Newspapermen and one gorgeous, redheaded, green-eyed newspaperwoman wait on the chilly tarmac of the Clarendon airport for the chartered plan returning the Lamarck Mondrick expedition from their two year stint in Nala-Shan. (Nala-shan actually exists. It's a mountain range in Northern China between Ninxgia and inner Mongolia's Alxa League. This could be the only trace of verifiable fact Williamson brings to his novel.) Along with the press are family members of the four returning explorers, including the elderly, stately Rowena Mondrick, blind since a panther ripped out her eyes in Nigeria some years before.Mark Barbee is there, an old friend of the explorers and now an alcoholic reporter for the Clarendon Star. He introduces himself to the beautiful readhead, April Bell, novice reporter for Clarendon's rival newspaper. She carries a small snakeskin bag that holds an adorable black kitten. Don't get too attached to the kitten.The plane lands, the much aged and visibly frightened explorers descend the ramp. They carry a heavily locked green case. The enfeebled Mondrick begins a speech, promises world-shattering revelations, then dies of asthma or a heart attack or a combination of the two. Much consternation. April Bell vanishes, but Matt Barbee has already made a date for later that night. His nose for news leads him to a dumpster near the airport terminal where he finds the snakeskin bag containing the kitten. It's been strangled by a red ribbon and it's heart punctured by an ivory pin decorated with a running wolf. It must be that same nose for news that does not make Barbee consider canceling his date.This is the set-up for Darker Than You Think. (Oh, in case you need more clues to coming events, Rowena Mondrick drapes herself in silver jewelry and her mastiff, wearing a silver-studded collar, goes beserk when he sees April Bell.)Williamson's novel first appeared in John W. Cambell's Astounding in 1940 as a 40,000 word serial. After WWII, the market for science fiction changed. Pulps were losing out to radio and paperbacks, but the now grown-up kids who loved sf from its pulpy origins wanted to see the stories in book form. Lloyd Arthur Eschbach founded Fantasy Press in 1946 and brought out Williamson's The Legion of Space. Respectable sales prompted Llyod to ask Williams to double the length of Darker Than You Think, and its sales equaled those of the previous novel. It's been reprinted many times. The edition I read was a Dell 1979 paperback that reproduced the original drawings by Edd Cartier, whose work, according the book's blurb, adds an extra dimension of enjoyment. Well, maybe. Certainly it adds an extra dimension of camp. My favorite is the frontispiece that features a nude woman seated on the back of a sabre-tooth tiger. She has the perky but nipple-free breasts not uncommon to illustrations of the time.April Bell is a witch, part of the Old Breed that Mondrick wants to eliminate from the earth. Barbee, it turns out, is a shapeshifter himself. I thought is was cheating to have them turn invisible when they took animal form, but it is necessary to make he plot work. Because Williamson wanted to write science fiction and not occult fantasy, he provides some anthropological background for this demon breed, and some fanciful physics for why they can walk through walls. This theory is put forth at length several times in dialogue that bears no hint of realistic human speech. Williamson lists this among his favorite books because it embodied much of what he learned about himself in psychoanalysis. He had been selling erractically to the pulps for years, but in 1936 he hit a wall. (He was 28.) He had been reading about psychiatry and wrote Ives Hendricks , the author of Facts and Theories of Psychoanalysis about coming to Boston from New Mexico for treatment. Hendricks suggested the Menninger Clinic in Topeka and Karl Menniger agreed to see him on April 13. With enough money to live frugally in Topeka, even paying the five dollars an hour for treatment, Williamson stayed. He was under the treatment of Dr. Charles W. Tidd, until two years later when money ran out and he and his doctor agreed there was nowhere further to go at the time.In Darker Than You Think Topeka becomes Clarendon. Glennhaven is an enormous and very active psychiatric hospital where Barbee makes a brief stay. There is too much plot to keep him there for any length of time. What Williamson learned with Dr. Tidd at the Menninger was to let go of some of his inner conflicts and accept parts of himself he had attempted to keep rigidly separated. How this works out for Barbee in the novel some readers found shocking.Darker Than You Think is enjoyable but dated and creaky. Here is a clue to how you might enjoy it more. Imagine it as a black and white movie from RKO studios in the 1940's, produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur. That is if you want to emphasize the moodier aspects. For a crisper image turn the project over to Robert Wise. (All the biographical information in this review comes from Williamson's memoirs, Wonder's Child.)
