Here’s but one example of our Heathening:

Original: “I am not superstitious; but I have ceased to deny that things happen in this old house—things that I cannot explain; and, therefore, I must needs ease my mind, by writing down an account of them, to the best of my ability; though, should this, my diary, ever be read when I am gone, the readers will but shake their heads, and be the more convinced that I was mad.”

Updated: “I am not superstitious, but I have ceased to deny that things happen in this old house—things that I cannot explain; therefore, I must ease my mind by writing down an account of them, to the best of my ability; though, should this, my diary, ever be read when I am gone, the readers will but shake their heads and be the more convinced that I was mad.”

My brother and I joke that we took The Comma House on the Semicolon Borderland and turned it into The House on the Borderland. 

Even Terry Pratchett, in his review of the book, noted how wearisome the excessive punctuation could be: “The language is that stilted, labored form that makes most elderly horror writing such a tedious business to read.”

But, as you can see from the example above, our alterations are subtle and, we believe, vastly improve the flow of the story.

To read our full thoughts, check out “Comma, comma, comma, cheese and rice!”

1. The Plain of Silence
2. The House in the Arena
3. The Earth
4. The Thing in the Pit
5. The Swine-Things
6. The Attack
7. After the Attack
8. In the Cellars
9. The Time of Waiting
10. The Searching of the Gardens
11. The Subterranean Pit
12. The Trap in the Great Cellar
13. The Sea of Sleep
14. The Noise in the Night
15. The Awakening
16. The Slowing Rotation
17. The Green Star
18. The End of the Solar System
19. The Celestial Globes
20. The Dark Sun
21. The Dark Nebula
22. Pepper
23. The Footsteps in the Garden
24. The Thing From the Arena
25. The Luminous Speck

“This extraordinary novel defies categorization. It is galactic adventure, prophetic fantasy, macabre romance and drugless trip, and brilliantly unites its many disturbing elements, easily equaling, if not surpassing, all predecessors and contemporaries (including Jules Verne, Rider Haggard, and H.G. Wells). It is high time Hodgson’s masterpiece was made available to the myriad readers he deserves.” –Alexis Lykiard

“Hodgson hands us the whole of Time and Space in a couple chapters. The Big Bang in my private universe as a science fiction/fantasy reader and, later, writer . . . this is where the screaming really starts, out in the void, with no-one left to hear.” –Terry Pratchett

“Perhaps the greatest of all Mr. Hodgson’s works . . . the wanderings of the narrator’s spirit through limitless light-years of cosmic space and Kalpas of eternity, and its witnessing of the solar system’s final destruction constitute something almost unique in standard literature. A classic of the first water.” –H.P. Lovecraft

“Will produce genuine gooseflesh!” –The New York Times

“The tale is quite indescribable; its power is proved by the fascination with which it holds the fancy spellbound.” –Daily Telegraph

“An imaginative tour de force whose power transcends its patchwork construction; the cosmic vision sequence makes it equally interesting as a scientific romance, but it definitely strikes what its admirer H. P. Lovecraft sought to define as ‘the true note of cosmic horror.’” –Neil Barron

“Hodgson’s imagination opens up endless vistas of time and space and rushes down them, headlong, leaving the reader breathless in his wake. The House on the Borderland, with its dizzying leaps through outer and inner space, remains a unique vision. It is good to see Hodgson’s work once more receiving the attention it deserves.” –Fantasy: The 100 Best Books

The House on the Borderland