The Night Land

The Night Land is a horror novel by William Hope Hodgson, first published in 1912. The beginning of the book establishes the framework in which a 17th-century gentleman, mourning the death of his beloved, Lady Mirdath, is given a vision of a far-distant future where their souls will be re-united, and sees the world of that time through the eyes of a future incarnation. When the book was written, the nature of the energy source that powers stars was not known, but Hodgson wrote a novel describing a time, millions of years in the future, when the Sun has gone dark and the Earth is lit only by the glow of residual vulcanism. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, nearly eight miles high - the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a shield known as the "air clog", powered from a subterranean energy source called the "Earth Current". For millennia, vast living shapes-the Watchers-have waited in the darkness near the pyramid. It is thought they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle's power finally weakens and dies. To leave the protection of the Circle means almost certain death, or worse an ultimate destruction of the soul.