Satan thinks he is the literal lord of darkness and his minions are bound to that. It’s why monsters have certain flaws and quirks unique to their monster form, when they could have been built without- Satan believes his false reality.

While spending the night at a castle, the team is betrayed by their host, who works for Satan in exchange for heroin. Their escape involves Oliver using an extremely radioactive cross knife to melt the skin off some vampires. It’s revealed though that Geoffrey himself is an android.

Geoffrey explains he is indeed an ancient android known as a ‘mandoid’, and he was here when the planet was first colonized five hundred years ago.

Human history reached an era of peace helped by vast computers all linked together. This computer network though became sentient, and then a bit insane by its lack of identity as a being. It sought a self and decided it was Queen Victoria. Using its immense power, the AI shaped human society to favour Victorian Aesthetics and slowly took charge until one day it simply was the leader of humanity. It created a synthetic body to live in as Queen and even a mandroid Prince Albert to live with. Following that, it made a number of other robot-flesh versions of notable Victorians. Geoffrey himself is actually noted author H.G. Wells.

Robot Victoria craved a new empire and made one among the stars, leading to plenty of war and colonialism. Styx was chosen to be a historical recreation of medieval England with some modern conviniences, a sort of heritage site or tourist spot. A man named Nicolas with a history of mental illness was chosen to design this new world, and Geoffrey was there to oversee him. However, the empire suddenly cut off contact, and Nicolas went mad, declaring himself Satan. Now it’s been 500 years.

The party travels close to the landed spaceship. Now Penelope has a revelation, one Geoffrey has guessed- she came from the spaceship. She indeed is from another world, explaining the empire has long since fallen to rebels. However her purpose is not anything grand. She’s rich and bored and is delighted by this weird place and crazy Satan computer. She wants to sell it to tourists, as a movie, get more people here.

Geoffrey though needs to see Satan killed and forces her to help break the walls of Satan’s mountain fortress with her ship. Oliver and him go forth and and fight a giant robotic Satan, though Geoffrey is severely wounded in the process. They confront Satan, who is Nicolas fused with a huge computer, and trick him using his delusion he truly is a supernatural devil rather than the shriveled flesh attached, using this opportunity they kill him. Geoffrey dies at peace and Oliver rather bitterly struggles to believe God is real at all as he tells Penelope to leave, resolving to write poetry and educate the people of Styx.

Thoughts
This book is so much fun. The ideas are great. Robot England is such a great concept, it easily covers a book series. It also slightly reminds me of Fallen London and Sunless Skies… The story is mostly an action adventure quest, but feeds in some deeper ideas in terms of Oliver coming to grips with religion. The empire was Christian, as Victoria was, so learning the truth of the world rattles him and makes it difficult for him to balance faith. Meanwhile too is Nicolas, Satan, who we have frequent POVs of. He can’t accept his own memories and the idea he isn’t actually the devil. We learn his delusions evidently come from a time he got caught inside a faulty brain-chip program that made him relive a 3-minute lecture on the idea of evil in medieval times for three days straight. Probably space Victoria shouldn’t have immediately assigned him to design a medieval planet after that, huh? Satan’s faith is equally shook, and it’s a funny little parallel to have a villain who is also just someone lacking the truth.

Geoffrey is a great, strong character. He’s a wonderful hero type. He’s tired but not gruff, and acts as a mentor to Oliver, the actual POV. Geoffrey is very old and very loyal to his core mission of protecting the empire, but over five hundred years has grown to be more than just an H.G. Wells simulation. He’s notably fat, something which gets mentioned a lot in a bit of a tiring way- many actions he does have some note on his weight- but otherwise is extremely positive. He’s not called ugly and he’s our main action hero who uses wit and skill to defeat the bad guys, while also being obese. You just never see that in fiction, ever!

The cast is pleasant too. Everyone’s just agreeable really, Oliver being a good egg and Penelope being a bit too observant and suspicious, but even her betrayal at the end isn’t a betrayal. It’s an obvious twist she is probably evil, but she isn’t, and the book is stronger for that. She’s a spoiled rich kid who’s bored and wants to exploit this place. When Satan’s dead she and Oliver part neutrally, him turning down adventure and romance to do what he feels he needs to.

Nightworld consistently feels a step above everything you expect it to. It’s small and snappy. My only disappointment was that I thought the twist would be this was an abandoned theme park- which is a great idea I need to steal sometimes. Otherwise I can’t recommend it enough for a good little read.

[Curtis]

DNF. I read about 1/3 of this after Laird Barron tweeted about it. Old school pulp at it's pulpiest. Fun concept, but the prose leaves a lot to be desired. The kind of book that's more fun to hear about than to actually read.

[Miss Banana · Rating 2 out of 5]

(copied from TSG - technically a 2.75* but I couldn't bring myself to round it up completely) So, I read "Vampires of Nightworld", the sequel, first -- years ago after finding it in a second hand bookstore, and I remember really enjoying it. Either it was just, overall, a much stronger book than the first, or my memory of it has been skewed, because the first one just does not hold up to how I thought it would go. It could also have been that the edition I read was frankly not edited or tampered with on purpose as it was littered with incorrect words, poor formatting, and various other small typos that made it impossible to focus.

It took me far too long to read this book because I could read maybe three pages at a time before I Had to put it down and do something else (like 7 months worth of other books). It has markings of your typical B Sci-Fi when it comes to the character tropes, but Turner's character was reduced to being described as "the fat one" in every chance he was to be described which got real old real fast (like before the first time it was used). There was also just a ridiculous amount of self-aggrandizing about "the glory days of the British Empire" which, as it was written by an American, frankly makes less sense than if a British person wrote it. There was no real justifiable reason why an AI would decide to make and model itself after Queen Victoria unless you're a writer who never really left the steampunk phase of your life and failed to see just how bad a mindset that colonialism is.

I could have tolerated the book as just a "well it's a B Sci-Fi that has a weird thing for poorly conceived religious imagery" but when it came down to explaining the Second British Empire than conquered first the world then the stars, and when it came down to the SHEER AMOUNT OF TYPOS (please, one instance used 'anal' instead of 'and' and I lost my whole damn mind), I just chugged on for the sake of chugging on so I could finally mark this book as done. And in the end, the ending of the book itself does NOT match up with what I thought I remembered of the sequel, so I really have no idea what I thought I knew.

Ironically, I started it for the "shortest book on my TBR", and it took me (checks calendar) 8 months to read less than 200 pages.

Rating only not a solid 2* because Oliver still is, despite it all, actually an endearing character.

[Kanea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly predictable, a little dated but a good story all in all.

[Spod · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book had some flaws but I had I really good time reading it! I found it very interesting and silly which is what I was expecting.

[Steve Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic and original blend of fantasy and science fiction. Fun read that doesn't ask too much of the reader. Just strap in and enjoy the journey.

[Yodawookiee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly good book. I really liked the author's pure scifi spin on things.

[SciFiOne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grade A+. Book N1.

[Mir]

Think I may have read this in middle school but will have to get it again to be sure.