The Night Man

by K.W. Jeter

Poor little Steven was puny and shy. Everyone picked on him, from his drunken mother to his sister and her superstud boyfriend. Steven could have used a friendd one up. And if an awful lot of people had to die in terrible ways . . . well, what are friends for?

Genres: Horror

10 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Kevin Wayne Jeter (born 1950) is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters. He is also credited with the coining of the term "Steampunk." K. W. has written novels set in the Star Trek and Star Wars universe, and has written three (to date) sequels to Blade Runner.

Series:
* Doctor Adder

Series contributed to:
* Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* Alien Nation
* Blade Runner
* Star Wars: The Bounty Hunter Wars
* The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror
* The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror

Reviews

[Quiet · Rating 1 out of 5]

*Alternative title for this book is "The Night Man.*

Big disappointment. This book, which really is a by-the-numbers Horror-genre book (which is fine), ended up failing to actually accomplish this.

I'll summarize: this book has a stupid premise that could have been a lot of fun if it had a lot of murdered teenagers as it hints, but it doesn't.

Basic plot is there is an entire highschool football team where all the players and their cheerleader girlfriends are pieces of shit to a ten-year old boy who then conjures up a malevolent dream-killer to take care of them. And the teenagers are truly ghastly; it's 200-pages in this 300-page book where all they do is make this young boy's life a living hell in disgusting and cruel ways with zero redemption to any single one of them.
I was getting bored, it's definitely overkill, but then at page 200 finally one of them gets killed. I licked my lips and rubbed my hands together and thought, Alright! Here comes the bloodbath! 100 pages of asshole teenagers getting brutally murdered, let's do this!

Nope! One more deadteenager 45 pages later, and then a dull ending with one more body that isn't even graphic or detailed or fun at all.

Look. If you're going to write a stupid, genre-heavy Horror book, then you need to know what readers want. This book was designed, is supposed to be, an excessive murder-romp of vengeance gone out of control. It isn't complicated, and although the 200-page set-up is excessive that's really all such a set-up can possibly lead to.
There shouldn't be a damn story after that, is what I'm saying. It should be corpse after corpse after corpse and then fast wrap-up where either Good or Evil can win; it really doesn't matter, as that's not what a book like this offers nor what it's readers would care about.

Just disappointing and a waste of an afternoon read. You had one job to do, Night Man, which was kill teenagers and somehow you fucked that up. I want the .80 cents I spent on this at the thrift store back!

[Chumley Pawkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, darkly unflinching novel concerning the sordidness and brutality of small town American life which seems to have earned itself a mystifying amount of approbation here at GoodReads, I found myself nodding sagely along with a lot of Jeter's thoughts concerning the cycles of addiction, bigotry, squandered ambition and poverty that brutalize those who find themselves impaled on the sharp end of the American dream.

You can take against it as much you like, but if you've ever been there, you can't fail to recognize the truth at the heart of this book.

[Carl Cudmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Had no expectations around this read as I picked it up at a used bookstore. This book quickly gave the impression of a Stephen King story and forced you to use your imagination as you tried to figure out the storyline. Good flow and overall an easy read.

[Tracey · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rarely put books down but when I got to the animal cruelty part I could no longer continue. I struggled to remain interested prior to this, it seemed to be going nowhere fast and I kept thinking it was going to get better. Not so.

[danifear · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, it definitely didn't hurt to read it... slow start and the last half of the book is where it gets even a little interesting, however it's easy to tire of blood only ever being referred to as "something warm"

[Yacou Dupin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je n'avais lu que Machines infernales de Jeter (qui est excellent), je suis déçu par celui-ci, j'ai plus qu'à en essayer d'autres.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jeter has been called a protege of Philip K Dick, and I've yet to read anything by him that justifies the comparison. Particularly not his horror fiction, which is utterly undistinguished. Dick gave us harrowing explorations of madness in the guise of silly scifi, a juxtaposition that lent his books a warm humor; there is a great depth of feeling to his work. Jeter could be said to explore madness in such works as "Mantis", "Dark Seeker", and "The Night Man", but these works are redolent of direct to video slasher fare: the sordid sex-killings of "Mantis", the twist-ending schizophrenia of this novel and "Dark Seeker". Of these, "The Night Man" is a particularly uninspired revenge drama.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't the best horror I've read but it was ok. In the beginning it had the potential to be pretty good but it lacked something that I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps a little more detail and length and a better look into Taylor's history. If you want something to keep you amused for a few nights while waiting for other books to arrive or on a weekend trip then it's fine but it's no Stephen King.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of KW Jeter's best books but good nonetheless. It is standard horror fare with a few shining moments. It sounds as if it were written from experience - the experience of growing up as the runt who was always bullied, wishing for a way to end it all. Mr Jeter also nailed the mentality of a small town that worships its high school football team.

[Jevron McCrory · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful, simply awful.

[Aj · Rating 2 out of 5]

I seem to have a different publication date, as mine's titled "The Night Man".