never go back to bookfilter lake!

April 19, 2005 7:30 PM

BookFilter: I'm looking for a book with a sort of Lovecraftian tone, than I remember being called "The Man with the Staff of Light", except it sounded cooler than that does. It involved a traveller in the Wandering Jew archetype whose distinguishing feature is his glowing staff, and who seems to act as a witness to the decay of all around him.

For example, I seem to remember that he is invited in for the night at some lonely dwelling, in which the inhabitants murder each other around him. Later, he comes to a decadent city which is destroyed by political intrigues as he watches.

I realize this isn't much to go on. Like I said, it had a sort of Lovecraftian tone, or maybe the decadent sci-fi of Michael Moorcock. Definitely not mainstream.

posted by scrim to Writing & Language (2 answers total)

Best answer: It sounds a little like "The Traveler in Black", by John Brunner.
posted by interrobang at 8:13 PM on April 19, 2005

Seconding interrobang. His Traveler in Black stories are excellent, BTW, as is most of what Brunner wrote.
posted by IshmaelGraves at 10:17 PM on April 19, 2005