5.0 to 5.5 stars. I just finished re-reading this FANTASY CLASSIC after originally reading it over 10 years ago. As good as I thought it was back then, I must have read it too quickly and not absorbed all of the nuances because this time around I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! Originally published in 1948, this novel is one of the definitive stories about werewolves. I certainly think it is the most interesting explanation for Homo lycanthropus that I have ever come across. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PLOTWill Barbee is a correspondent for a local paper. As the story opens, Will is at the airport covering the return from Mongolia of an scientific expedition that has been exploring ancient ruins. The expedition has informed the press that they have made a discovery that will "change everything" and effect all of mankind and they plan to make their discovery known immediately as they fear they may be in danger from what they describe as "the ancient enemy." The expedition was led by Will's old professor and the other members of the expedition are all close friends of Wills. In fact, Will had originally studied with the professor at the university and had believed he would accompany the group on the expedition. However, the professor, after doing a standard medical examination on Will refused to allow Will to join the group and effectively dismissed him from the team without any explantion. This led to Will having very bitter feelings for the professor who is once admired. At the airport, Will meets April Bell, a reporter from another paper there to cover the same story. Will is immediately drawn to April and yet he feels that there is something "very dark" about her. April also appears hostile towards the members of the expedition. Prior to making their discovery public, the professor dies of seemingly natural causes. However, Will (for a variety of reasons I won't give away) suspects April Bell. Afterwards, Will becomes determined to discover the truth about both (i) the expeditions discovery and (ii) what happened to the professor. That is the basic premise of the story and sets the stage for the rest of the novel but all of that takes place in the first chapter of the book. As for the rest of the story, it is hard to discuss without giving away spoilers, so I will try and be very general. Despite Will's suspicions of April, he becomes increasingly attracted/obssessed with her. He also begins to have vivid dreams of changing into an animal and stalking members of the expedition with April. As more and more members of the expedition begin to die in mysterious circumstances, Will's grip on reality begins to slip and he becomes increasingly unsure of what is real and what is not to the point where he believes he is going insane. This is what the story is really about. Will's personal journey from the beginning of the novel to the amazing ending. However, along the way there are so many fascinating ideas and plot points that I never wanted to put the book down including (1) an amazing "scientific" explanation for the basis of supernatural abilities that involves the manipulation of probabilities and (2) the "history" of an ancient war from hundreds of thousands of years ago that explains the basis for all of mankinds nightmare creatures (vampires, werewolves, demons, ogres, dragons, etc.). Bottom-line, I thought this was an incredible read from start to finish and clearly is among the top two books that Jack Williamson ever wrote (The Humanoids: A Novel being the only other possible choice). In the introduciton to this novel, Jack Williamson siad that this story was his most "personal" story and I thought that came through in the writing. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!
What do You think about Darker Than You Think (1999)?
Early on the writing was a bit clunky, and with an abundance of oft repeated phrases. Thankfully it smoothed out a little as the story progressed.This was an interesting tale about a secret race of shape-shifters - allegedly out for world domination, although there was little sign of that. I did enjoy the rather novel approach Williamson took with regards the creatures shape changing abilities, but felt the story was let down by the unlikely actions of a somewhat deplorable protagonist. Nevertheless, an entertaining slice of hokum.
—Karen
I gave it a mediocre score of 3 stars, but there's nothing really mediocre in this book. It's all about high highs and low lows. One minute I'm mentally yelling at our protagonist for being quite possibly the stupidest person in fiction, and the next, someone is being murdered by an invisible naked woman riding a were-sabertooth (also invisible). Whatever complaints I may have about this book, there's no taking that away. That's some glorious Frank Frazetta shit.I'm not going to bother describing the plot because a lot of it relies on our protagonist being shockingly, comically, cartoonishly slow to catch on. But there are witches, werewolves, ancient pre-human artifacts, a pterosaur, and enough misinterpretation of quantum physics to make Deepak Chopra's head spin. I hated it and enjoyed the hell out of it simultaneously.
—Frank Unknown
This is one of the dumbest books I have ever read. April Bell is pretty much a standard Mary-Sue character and Barbee, well, all he does is drink and babble on. This book is ridiculously tragic, not even remotely scary. The plot is this: alcoholic small-town journo Will Barbee starts having realistic nightmares after meeting said Mary Sue character, the redheaded April Bell, who is of course stunningly beautiful and intoxicating. She confesses a sad backstory to him that her "father" beat her all the time and she was so much smarter and prettier than the other children and had no friends and that she is a witch. One by one, Barbee's mates start meeting violent deaths during his nightmares, starting with Mondrick the archaeologist who is allergic to cats and has a seizure just after getting off the plane, coming back from Mongolia. Of course, April had a cat with her but killed the poor thing just before Mondrick comes in, strangling the cat with a ribbon and stabbing it through the heart with a wolf pin. She's apparently some sort of witch that can shape shift to a wolf and whatever's in the box from Mongolia is proof of the existence of witches and is dangerous to them. The plot is ridiculous, the characters are eye-rollers and if you are looking for an actually good story with werewolves, this is marginally less stupid than Twilight.
—Shennae
