|
Now we come to what was by far my favourite
story in this issue of Interzone.
Brett Davidson's "The
Little Watcher" is one of a series of
stories written by various authors set in
the world of one of the greatest classic
fantasies of the early twentieth century,
that of William Hope Hodgson's eerie and
outstandingly original masterpiece The
Night Land, which was published in
1912. Directly inspired by the final
haunting "far future" sequence at the end of
H. G. Wells's classic The Time Machine,
The Night Land rivals or surpasses
Wells and the later classics of Olaf
Stapeldon in portraying a truly alien and
incomprehensible distant future, from which
viewpoint we and all our works are nothing
but a footnote in the fossil record or
mythology (if even that). In this
unimaginably distant future the sun has
grown dark and cold, and the teaming
millions of the human race have retreated
into humanity's final refuge, the Last
Redoubt (or Great Redoubt). The Redoubt is
an immense pyramid eight miles in height,
but with levels stretching hundreds of miles
underground, contains over thirteen hundred
cities, and is surrounded by the Air Clog
(in effect a heat barrier or force field, an
amazing concept way back in 1912) which has,
for millions of years, protected them from
any influences and intrusions by the
monstrous denizens of the outside world, the
Night Land. The Night Land is infested with
weird and wonderful creatures, some
off-shoots of humanity and some not, and all
of which besiege the Redoubt on every side.
By far the most dangerous and unfathomable
of these are the huge, mountain-sized
Watchers, who are attracted to the Redoubt
like moths to a flame. No-one knows what
they are, where they came from, or what they
want. Nor can anyone look at the gaze of a
Watcher, which alters and corrupts all it
touches. Any who are infected must be
immediately killed, lest they infect
everyone else, and any inanimate object
which shows signs of being altered by a
Watcher's gaze must also be destroyed. Only
the Air Clog protects the Redoubt and its
inhabitants from the gaze of the Watchers,
but it can't do so forever. Very few humans
have ever survived a journey Outside, as
these usually end in death, insanity, or
worse.
The Redoubt has withstood the direct sight
of the Watchers for many millions of years
now, but "The Little Watcher" takes place at
a time when the human population is starting
to dwindle and the Electric Circle, the
power source that maintains the Air Clog, is
beginning to weaken. The Watchers sense this
and are beginning to draw nearer to the
Redoubt. Their gaze is beginning to
penetrate the walls, and lately projected
images have been breaking through and
manifesting themselves in random places
throughout the various cities. There is
great concern among the citizens that
humanity might at last be losing their
near-eternal battle with the Watchers. Few
can withstand the gaze of a Watcher and
live, and almost all who do go insane. The
corruption of the Watchers can break into
the Redoubt even through the dreams of the
infected.
The story revolves around Kore, a young
female, and her mentor, the famous warrior
and hero Master Pallin. Kore is the most
important of a gifted elite, the Watchmen,
seers who serve as living spyglasses to look
upon the Watchers from the Tower of
Observation. These observations are
essential if the human race can ever hope to
find out enough about the Watchers to combat
them. Mostly the seers can look upon the
Watchers safely, but this is not always the
case. Sometimes infection can still break
through, and does so during one of Kore's
observations, which goes badly wrong. She
becomes infected by a Watcher's gaze, and
begins having strange dreams, most focusing
on a mysterious "Little Watcher", and is
becoming the focal point for an increasing
number of intruding images and signs which
appear throughout the city, corrupting and
unsettling the population. A number of
others are also infected, becoming
"attractors", focal points for weird images
depicting infinite possibilities. As Pallin
battles to save Kore from the Eugenicists,
who wish to terminate her, the situation
escalates dramatically when Kore begins to
physically alter, existing in a series of
superimposed states. These signify alternate
possibilities of human evolution which have
been until now suppressed and eradicated by
the strict rule of the Redoubt Eugenicists,
who permit no "abhuman" deviations from the
human norm. Kore finally changes into one of
the alternate evolutionary forms, the
"Little Watcher", and promptly vanishes, the
first of many similar metamorphoses all over
the Redoubt, many of which are aided by
Pallin who has begun to understand that all
is not what it seems to be. Certain members
of the human race are evolving into
something else, and escaping this world and
the trap that the rest of the human race is
caught in. Under the strict control of the
Eugenicists the rest of our species will
remain unchanged, eventually losing their
struggle with the Watchers, and will become
extinct, a strong condemnation of the
Eugenicists' interference with and altering
of the natural evolution of the human race.
Questions are also raised about long held
beliefs about the Watchers and the "Little
Watchers". Are they really the enemy, or
actually allies, trying to help the human
race by putting them back on the proper
evolutionary path?
I generally do not like authors
writing stories set in classic worlds
created by other authors. For the most part
these recreations never manage to live up to
the originals. However, that said, I found
"The Little Watcher" to be an enthralling
read, full of much of the mystery,
imagination, and sense of wonder that made
Hodgson's original classic so memorable,
whilst being unburdened by the florid,
pseudo-archaic biblical literary style that
Hodgson for some strange reason imposed on
the original novel, and which makes it
pretty much inaccessible to all but the most
determined modern reader. Stripped of that
hindrance, we're now getting a good look at
what makes The Night Land such an
incredible creation - the ideas,
imagination, the sheer originality which
even yet has few equals in fantastic
literature (remember, the original was
written more than ninety years ago), and the
portrayal of a distant future Earth
environment so alien and incomprehensible
that it sends a tingle up your spine. This
is one of the most incredibly original and
truly alien environments ever created in
fantasy or SF, and full marks to Brett
Davidson for creating such an excellent
follow-up to such an unusual story, no easy
task by any means. I'll be looking out for
more from him in the future, especially if
it's another Night Land story.
Overall, this was for me a fairly average
issue of Interzone, with the
exception of "The Little Watcher". Several
of the other stories were reasonably decent
reads, in particular the Mat Coward, Chris
Butler, and Paul Di Filippo stories, with
"2066 and All That" also being pretty good
for a laugh. But the remainder were
relatively uninspiring and average, and I'd
have rated this issue even lower but for the
inclusion of Brett Davidson's excellent
story which was easily the stand-out of this
month, one which I'll have on my short-list
of best stories of 2003.
|