A Night in the Lonesome October

Extract: My track record for Zelazny is not looking too good. This is the third novel I've read by him that I felt was so-so. I think I'm not reading the right books. This one has an interesting premise. Something is going to happen this Halloween, something that only happens when it falls on a full moon. A group of people are preparing for a "game" that night. These players are all notorious in some way in history or literature: a witch, a druid, Sherlock Holmes, Rasputin, Dracula. They seem to be dividing into two teams, the good guys and the bad guys. Each player has a familiar, an animal who helps them with their preparatory tasks. The story is narrated in diary form by one of the familiars, Snuff, a dog who recounts the events that end in a battle of Lovecraftian proportions....