"A Night in the Lonesome October"

 

by Roger Zelazny

originally published AvoNova/William Morrow, 1993

In Victorian London, a dog named Snuff (who happens to have Jack the Ripper as a master) pads around town, mixing it up socially with other "familiar" animals - cat, bat, snake, rat, etc, owned by unusual characters and possessed of human-level intelligence.  

It seems the various pet owners are all caught up in "The Great Game", a once-every-few-decades ceremony, held on 10/31, in which the gates to the earth can be opened to Great Old Ones.  "Players" in this game are either trying to open those gates, or keep them shut.  Other familiar-parents or players in this tale are thinly, or not-so-thinly veiled Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, Rasputin, Burke and Hare, a werewolf named Larry Talbot, a witch and an evil vicar.

Basically Snuff wanders around watching and learning as the various "players" form alliances, make deals, or interfere with one another. There's a brief side-trip where Snuff and a cat named Graymalk trip through HPL's Dreamlands.

In any case after much observing, speculating, and deducing, the big night comes.  The good guys come to the rescue and Snuff saves the day.

If that's a somewhat curt summary, its because this novel isn't too easy to summarize without getting lost in the weeds.  90% of it Snuff and Graymalk learning about "the Great Game", who the players are, what side they may be on, and how they will play. Along the way there are snippets of action, involving some Cthuloid beasties Jack keeps magically imprisoned in his house, the aforementioned trip to The Dreamlands, et al.  Then it wraps up - all rather anticlimactically.

I first read this about 20 years ago and I remember feeling a bit let down then.  It was kind of cute and I wanted to like it, and I decided to hang onto it and give it another chance someday.  Someday happened to come about 20 years later.  By which time I'd pretty well forgotten everything about it except that it was set in Victorian London and had a bunch of notable literary and/or historical characters in it.

Unfortunately I have to confess to being disappointed again.  The book didn't grab me and I only kept with it out of a sense of obligation - once I remembered it was a Cthulhu tales I needed to finish it so I could review it here.  I'm such a doof!

One prob to be honest is Zelazny.  I've liked some Zelazny books (Lord of Light, the Amber books) pretty well.  But even there I find his writing rather flat.  His style could be described as a total lack of style.  And I'm not advocating for purple pretentiousness here.  Its just that his writing rarely draws me in.  He was very imaginative, but his flat descriptions make the wondrous things that happen seem so much less wondrous.  It's like watching Disney's Fantasia in black and white on a 5" screen.

Another problem comes from the characters.  Snuff narrates the book, but at no point does he ever sound like a dog.  His narrative voice is that of a detached, intellectual human.  Only occasional references to bones his lack of hands remind us that this is supposed to be a dog speaking.  Likewise the other animals are never very like their animal selves in their dialogue - and yes, I get that these are magical animals, imbued with a much higher intelligence.  Still if you're going to write a story from a dog's POV (even a magically intelligent one), it should always seem like this is a dog narrating.  Its not so tough.  A dozen children's book authors have done it, plus Richard Adams, et al.

The non-animal characters fare little better.  I love whole idea of a hoedown of fictional and historic characters (c.f. Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), but Zelazny does very little with it.  Jack (the Ripper) seems to have nothing to do with the historic Ripper.  He's just a guy with some otherworldly critters in his house.  He could be anyone.  Similarly, there's nothing particularly Draculonic about The Count, Larry Talbot's werewolfism is merely a plot point, etc.  Even Sherlock Holmes (who spends most of the book in disguise, and in drag) has nothing very Holmes-ian about him.  He too could be almost anyone.  This seems like a lost opportunity.

Problem # 3 is that, not much really happens in this book.  Snuff and Graymalk walk around and learn things about the game and who the players are. That's about it. So unless you're utterly enthralled by Zelazny's concept of "The Game" above all else, I don't think this book has much to offer.

In all fairness though, Zelazny fans on GoodReads love this book (it averages a four-star rating).  So maybe I just don't get it.