Written by Chris Panico
October is finally here, and everyone knows what that means. Pumpkin spice lattes, apple picking Sundays, and more fall festivals than the poor calendar has room for. It’s only the 10th, and while some may already be tired of the orange colors in all their food, there’s one more novelty (pun entirely intended) I have to throw on you before the month is out.
A Night In The Lonesome October is a fun, quirky adventure by the late fantasy and sci-fi author Roger Zelazny. The novel is narrated on a day-to-day basis by Snuff, the loyal watch dog for Jack the Ripper. Throughout the month we see him befriend, conspire, and sabotage Jack’s opponents in a rare game that occurs every few hundred years when the full moon rises on Halloween. Snuff works closely with the familiars of other notable players including ‘The Count’ and ‘The Good Doctor’, as they’re named in the book.
Half the fun of Zelazny’s novel is the casual fantasy of it, but the other half comes from the unraveling of events. The reader is dropped in without any knowledge of The Game or who’s on whose side. Granted, Snuff and his comrades are also in the dark about each other’s allegiances. As the audience goes through the story they receive bits of information here and there as to what type of Game is actually being played, what’s at stake, and who can be trusted.
Next time you feel an exasperated groan forming in response to a customer’s order of pumpkin coffee (I assume everyone else works in a coffee shop as well), take a second flip through A Night In The Lonesome October.
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