DARK MATTER: A Ghost Story

Michelle Paver

ISBN 10: 1409123782 / ISBN 13: 9781409123781

Published by Orion Books, London, 2010

Dark Matter was nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award for best novel. ***First impression of the true first edition with full number-string sequence including the no. "1" on the publisher's copyright page: 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2. ***Near fine in black boards with silver titles to spine. Black and white night-arctic-snow-illustrated front and rear free endpapers and pastedowns. Head and tail of spine slightly rubbed. Pages clean. Slight spine lean. Spine tight. ***In a near fine monochrome-illustrated dustwrapper which has not been price-clipped, showing the original publisher's price of £12.99. Extremities of dustwrapper very slightly creased and rubbed. No tears. No fading. Dustwrapper bright. ***224 mm x142 mm. 243 pages plus three-page author's note to rear. ***A ghost story in the M. R. James tradition - but set in the Arctic. ***'January 1937. Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight-year-old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he's offered the chance to be the wireless operator on an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it. ***Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year. Gruhuken. ***But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice. Stay or go. ***Soon he will see the last of the sub, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return - when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible. ***And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone. Something walks there in the dark.' (Quote from inside front of dustwrapper blurb). ***First impression of the true first edition, complete in its original dustwrapper in bright clean condition. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. Seller Inventory # 6204

Synopsis:

'What is it? What does it want? Why is it angry with me?'

January 1937.

Clouds of war are gathering over a fogbound London. Twenty-eight year old Jack is poor, lonely and desperate to change his life. So when he's offered the chance to be the wireless operator on an Arctic expedition, he jumps at it.
Spirits are high as the ship leaves Norway: five men and eight huskies, crossing the Barents Sea by the light of the midnight sun. At last they reach the remote, uninhabited bay where they will camp for the next year. Gruhuken.
But the Arctic summer is brief. As night returns to claim the land, Jack feels a creeping unease. One by one, his companions are forced to leave. He faces a stark choice. Stay or go.
Soon he will see the last of the sun, as the polar night engulfs the camp in months of darkness. Soon he will reach the point of no return - when the sea will freeze, making escape impossible.

And Gruhuken is not uninhabited. Jack is not alone.

Something walks there in the dark.

Review: Dark Matter is terrific....(a) wild beast that grabs you by the neck (Helen Rumblelow THE TIMES)

Dark Matter is a spellbinding read - the kind of subtly unsettling, understated ghost story MR James might have written had he visited the Arctic (Eric Brown THE GUARDIAN)

Gruhuken is reportedly haunted, and hints as to why are skilfully drip-fed through a tense and strangely beautiful narrative that bristles with the static electricity of a stark, vast, frozen Arctic night (METRO)

Bestselling children's author Paver's genuinely terrifying tale will have you shaking under the covers (PSYCHOLOGIES)

Atmospheric and decidedly unsettling (WOMAN & HOME)

It's a cracker of a read, set in the 1930s and a blisteringly cold Arctic winter (DOVE GRAY READER)

You have plenty of time to clear your TBR piles to make room for this book as it won't be published until October, but make room you should as Michelle Paver's Dark Matter is a ghost story of terrific menace written with consummate skill (CORNFLOWER BOOKS)

I loved this story. I couldn't put it down. It's as creepy as an M R James ghost story and yet, even though it's set in the 1930s, it doesn't feel self-consciously dated as many neo-Gothic stories do. It feels absolutely relevant. Not many people can write historical fiction without anachronism but with a contemporary feel and Michelle Paver is one of them. Dark Matter comes highly recommended (THE BOOK BAG)

I was hooked right away and finished it in just a few days. Dark Matter is the kind of horror story that can chill just about anyone (LITERARY STEW)

Dark Matter is one of the spookiest stories I've read in recent years. It's not a teen novel, but unsurprisingly, given Michelle Paver's background, the style shares many YA traits. The main character, Jack, has a strong voice and the writing is tight. The pace builds gradually, yet Michelle Paver keeps the action moving and doesn't stray into superfluous description. Everything in this book has been retained for a reason (CHICKLISH)

Bibliographic Details

Title: DARK MATTER: A Ghost Story
Publisher: Orion Books, London
Publication Date: 2010
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Near Fine
Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
Edition: First Edition