Nightworld
F. Paul Wilson
Tor, May 22 2012, $25.99
ISBN: 9780765321671

Glaeken has grown weak with age and too many battles over time and space against the ultimate evil Rasalom. Thus the malevolent being begins his latest assault by breaking the laws of physics when the sun’s path is altered and consequently reduces daylight hours around the world. The evil one also begins releasing his horde of monsters coming through gigantic bottomless sink holes like the one in Central Park. Glaeken knows he cannot confront his eternal adversary by himself. As riots and gang war further destroys the mortal population, Glaeken puts together a team of specialists starting with his apprentice Repairman Jack.

The quest starts in Monroe, Long island where Glaeken and Father Bill Ryan come to pick up Jeffrey a young child. The lad contains the Dat-tay-vao healing touch that left Vietnam in 1968 inside medic Walter Erskine passed to Dr. Alan Bulmer and from him to his adopted son. Glaeken and his team also must obtain two talisman necklaces as weapons to use against the growing evil who is winning the war.

This is a major revision of the original 1992 final apocalyptic Adversary Circle (see Reprisal and Reborn, etc.). Jack is a key player but shares billing with Glaeken, Jeffy and others. The superb storyline is fast-paced and loaded with action as the force of good is reeling from the evil one’s assaults while the fading sun becomes a metaphysical Times Square countdown clock to Year Zero doomsday.

Harriet Klausner