Even the most compulsive and comprehensive collectors of Roald Dahl books probably do not own a copy of Some Time Never. It has been out of print since seemingly the day after it went it print. And since so few people bought it back then, there is also a shortage of used versions going around. As a result, even if one manages to track down a copy, the cost is very often prohibitive. Even for the most compulsive and comprehensive of Dahl fans. Still, Some Time Never does not qualify as a “lost” book, so if one keeps compulsive lurking around the dark edges of vast planetary bookstore which is a large part of the internet, one sometimes gets lucky. The first question that will be answered upon reading the novel is whether its virtual absence from the archives of history is directly related to literary quality.
The answer to that is a definite no. But that one is easy; after all, plenty of copies of Twilight are to be found so obviously there is little correlation between lack of quality of availability. (Take it easy, Twilight fans, that’s just a joke to put things into perspective.) All kidding aside, there is absolutely nothing so inherently awful about Some Time Never to explain why it has remained out of print. In fact, a goodly number of fans of Dahl are likely to place it higher than some of his other published books even if it is unlikely to actually top the lists of many. For one thing, Some Time Never expands and enlarges upon the mythology of what may arguably be Dahl’s most literary species: the Gremlins. These little phantoms were first brought into the world by airmen flying military planes who blame them for mechanical failures and communications breakdowns. Dahl immortalized them in an illustrated book titled after the mischievous little creatures.
Although technically a sequel in a manner of speaking, Some Time Never is most assuredly not a children’s book. It is, in fact, a sort of unusual (for the time) mash-up of two different popular genres: the fantasy and the dystopian novel. It is also often referred to as the first novel to take as its subject the post-apocalyptic consequences of humans surviving a nuclear war. The story does not just cover World War III, but the consequences of that war which inevitably lead to World War IV. The Gremlins are there to help out mankind again in that first war just as they had done during World War II, but sensing the self-destructive course on which mankind insists upon putting itself following the next great war, they decided to retire back to their underground civilization and leave humans to fend for themselves afterward. This naturally leads to annihilation of the species. What really marks the novel as something worth reading is that Dahl frames the relationship between mankind and Gremlins symbiotic and with the loss of humans, the Gremlins soon find themselves doomed as well.
One is tempted to suggest that it is this excessively downbeat ending that remains unsaved by any ironic twist that led to its almost total disappearance of the face of the earth. But then Dahl has never been a particularly optimistic sort who provides conventional happy endings where everybody lives even better than how things started. The most satisfying explanation for why Some Time Never has represented the Holy Grail for Dahl fans is almost the clearest: he was unhappy with the result and wanted to erase it from his legacy. It is a story that itself seems fitting for a Dahl story.
