A Night of Blacker Darkness: being the memoir of Frederick Whithers as edited by Cecil G. Bagsworth IIII first learned about Dan Wells through Brandon Sanderson, who has been one of my favorite authors for several years. I've read a few of his books and also listened to several of his works on Audible (Zero G and its sequel are both pretty good).
So far as I can tell A Night of Blacker Darkness seems to be exclusive to audible, though the listing says "for a limited time" so it may come out in print eventually or on audio elsewhere. Regardless, you should definitely check out this volume if you enjoy fantasy and/or historical fiction and have a good sense of humour. The Audible description actually does a great job of summarizing the book.
"The book is Extremely Silly: imagine a horror story, as written by Monty Python, in the style of the old screwball comedies like The Producers, What's Up Doc?, and Some Like it Hot, and then imagine that for some reason it's also in the style of a Victorian frame story starring John Keats and presented by a fake historian. A delightfully funny novel full of witty dialogue brought to life by the narrative voice talents of Sean Barrett."I was definitely laughing out loud quite a number of times as I listened to the story unfold. It started out pretty crazy with the narrator (Frederick Whithers) faking his death to get out of prison. He wakes up as the coffin he'd been smuggled out in is about to be buried. However, as he pounds on the lid the gravedigger remembers his promise and opens the coffin, only to run away a short time later as the grave is surrounded by vampires. These rather inept creatures keep turning up as they follow Frederick and his companions all around town convincing themselves and others that because Frederick isn't susceptible to any of the normal vampire failings (garlic, crosses, holy water, sunlight) he must be the prophesied "great one" who can control all of the undead armies of darkness!
Do yourself a favor and check out this delightful short audio tale and give your funny bone a good workout.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Summary: A delightfully comic Victorian fantasy of a con artist who must chase a madcap cast of characters (some of whom are also chasing him) across southern England in an effort to con a bank into giving him a £90,000 inheritance.
Technical: 6 hours 18 minutes in length, narrated by Sean Barrett. Available via Audible.
~Matt
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