What's the Name of That Book??? discussion
SOLVED: Adult Fiction
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SOLVED. Science Fantasy, traveling salesman arrives in a town on a world where monsters like werewolves, vampires and dragons are real, 1970s or 80s
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Nevermind, I just found it... Nightworld (aha!) by David Bischoff. Got the title right, but the cover art all wrong.https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Not sure how to move this thread to the Solved folder... I'll have to try.
Spoliers Ahead:
A man arrives in a world/on a planet where people think monsters are real, but are actually robots run by a massive super-computer. He uses modern/advanced technology to fight them, and seek out their source.
Published in the 1970s or 80s.
That description is a "bit" of a spoiler, in that in the opening chapters one thinks that the monsters are real, and the man is from that planet... but it's hard to meaningfully describe the book without that major detail. The main antagonist is a massive computer. His "vampire" minion is the main, super-human, physical opponent. When the protagonist is first introduced, he appears as a traveling salesman with a wagon/cart full of technological wonders in an otherwise technologically backwards society.
I read this in my teens or twenties, so it was likely published in the 70s or early 80s, but it could have been the late 80s, or early 90s or even originally from prior to the 70s (much of what I read in my teens was originally from the 60s or even sooner).
I swear that the title had the word "Night" in it ("Nightworld?", "Nightmare World?" "World of Nightmares?"), but I don't trust that memory, and googling that turns up nothing.
It wasn't a fantastic book, just a fun, trashy novel, so it is unlikely to appear on any "best of" lists.
The cover art was in the fashion of Michael Whelan (Spell for Chameleon, or maybe like Six of Swords by Carole Nelson Douglas) or Darrell K Sweet (Castle Roogna or Outlaws of Sherwood, but the 80s editions)... but a lot of novels then used that style. I remember the cover as being dark (lots of black, dark blues, maybe dark purples), maybe with the protagonist faced by a monster (werewolf?), but again, it's an ancient memory not to be trusted.