The Dark World by Henry Kuttner (2012-05-30) Unknown Binding

The story was dated and lil dry. But the story gives you an idea of the origins of the modern mixed mythology stories.Pilot gets kidnapped to parallel world where evil wizards try to take his body for another evil wizard's soul.

I got this book because Roger Zelazny reportedly found it very inspirational for his Amber series. If you've read that, and you read this, you'll get the basic idea why. I liked it. It had a couple of twists that were a little original now, really original then.

If you are into the contemporary gets warped to another world/time/dimension this is a fun read. The story style is a little dated but still a fun read if you want some old school fantasy.

Terrible formatting for the Kindle edition renders this EXTREMELY difficult to read. Two stars because I'm ahuge fan of Kuttner.

I'm an easy 'like' for good writing and lucid plots. I'm a fan of Howard, Lovecraft, Ashton-Smith, and Kuttner fits in that mold.

Pros: Fun novella.Cons: The book is otherwise full of errors, page numbers mixed into the text. No proofreading. No annotations.

1946 was a very good year indeed for sci-fi's foremost husband-and-wife writing team, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore. Besides placing a full dozen stories (including the acknowledged classic "Vintage Season") into various magazines of the day, the pair also succeeded in having published three short novels in those same pulps. The first, "The Fairy Chessmen," which was released in the January and February issues of "Astounding Science-Fiction," was a remarkable combination of hardheaded modernist sci-fi and almost hallucinatory reality twists. "Valley of the Flame," from the March issue of "Startling Stories," was an exciting meld of jungle adventure, Haggardian lost-world story and unique fantasy. And that summer, in "Startling Stories" again, the team came out with "The Dark World," a work that is pretty much a "hard" fantasy with some slight scientific leavening. In this one, the American flier Edward Bond is whisked from the Pacific theatre during WW2 and transported to the eponymous Dark World, an alternate Earth that has diverged from its parent in space as well as time. His counterpart on the Dark World, Ganelon, head of a coven of mutated overlords who are busy keeping that realm subjugated, is sent to our Earth with Bond's memories. The book's plot is difficult to synopsize, and gets a bit complicated when Ganelon is brought back to the Dark World sometime later, his body now housing two distinct minds and personalities. Thus, the understandably mixed-up warlock can't quite decide whether or not to help his fellow "Covenanters" wipe out the forest-dwelling rebels, or join those rebels and destroy the Coven, not to mention the dreaded, sacrifice-demanding entity known as Llyr. Though called the Coven, Ganelon's fellows number only four, and include Medea, a beautiful vampire who feeds on life energies; Matholch, a lycanthrope; Edeyrn, a cowled, childlike personage whose power the authors choose not to reveal until the novel's end; and Ghast Rhymi, an ancient magus whose origin really did surprise this reader. Peopled with colorful characters as it is, and featuring a nicely involved plot and ample scenes of battle, sacrifice, magic and spectacle, this little book (the whole thing runs to a mere 126 pages) really does please. That small scientific admixture that I mentioned earlier takes the form of rational explanations for the vampire, werewolf and Edeyrn phenomena; these explanations, while not exactly deep or technical, do tend to make the fantastic characters on display here slightly more, well, credible. But for the most part, "The Dark World" is a somber fantasy, and a darn good one, at that. Not for nothing was it selected for inclusion (as was "Valley of the Flame") in James Cawthorn and Michael Moorcock's excellent overview volume "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books." "I consider the work of Henry Kuttner to be the finest science fantasy ever written," says Marion Zimmer Bradley in a blurb on the front cover of the 1965 Ace paperback (pictured above, and with a cover price of 40 cents) that I just finished, and readers of "The Dark World" will probably not feel inclined to give her argument.

This e-book is clearly an illegal pirated copy and is very difficult to read. It honestly seems like they translated it into a foreign language and then back into English again with some of the weird typos and how certain words are replaced, grammar changed, etc. Maybe this was to avoid copyright software recognizing it? Either way go buy this book somewhere else.

I picked this up after reading that Roger Zelazny’s Amber saga owes something to its influence. This is a more sombre take on the themes. Amber is more philosophical and, at 10 volumes, more wide reaching, but I can see the connection.

