All is not what it seems…
In the murky London gloom, a knife-wielding gentleman named Jack prowls the midnight streets with his faithful watchdog Snuff—gathering together the grisly ingredients they will need for an ancient and unearthly rite. For soon after the death of the moon, black magic will summon the Elder Gods back into the world. And all manner of Players, both human and undead, are preparing to participate.
Some have come to open the gates. Some have come to slam them shut. And now the dread night approaches—so let the Game begin.

‘A Night In The Lonesome October‘ was my first Roger Zelazny novel, which is surprising given I’ve been reading Science fiction since the 1970s Zelazny won six Hugo awards, three Nebula awards and two Locus awards between 1968 and 1986.

I picked up ‘A Night In The Lonesome October‘ because it was a good fit for Halloween Bingo, especially the Halloween square. To my surprise, I fell in love with the book. It’s original, engaging and quietly uplifting.

It tells the story of a strange metaphysical struggle for the fate of mankind that occurs each time there is a full moon on Halloween. It’s a conflict that repetition and ritual have turned into a deadly game with rules and traditions that the players must obey or suffer consequences.

The game draws monsters and villains from classic horror stories to become players. Each player has an animal as a familiar. At the start of the game, players don’t know which of their fellows is an enemy or an ally. 

I liked that the story was told in the form of a chapter for each day in October, building to the final conflict on Halloween.

For me, the story worked as well as it did because it was told entirely from the point of view of Snuff, the dog, familiar to Jack, a man who carries a very large knife when he goes hunting in London’s East End. I liked Snuff. He was calm, rational, as friendly as circumstances would allow and treated players and familiars fairly. He accepted the importance of winning the game for his side and was determined to do his duty, but he didn’t allow that to become an excuse for treating others badly. 

I liked that Snuff’s main interactions were with the other familiars rather than the players. It gave Snuff more agency, allowed him to develop alliances and even friendships, and kept the famous personalities at arm’s-length. 

I had fun trying to work out who all the characters were based on. It didn’t take me long to decide that the characters included Jack The Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, Victor Frankenstein and Count Dracula but I couldn’t name the rest. A friend pointed me at a post in The Lovecraft eZine which offers some interesting suggestions “Fallen Books and Other Subtle Clues in Zelazny’s “A Night in the Lonesome October”, by Dr. Christopher S. Kovacs“

The book was imbued with quiet hope and gentle humour, and I admired the boldness and originality of the story. I think it is one I will come back to in another October and read a chapter each day.

I listened to the 2025 audiobook version, narrated by Matt Godfrey. I was a little surprised that the book was narrated in an American accent (Yes, I know Zelazny was American, but the characters in the novel aren’t). I was soon won over by how easy Matt Godfrey was to listen to and how well he managed the large cast of character voices. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.