Screencap of Hookland account on Twitter

(18) HOOKLAND

Hookland is reminiscent of my top 10 entry for Night Vale, similarly an eldritch fantasy kitchen sink setting – but where Night Vale leans more to conspiracy theory and urban myth (as well as outright Lynchian surreal fantasy), Hookland leans more to English folklore, ghosts and the fair folk.

The key distinction – by which Hookland ranks as wild tier special mention rather than a top 10 entry as for Night Vale – is that where Night Vale has spread from its original podcast to books, Hookland remains in its original form as a ‘web original’ project on social media, primarily (at least for this reader) through the Hookland Guide Twitter profile (which dates back to 2014). Indeed – I yearn for books from Hookland, although it is perhaps apt that Hookland Guide is almost as elusive as Hookland itself, teased though gossamer strands and tantalizing threads on Twitter. I understand that it is a collaborative project, with its origin (and prime mover) in author David Southwell.

Another key distinction, albeit not to my fantasy rankings, is that where Night Vale is primarily narrated through the town’s community radio broadcaster, Hookland is narrated through a number of voices – dramatis personae teased out through threads across time, from witches to police detectives. Despite the consistency of narrator in Night Vale, Night Vale and Hookland – like the best fantasy or SF in general – doles out their mythos or world-building in doses, mostly hints and oblique references. For Hookland, however, these are in sore need – at least to this reader – of compilation in more formal reference, such as an encyclopedia or wiki, even as pages in Wikipedia or TV Tropes (from which it is sadly absent). The closest thing is the working map of Hookland posted

Despite Night Vale being an American desert town and Hookland an English county, both are similarly amorphous – not quite fixed in time and space, although remaining within the confines of their respective nations (albeit as quasi-independent entities), and dotted with distinctive landmarks.

As I said, Hookland leans more to English folklore, notably ghost and fair folk – but has many more elements in its fantasy kitchen sink setting, all the way to technofantasy or SF, such as the Hum, electricity pylons as latter day ley lines and mystic transcendence.

RATING:
X-TIER (WILD TIER)