Der originale Text erschien auf der Website des Webmagazins "Comicgate" in der Rubrik "Währenddessen."Henry Kuttners und C.L. Moores "The Dark World" ist nur knapp hundert Seiten lang, die Handlung wird sprunghaft erzählt, das Worldbuilding ist fragmentiert und die Eigenschaften der Nebenfiguren werden in geraffter Form von der Hauptfigur als Ich-Erzähler vorgekaut. Der Twist: Der Hauptcharakter hat eine gespaltene Persönlichkeit, war vor seiner Reise in die neue Welt ein Veteran des zweiten Weltkriegs und da wir nur seine Perspektive kennen, öffnet das die Geschichte für Interpretationen. Oder auch nicht, da "The Dark World" eine Pulp-Novelle aus der Glanzzeit der Schundhefte ist. Über diese billigen Geschichten soll man nicht nachdenken. Das ich es trotzdem tue, liegt nicht am Inhalt, sondern die Art wie die Geschichte erzählt wird oder besser gesagt, was nicht von ihr erzählt wird.Gene Wolfes "Shadow of the Torturer" hat mich für eine Figur sensibilisiert, die den Leser (und sich selbst) belügt und bei der man jeden dritten Satz analysieren sollte, da man ihre Welt nur nebenbei kennen lernt. Das macht Sinn, da der Hauptcharakter diese Welt im Gegensatz zu uns bereits kennt und er für ein Publikum schreibt, das weiß wovon er erzählt.So raffiniert ist "The Dark World" nicht, aber ich finde es interessant, diese Hauptfigur im Kontext ihrer Zeit zu sehen: ein Veteran, der aus dem Krieg zurückkehrt und sich zu Beginn noch nicht wieder eingelebt hat. Wahrscheinlich hat er noch Alpträume und kann kaum einen klaren Gedanken fassen, weswegen die Geschichte auch so hastig und teilweise unfokussiert erzählt wird. Und wenn in seiner Brust der nette Soldat Amerikas und ein blutrünstiger Kriegsherr um die Vorherrschaft kämpfen, ist das ja vielleicht doch ein Symbol dafür, dass er um seine eigene geistige Gesundheit, wenn nicht gar um seine Seele, kämpfen muss. Bei einer dunklen Welt denke ich auch an das Unterbewusstsein und vielleicht muss man dann grausame Werwölfe aus einer ganz anderen Perspektive betrachten. Ich weiß es nicht, da die Geschichte mit Hinweisen geizt und die Prosa sich teilweise wie ein Fiebertraum liest, aber diese Stilmittel schließen nicht aus, dass ich Unrecht habe. Wir müssen uns auf den Erzähler verlassen, da seine Sicht die einzige ist, die wir haben. Aber können wir uns wirklich auf jemanden verlassen, der achtzig Prozent der Zeit sich seiner selbst nicht bewusst ist?Wahrscheinlich interpretiere ich zu viel rein, nur um nicht zugeben zu müssen, dass ich nur unterhaltsamen Schund gelesen habe. Soll mir recht sein. Immerhin war es unterhaltsamer und sehr gut geschriebener Schund!

This is a two worlds story from the early forties. The hero, Edward Bond of Earth, exchanges roles with Ganelon on the Dark World. The plot is essentially sword and sorcery, with romantic love thrown in. If it were a modern work it would be the worst clutch of cliches, however this comes before the thousands of more recent stories, and establishes many of them. The only earlier work I am aware of where linked personalities from parallel universes merge, as happens here, is The Legion of Time, by Jack Williamson.This is more interesting to me for historical reasons than for the story itself, however, it remains a brisk exciting tale well worth reading.A classic Unknown story. As always, it is impossible to judge how much was written by Kuttner and how much be his wife C L Moore.

Kuttner, along with his wife and frequent collaborator CL Moore, was one of the stars of 40's & 50's science fiction. Only his death at the age of 43 prevented him from becoming known as one of the greats. He had a range of styles but this short novel is Kuttner at his most vigorous in a pulp fantasy style adventure which is clearly a source of inspiration for Roger Zelazny's Amber series. Here, a brooding ex-soldier finds that he is really from another dimension. Problem is, he isn't the good guy, he's the villain.This is a nice slightly over-sized paperback edition with a clumsy but appropriately garish cover. There's also a nice introduction by Piers Anthony. If you like this then the imprint Planet Stories has more by Kuttner, Moore, and Leigh Brackett which you'd probably enjoy.

A short fantasy novel by Henry Kuttner. Enjoyable read with interesting characters and a lot of action. Kuttner explores here the existence of parallel universes. The main protagonist (Edward Bond) becomes another personality in an alternate world where magic dominates.