Darker Than You Think

A truly captivating story that holds the reader's attention from beginning to end. It offers a unique perspective on the concept of lycanthropy, skillfully weaving together elements from quantum mechanics, Freudian psychology, and evolutionary theory.

However, upon re-reading this work approximately 16 years later, my initial impression has somewhat waned. The identity of the "Child of the Night" was so blatantly foreshadowed early on that its eventual revelation came as little surprise. Nevertheless, it remains an enjoyable read.

I don't typically engage in this practice, but I am now revising my original rating by subtracting a star. This adjustment reflects my more critical assessment upon re-evaluation. Despite the predictability of the central mystery, the story still manages to maintain an element of charm and intrigue, making it a worthwhile read for those interested in exploring alternative takes on the lycanthropy theme.

At an airport in a quiet American town, there are some people waiting for the return of a scientific expedition that has made important archaeological discoveries in the Gobi Desert. This is the scene where one of the most fascinating and unforgettable works of science fiction of all time begins. It is the story of the hidden dark race within the human genus, the lost secret of eras incomprehensibly ancient, the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, between the blood of Homo sapiens and the dark blood of those who were ancient even before humanity was born...

Suddenly, the quiet town transforms into a place of mystery and terror. Dark forms slither in the night, mysterious crimes are committed by unknown entities. Because the secret of the ancient enemy hidden within the human race is about to be revealed, the forces of Evil await the advent of the Son of the Night, their powerful leader who will mark the advent of a new Dark Kingdom on Earth. Only a few men attempt to fight against the dark force that seems to pervade everything... but who is the Son of the Night? What form has he taken among men, what is his secret? And who is April Bell, the girl with the white fur who can transform into many different forms and who leads the young Barbee to the discovery of something horrible and at the same time irresistible?

Mixing incredibly scientific theories and nightmares, mystery and adventure, enigma and dazzling revelations, Jack Williamson has written with this novel a true masterpiece, a work that is not forgotten.

This remarkable work, originally penned at the close of the 1930s and published in 1948, is a dream-like, or rather nightmarish, paranoid fantasy. It envisions were-people seizing control of the world, and it holds a certain subdued sexiness typical of the mid-twentieth century.

I can easily picture it being adapted into a noir film, with a greyscale palette depicting airports, small town life, redheads in apartments, cocktail bars, and insane asylums. The 'dream' or 'madness' or 'enhanced existence' sequences, which are of an ambiguous nature and I won't spoil your own interpretations, would be presented in vivid technicolour.

The 'dream' sequences, for simplicity's sake, are intertwined with a psychoanalytic and scientific narrative expected in a book of this era, yet they are 'darker than you think'.

Perhaps this exemplifies one of my review themes - the unintended consequences of books. Here, 'evil', presented in a rather conventional way, seems like an alluring option.

The narrative, drawn from the dark adventure tradition of the weird pulps, enables the 'dreams' to explore the connection between freedom, sex, and violence. This exploration may still be repressed at its core but surges into the psyche nonetheless, especially the male psyche.

Riding the ether as a wild beast in the company of a sexy were-wolf, unrestrained by conscience and defying common materiality, hardly seems like something most young, red-blooded males would avoid.

The noir eroticism of Jacques Tourneur's 'Cat People' (1942) comes to mind, and there are similarities suggesting that Williamson was influenced by it, either directly or through reports.

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

I have a tendency to position a text within its historical context, contrary to the rules of deconstructionists. While it may be largely my own invention, it is also a product of its time and place. In this case, that time and place is an America rife with suppressed psychological violence and distrust.

The publication, though not the core drafting, emerged in a paranoid America, not only afraid of the enemy within (the 'Reds') but also of the beast within, only partially appeased by psychotherapeutic remedies that couldn't always be taken at face value.

Williamson didn't serve in the war but was a late-career academic. The 'literariness' of the text sometimes shines through as he transitioned from Merritt-influenced popular fantasy to this 'noir' realism through his own psychotherapeutic journey.

