MORLOCK NIGHT by K. W. JETER
DAW:sf books paperback, USA 1979, 160 pages
Cover art and an illustration by Josh Kirby

Text on the backside of the book

Remember the original Time Machine and the Time Traveller's astonishing account of his journey to the far future when humanity had divided into two races - the worker-bestial Morlocks and the elfin-sheep Eloi?
Remember also that the Time Traveller went back to that future and never returned?

What happened to his Time Machine? Did it fall into the hands of the Morlocks and did they make use of it to return to the time and place of its origin - the England of Wellsian days?

This is the completion of that epic story. this is what happened when the Time machine came back - with the Morlocks and its riders and London as their new hunting ground for human cattle!

MORLOCK NIGHT is a memorably different excursion in science fiction - a gripping "classic" adventure in past, present and future - with some startling surprises!

Dramatis personae

Mr Edwin Hocker - journalist and one of Mr. H. G. Wells's guests
Dr. Ambrose - the pale man, another of Mr. H. G. Wells's guests
Dr. Merdenne - the old nemesis of Dr. Ambrose
Private Tafe - a female soldier
Mr. Henry Morsmere - a retired brigadier-general
Tom Clagger - a retired tosher (sewer-hunter)
Professor Gough Felknap of Edinburgh University
Colonel Nalga - a Morlock officer
A grim nurse, two waiters, a group of young londoners, morlocks and many more ...

My review

It starts as a science-fiction novel with Mr Edwin Hocker finding himself in a parallell time line where the Morlocks has ockupated almost the entire Earth, but soon it turns out to be an intriguing fantasy novel in a chess-game allegory, with a nice mix of the legend of King Arthur and Merlin in it. And the description of the Eternity when time no longer exists is short but very suggestive. And yes, there will be an Arthur Redivivus with the sword Excalibur, but not in the easy way and (as quoted from the text from the backside of the book) with a lot of startling - but often very bizarre - surprises.

The plot is that all time travel has frayed the fabric of the Cosmos to the ripping point and the task for the Arthur Redivivus is to destroy the Time Machine and thereby restore the natural order of the Universe. But it is the Morlocks who have the Time Machine ...

I liked this book very much due to its bizarre fantasy - especially the ancient Atlantean submarine - but remember: this book is not in the original Wellsian style and it is not logical as a sequel! Read it if you like films as Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear (1985), Dune (1984), The Fifth Element (1997) , Wild Wild West (1999) and Minority Report (2002) ...
As a bizarre fantasy novel:
As a sequel to the original H.G. Wells novel:

Sandra Petojevic, Master of Arts in Art History and Visual studies, August 21, 2005

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