Like many popular works of fiction by authors like Stephen King, Clive Barker and Dean Koontz, Midnight is a hybrid of fantasy and horror. As with some of the better of these works, this novel contains an underlying theme that goes deeper than simply the crunching of alien creatures' bodies or frightened children puking. Midnight is also a morality tale, the theme of which might best be summed up with the biblical warning "What good does it do a man if he gains the world but in the process loses his soul?"

It is, in fact, the very soul of protagonist Thomas Bishop that is at stake, although he doesn't realize it. Bishop is a writer dreaming of great success, of writing the book that will grant him fame and fortune. With his wife Liz and his young daughter, KerryAnn, he has moved to rural Vermont from New York City to escape the ills of city life. Liz teaches at a local school and Thomas writes in his office in the house.

Evil enters Bishop's life in two separate forms. First is a large black brute of a dog that has apparently been lost by its owner and wanders onto Bishop's property. Bishop initially wants to shoo the large dog away but then, out of kindness (or possibly an inner attraction to evil?) decides to take the dog in, at least until the owner can be found. KerryAnn names the dog "Midnight".

The second odd appearance on Bishop's property is that of a traveling salesman:

"Upon Bishop's walking onto the porch, a smile appeared on the man's angular face and he immediately stepped forward to introduce himself...His face, topped by a head of greased-back, raven-black hair was wide-cheeked and angular. Above the cheeks were youthful, glistening green eyes. The nose was long and sharp and the brow high, giving the man the air of an intellectual. The skin was tanned, which lent him an exotic appearance as well. He was clad in black pants and a white shirt, open at the collar...Bishop wondered if he was looking at a wandering gypsy...There was something, vague and indistinct, about the man that made Bishop think he'd just stepped out of another age, through a time warp of sorts, to appear in front of his home."

Bishop thinks the guy is crazy even as he accepts the game. One more thing, adds the strange Kroonquist as he leaves, "Try very hard not to lose". It is a true warning, for although he doesn't yet know it, Bishop is playing for high stakes: the lives of his family, the destruction of his soul. Bishop doesn't play the game immediately but when he opens the package at last he is impressed by what he sees:

"...a CD that contained the program software; an odd sort of helmet and face mask of the lightest cloth; earphones and a pair of electronic gloves..."

"Bishop was flying, or rather his mentality was. He'd entered the cyberspace with a burst of energy that literally snatched his breath away, and found himself soaring high in a blazing lemon sky, a bird of thought sailing far above the earth, above clouds of red and purple mist..."

"...Bishop felt the heat of the raw exchange, felt the desire of the girl grasping for every bit of pleasure she could grab from him. They kept at it for minutes, each in their own separate ecstasy, the boy, the girl and the unseen hitchhiker along for the ride..."

"...a representation that was half-man and half-bull, the figure an inversion of the standard image of the Minotaur of ancient mythology...lt's expression evidenced anger as though it was the true Minotaur impatient for another virgin tribute from Theseus."

"...the prizes the years to come held for him: success as an acclaimed author, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for literature...He saw the wealth, the massive wealth the future would grant him...Life in a great mansion, servants, expensive cars, jewelry and fine clothes, and the world's most beautiful women...a man idolized and respected...a man feted and honored by the lowest and highest of humankind...Dogs and babies loved him as did presidents and kings. He was a man as close to a living god as it was possible to be."

As with many such fantasy/horror novels, there is a lot of gore, especially in the playing of the "game", when one soldier is felled by another:

"...The knight, with his baleful eyes gleaming nothing less than bliss, then tugged the blade swiftly upward, opening the bishop up from pelvis to sternum and spilling the bloodied entrails onto the grass..."

"...The killing knight bent over the piece and, with the blade of his dagger, ran a skilled slicing of the stone skin around the boundaries of the dying bishop's face. Then with his gauntlet covered hand, the knight spread his fingers and thumb over the groaning face, pressed down with as much force as he could produce and literally pulled the skin...away from the bone of the head, leaving behind the horror of a still living, bloodied shrieking skull."

Like the game Biship plays, this novel is "cool", too. Packed full in its slightly fewer than 200 pages is more horror and fantasy than many other books with more paper and more paragraphs but less imagination. Midnight is an inventive, intelligent fantasy/horror tale that is certain to please both genre fans and those readers who aren't fantasy/horror readers in general but who simply like good well-written, highly entertaining books.

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