However, the 'mentality' of the book may have resonated with the confusion of younger men who returned in 1945 to a seemingly ordered and modern world that actually repressed the fact that they had been allowed to be 'beasts' under state sanction.

The connection between the paranoid America of the McCarthy era and the need to reintegrate the 'beasts' who had come home has perhaps never been explored in depth, but Cold War paranoia may have been a cathartic ordering mechanism.

In other words, what we now view as the 'evil' of McCarthyism could have seemed like the 'lesser evil' in the face of wartime threats, and this book reflects that mentality.

We have here a ruthless war of species, fought beneath the radar of an oblivious populace, and the final form of the book may have subconsciously mirrored similar paranoid fears in other parts of America.

Certainly, this book can be read as part of a total culture of 'noir' distrust that predates the war.

The fantastic imagination has turned inward, although Williamson was also a highly regarded science fiction writer capable of looking 'outwards' to address the psychological fragility beneath apparent conformity.

There are references to a were-blood in our species that lies at the root of war, violence, selective breeding, and eugenics, which might well reflect popular interpretations of national socialist ideology, so the analysis isn't unfounded.

However, current and recent events, aside from typical small town political affairs, are conspicuously absent, with the back story straight out of Merritt's 1920s world.

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

Nevertheless, despite its imperfections, the book is a masterpiece of fantasy horror. Anyone who frequents the dark fantasy shelves of their local bookshop (if any remain) may find great pleasure in this founding text of the genre.

I won't disclose any more about the storyline or characterisation (though there's much to say) as the book hinges on a degree of suspense. Suffice it to say, it may be 'darker than you (first) think'.

This book is to the werewolf story what "I Am Legend" is to the vampire story. That is truly high praise, and I found myself enjoying this book immensely.

The intermingled themes within this book are truly remarkable. Folklore, anthropology, Indiana-Jonesesque archeology, quantum physics, pulp-noir detective work, witchcraft, and psychological as well as supernatural murder are all expertly handled. As another reviewer has astutely pointed out, it is more of a story about shapeshifters than a traditional werewolf tale.

I highly recommend settling down with this book and a hot drink. However, before you do, make sure to check that the doors and windows are locked - although, truth be told, that might not offer you much protection! This book has the power to draw you in and keep you on the edge of your seat, with its unique blend of genres and thrilling plot. You'll find yourself completely immersed in this world of mystery and the supernatural.

Again I find myself not as excited about a book as some of my friends.

I have to remind myself that many of the clichés in this book weren't so cliched when it was first written.

Early in the book, there is a scene written in the typical heavy, dark, and portentous style that had me laughing out loud. We've all seen and read this kind of thing so often. The professor has already sent word that he needs protection and guarding until he makes his big announcement. So he steps off the plane and begins, not a quick statement, but a long prologue. He stops, chokes, and coughs several times.... Something must be wrong. But he goes on for three pages and, of course, dies before he can get any of his announcements out. I doubt anyone really thought the professor would get his warning out. I was laughing so hard at this scene, which has appeared in movies, comic books, novels, short stories, etc. countless times.

The book was well-written and had a good story. I kept imagining it in my mind in black and white, like an old 1940s movie. Remember, it was written in the pulp era and wasn't as repetitive as it might seem now.

The same goes for the ending. I was disappointed with the ending, but again, at the time it was written, this type of ending might have been less common than it is now.

This is remembered as one of the earliest lycanthrope type novels from America and may be worth seeking out for that reason alone. So, I guess I'll give it a not bad rating. It probably depends a lot on the mood you're in when you read it and, again, each person's taste.

Darker Than You Think is a captivating story that follows a reporter from a small, unassuming town. His insatiable curiosity leads him on a journey of discovery that reveals far more than just the reasons why his former friends and colleagues ostracized him and why he had such a powerful affinity for the alluring April Bell.

