Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Scenes From A Book

I received these pictures of an underground vertical cavern that was exposed after an earthquake. I cannot verify these pictures but they remind me of a book I read a long time ago called Nightworld by F. Paul Wilson.


From Amazon (publisher's weekly):

Satan returns to devour the earth and its inhabitants in this strong sequel to Reborn and Reprisal. The devil (Rasalom) has shortened the daylight hours, (if I'm not mistaken, he made the sun rise from the west as well - familiar isn't it?) and let loose a plague of human-eating monsters that prey on New York's populace during the long nights. Whole communities turn on one another; riots break out over food; gangs wage war on the public; and Rasalom grows strong as he feeds on the chaos his creatures have caused. The only one who can stop this horror is Glaeken, an enfeebled old warrior who has battled the demon across time and space. Too weak to fight alone, Glaeken gathers supernatural forces to assist him, among them a boy with mysterious powers, a 150-year-.old witch and a vigilante named Repairman Jack. The death of one of the fighters reveals the overwhelming strength of the satanic forces, who have reserved a particularly gruesome fate for Glaeken. Wilson has written a terrifying horror that is also a solid old-fashioned morality tale.

I still can remember certain details of the book until now, although I read it only once more than 13 years ago.Together with all the fire and brimstone and 'hounds/ creatures of hell' sort of tales told by my eldest sister when I was growing up - no doubt told by her teachers at her sekolah agama - that book left a lasting mark in my brain.

In the book, guess where all those 'human eating monsters' appeared from? That's right. From a large and gaping hole that suddenly appeared in the middle of a park (I think) in New York. And these pictures made me think of the book straight away and wonder what indeed lurks in that gaping and deep hole, which surprisingly looks rather man made, to me.

And together with this piece of news that I read this morning, I can't help feeling helpless and worried about the state of the world, and the impending possibilities..

It's just too scary.


5 comments:

The Hand That Holds The Quill... said...

eh forgot to tell u. The pic apparently was also circulated for a quake in guatemala (dunno details). So don't think it's what happened in Indonesia yesterday. jus fyi.

Halwafy said...

Yeah...one can never trust what you get in these emails. Thanks for sending me them and telling me this. But anyway, that hole is still pretty scary to me..

cutiepie said...

*goose bump*

i've heard of some kind of this story before if im not mistaken in the agama class .. and now seeing it and hearing (reading) it brought this eerie feeling ..

allahuakbar

Rockybru said...

Hi Halwafy,
How's London these days?
Wilson wrote The Keep, right? One of the scariest scary novels I have had the pleasure of reading. I remember reading Nightlife but I don' t remember the story. Too many horror novels.
Cheers!

Halwafy said...

What a pleasure it is to have you visit my humble blog, Rocky.

London is still as before but the weather is different - now it's only March and yet the temp today is 17 degrees...

I don't know 'The Keep'. I don't normally read horror novels as a general rule but somehow read that one during one of the holidays I spent at home. But it was enough to keep me away from those kind of stories for good, I should say.

Do drop by again soon..:)

*ecstatic that Rocky came to visit!*