xenobio's review
5.0
(this is copied over from my Amazon Vine review)
I haven't read much in the urban fantasy sub-genre unless you count Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels. The other thing in the genre I can remember having read recently was Edghill's "The Sword of Maiden's Tears", which was okay but almost painfully an obvious projection of its target audience's wishes (i.e. lonely nerd girls wanting a broken elven prince to fix up and fall for). This is, as Americans would say, "a whole another can of worms", and there are indeed wormy, creepy, decadent, and just plain disturbing things in it.
This is an England where the royal family is being eaten from the inside by the legacy of a demonic pact and a strange addictive drug, and where a government department is secretly tasked with binding a monster that could consume all of London and worse. That's the big picture. On the personal level, there are nasty little incidents like the main character forced to watch his girlfriend under the influence of said drug have frenzied sex with a man he detests, and the titular Domino Men - two agents whose role I never quite figured out - releasing into a crowded nightclub a powder that makes people sneeze uncontrollably till they bleed out from the lungs. To me, the worst thing about this sadistic pair is that they are not actually the "bad guys".
The climax of the book is a scene of citywide pollution and horror worse than the aftermath of a nuclear bomb. To save England and possibly the world, the hero, like another a generation before him, has to sacrifice himself in a way repulsive almost beyond imagining.
This is not what I call "technical fantasy", the kind whose authors seem to have either gotten muddled up with science fiction, played too much Dungeons and Dragons, or both. Writers like that tend to lay out rules for how stuff happens as if there are little tables of quantitative parameters in an appendix somewhere. Despite the modern setting of the story, Barnes understands that magic doesn't follow the same rules as physics, and that fantasy fiction has to have claws deep into mystery while somehow seeming to make sense. You can't even understand why some people do what they do, and certain phenomena remain inexplicable, even at the end.
After a book like this, I don't sleep well at night, but I want to read more. Make of that what you will.
I haven't read much in the urban fantasy sub-genre unless you count Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels. The other thing in the genre I can remember having read recently was Edghill's "The Sword of Maiden's Tears", which was okay but almost painfully an obvious projection of its target audience's wishes (i.e. lonely nerd girls wanting a broken elven prince to fix up and fall for). This is, as Americans would say, "a whole another can of worms", and there are indeed wormy, creepy, decadent, and just plain disturbing things in it.
This is an England where the royal family is being eaten from the inside by the legacy of a demonic pact and a strange addictive drug, and where a government department is secretly tasked with binding a monster that could consume all of London and worse. That's the big picture. On the personal level, there are nasty little incidents like the main character forced to watch his girlfriend under the influence of said drug have frenzied sex with a man he detests, and the titular Domino Men - two agents whose role I never quite figured out - releasing into a crowded nightclub a powder that makes people sneeze uncontrollably till they bleed out from the lungs. To me, the worst thing about this sadistic pair is that they are not actually the "bad guys".
The climax of the book is a scene of citywide pollution and horror worse than the aftermath of a nuclear bomb. To save England and possibly the world, the hero, like another a generation before him, has to sacrifice himself in a way repulsive almost beyond imagining.
This is not what I call "technical fantasy", the kind whose authors seem to have either gotten muddled up with science fiction, played too much Dungeons and Dragons, or both. Writers like that tend to lay out rules for how stuff happens as if there are little tables of quantitative parameters in an appendix somewhere. Despite the modern setting of the story, Barnes understands that magic doesn't follow the same rules as physics, and that fantasy fiction has to have claws deep into mystery while somehow seeming to make sense. You can't even understand why some people do what they do, and certain phenomena remain inexplicable, even at the end.
After a book like this, I don't sleep well at night, but I want to read more. Make of that what you will.
sandeestarlite's review
3.0
This is another book I really wanted to like. I like the occasional Arthur-Dent-ish, confused-British-male-fish-out-of-water SF. But poor Henry has too many secrets around which the plot revolves that the reader isn't told about. Which makes for confused-reader. Creative ending is the only thing that bumps it up to 3 stars.
gavreads's review
When I reviewed The Somnambulist, I said;
The story isn’t wholly logical and it isn’t meant to be. It’s phantasmagorical, teasing, and imaginative. The characters are extra-ordinary sometimes grotesque but quite believable in this setting. A combination of the personality of the narrator and skill of Barnes makes it strangely believable and quite compelling.