I found that what truly compelled me to finish reading this book wasn't so much the "whats" or the "whys" but rather the "hows". The description on the back of the book, in my opinion, could be likened to a promiscuous individual - leaving very little to the imagination upon first glance. Nevertheless, I was enthralled by the nightly trysts that involved blood lust, butchery, and an air of utter secrecy. And it was fascinating to see how utterly confounded Will Barbee is every morning after these events.

The author does an excellent job of building tension and keeping the reader on the edge of their seat. The characters are well-developed and the plot is full of twists and turns that keep you guessing until the very end. Overall, Darker Than You Think is a thrilling read that I would highly recommend to anyone who enjoys a good mystery with a touch of the macabre.

One of the very first fiction books that I ever read was truly a remarkable find.

I discovered it in a charming little café in Toronto that specialized in selling used books. The name of this café was Bookworm.

As soon as I laid eyes on the cover of the book, I was instantly smitten. There was something about it that just drew me in.

But it wasn't just the cover that captured my attention. Once I started reading the story, I fell completely in love with it.

The author had created a great dark atmosphere that added an extra layer of mystery and allure to the narrative.

The writing was excellent, with every sentence carefully crafted to draw the reader deeper into the story.

It was truly a seductive read, one that I couldn't put down until I had reached the very end.

To this day, that book remains one of my favorites, and I often think back on the wonderful experience of reading it for the first time.

I had surely heard of Jack Williamson in my teens, twenties, and thirties. During those years, I was eagerly devouring a great deal of the science fiction genre of literature. I read not only the authors who had achieved fame before my time (I was born in 1950) but also contemporary writers.

However, I can't truthfully say that I had really read any of his works, even though the name "Jack Williamson" was always among all the great masters in that category, such as Asimov, Clark, Heinlein, Leiber, and so on.

Nevertheless, his name came back to me a little over ten years ago when I was browsing the "Technology" section of a bookstore and came across the curiously titled Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons. It turned out to be a biography of a rocket scientist with cultist tendencies who had died mysteriously during my youth.

Of course, I flipped through it and then came across a reproduction of the original lurid cover for Darker Than You Think (1948) by Jack Williamson with the caption: "Jack Parsons believed the… story, Darker Than You Think, presaged the appearance of Babalon." Well, I was somewhat intrigued and decided to buy the Parsons biography, but I first wanted to read Darker Than You Think to have the whole experience.

As it happened, the Williamson sf novel was out of print at that time, but I was eventually able to find a copy in a used book store. During that particularly hot summer, I was single-handedly tearing down our old garage, and I thought my new little "reading project" would be a great distraction during my breaks from swinging a sledgehammer.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out. I think it was a combination of the glaring sun and the extremely small print of the "Darker" reprint I had found that caused the problem. I switched to a book with larger print, eventually tore down the garage, and drifted away from my "reading project."

Fast forward to the last couple of months. After a dangerous flirtation with experiencing nearly all my books through audiobook form, I have rediscovered the joy of sitting down with an actual physical book in my hands. I happened to remember my old lost project and picked up Darker Than You Think as a precursor to Sex and Rockets (which is now next in line).

As for the novel itself, it is a wonderful piece of speculative writing and a great reminder of what books were like when they were written on a typewriter and not in some word processing program. The story is ahead of its time and is indeed "darker than you think" – much darker than I was expecting. It is quite scary and subversive.

Back when the Catholic Church was "banning" books (perhaps they still do, I don't know), if this obscure science fiction novel had come to their attention, it would surely have been banned. It is a very dark story filled with very dark characters doing very dark things. If it affected me so much in 2017, I can only imagine its disturbing effect in 1948 when such things (and I'm not even talking about "sex," though that subject does make an appearance) were not talked about by decent people.

If such an interesting little time-travelling/literary experience interests you, then I would definitely recommend this novel – if you can find a copy.