Tom Monteleone and F. Paul Wilson are both noted horror/sf/suspense writers. Between 2013 and 2018 they co-wrote a Young Adult trilogy under the aegis of Nocturnia. These books take place in an alternate reality inhabited by “monsters”—vampires, werewolves, trolls, zombies, and more. In Nocturnia, humans are rare, treated as slaves or food. Into this place are transported two young humans, who get sucked up in an inter-dimensional tornado while looking for their missing older brother. In Nocturnia they meet various monsters (some good and some some decidedly bad), along with other humans, including Amelia Earhart and Ambrose Bierce, both of whom also were transported there from Humania, as our earth is known. Will the siblings make it back to “the real world?” Will they get eaten or killed by the various monsters? You need to read all three books to learn their fate.
I bought the first book some time last year, as part of my ongoing effort to collect of all F. Paul Wilson’s books. This year I went ahead and picked up the second and third books. All three were published as a joint effort by Borderlands Press and Gauntlet Press. The three hardcovers that I have are all signed/limited editions; prices are not listed in the books, but I think I paid a fair price for each one.
Strangely, the three books have different print runs: The first volume was published in 350 copies, the second 300, and the third 500. While my copy of the first volume is #138 of 350, the second and third are both #69 of those respective numbers. Also, while the covers of the second and third books look similar, they diverge wildly from the cover of the first book. Granted, the cover of the first book was somewhat bizarre, almost as if a child had drawn something for a school project. The second and third covers appear somewhat more professional. Family Secrets, the second book in the series, list a final proofreading credit, but this person missed the copyright page, which mentions the first book in the series, Definitely Not Kansas; this was fixed in the third book, The Secret Ones, as it mentions itself (not the only time Borderlands Press has failed in proofreading something, and in one place the writers use “there” instead of “their” which is almost unforgivable). Per a comment in the third book, chapbook was published, called Secret Ingredient. So far I’ve not seen this chapbook listed anywhere. Is it real? I don’t know.
These books are intended as young adult novels, so the protagonists are young kids. To move the plot along, there are side characters who vary in age and act as foils, mentors, antagonists, love interests, etc. Both the first and second books end on cliffhangers, but that’s not unknown for YA series. At times I think I see which writer is at work, but then again, I’ve read a ton of F. Paul Wilson books, and almost nothing by Monteleone, so I have no sense of the latter’s writing voice or style. I do wonder, in this parallel universe, how all the characters speak English, and how the Nocturnians know certain terms than are unique to American culture, and there only are two scientists in the entire culture in this universe that’s almost a parallel version of our own. But, I guess in cases like this one must suspend all disbelief.
