| Sarban - The Sound of His Horn | ||||
I was lucky enough to find a 1960s paperback version of this in really good condition for only $25.00. Hardcover editions go for well over $100. That's because "Sarban" is an Englishman named John William Wall who wrote back in the 1950s. His entire output consists of a couple of slim volumes of short stories and this very short novel, all of which are highly regarded by fans of horror stories. The Sound of His Horn concerns Alan Querdilion, a British POW during the Second World War who escapes his prison camp, and somehow wakes up 100 years after the Nazis have won the war. He finds himself on the private hunting preserve of the Count Von Hackelnberg, Master Forester of the Reich. Being Nazis, they hunt people for sport. (With a pack of flesh-eating women dressed as cats.) The story takes place entirely inside the forest, and the reader only gets hints of what the wide world is like after 100 years of Nazi rule. The game preserve is like a Nazi's romanticized version of Germany's medieval past: the game keepers dress like medieval foresters and the Count and his guests drink mead from drinking horns and eat huge hunks of meat with their knives like Viking warriors in Valhalla. The story is told in a quiet, understated style, gradually building to its climax, as the Count hunts Alan through the forest at night. It's a well told tale of suspense more than an examination of an alternate future. It's like Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, without all the I Ching crap. Or The Most Dangerous Game with Nazis. It was good, although probably not $25 worth of good. Still, check it out if you can find it. |
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