So after giving it such a favourable review I was eager to read what Jonathan Barnes could come up with next.
The Domino Men is a completely new tale unconnected from The Somnambulist apart from two characters that appear in both and play a quite vital role in each. This time round we have Henry Lamb (our narrator most of the time) who finds out that his life working for the Civil Service Archive Unit storage and retrieval is a bit more complicated than it first appears. It seems that his comatose Grandfather is involved in a secret war with the Royal Family.
Barnes tells an unbelievable yarn in quite a believable way. Our narrator is co-opted into fighting against the Queen and Arthur, Prince of Wales – though the war is a bit subtler than an armed conflict. This war has been going on ever since an agreement was reached by the Queen and a third party about London. Luckily there aren’t that many people that know about it. Though I think that Number 10 might know a little more than is relieved here as they’re housing two characters in a magic circle in their basement.
Barnes is a skilled storyteller drawing in the threat to London slowly. Harry Lamb takes up the challenge that’s presented to him even if he’s a bit naïve about what’s really going on. But because we see things through Harry we’re engaged in a way we wouldn’t be if it was told any other way and the story revolves around Harry in fact his life is the story.
The injection of the second story line and narrator allows us to see how both sides that are fighting. The other thread shows the transformation of Prince Arthur and the other darker side to The Domino Men.
I’m impressed how Barnes builds everything up and how he focuses a large scale and a world altering event through the key people that make it happen. He doesn’t waste anything. Everything has a point and a purpose as Harry finds out everything isn’t as it seems.
I’m rather jealous really as I’d love to go to work one day to find out that my entire life has been a lie and that the foundation I’ve build my life on isn’t what it seems and that I’m about to become a hero even if Harry doesn’t realise it at the start.
I’m excited to see what his yet untitled third novel is going to be.
The story isn’t wholly logical and it isn’t meant to be. It’s phantasmagorical, teasing, and imaginative. The characters are extra-ordinary sometimes grotesque but quite believable in this setting. A combination of the personality of the narrator and skill of Barnes makes it strangely believable and quite compelling.
So after giving it such a favourable review I was eager to read what Jonathan Barnes could come up with next.
The Domino Men is a completely new tale unconnected from The Somnambulist apart from two characters that appear in both and play a quite vital role in each. This time round we have Henry Lamb (our narrator most of the time) who finds out that his life working for the Civil Service Archive Unit storage and retrieval is a bit more complicated than it first appears. It seems that his comatose Grandfather is involved in a secret war with the Royal Family.
Barnes tells an unbelievable yarn in quite a believable way. Our narrator is co-opted into fighting against the Queen and Arthur, Prince of Wales – though the war is a bit subtler than an armed conflict. This war has been going on ever since an agreement was reached by the Queen and a third party about London. Luckily there aren’t that many people that know about it. Though I think that Number 10 might know a little more than is relieved here as they’re housing two characters in a magic circle in their basement.
Barnes is a skilled storyteller drawing in the threat to London slowly. Harry Lamb takes up the challenge that’s presented to him even if he’s a bit naïve about what’s really going on. But because we see things through Harry we’re engaged in a way we wouldn’t be if it was told any other way and the story revolves around Harry in fact his life is the story.
The injection of the second story line and narrator allows us to see how both sides that are fighting. The other thread shows the transformation of Prince Arthur and the other darker side to The Domino Men.
I’m impressed how Barnes builds everything up and how he focuses a large scale and a world altering event through the key people that make it happen. He doesn’t waste anything. Everything has a point and a purpose as Harry finds out everything isn’t as it seems.
I’m rather jealous really as I’d love to go to work one day to find out that my entire life has been a lie and that the foundation I’ve build my life on isn’t what it seems and that I’m about to become a hero even if Harry doesn’t realise it at the start.
I’m excited to see what his yet untitled third novel is going to be.
krash9924's review
3.0
This book was going along pretty well till the last act. Interesting premise with some likable characters and a dash of intrigue. It was easily a full star higher till the last act. Let's just forget the end of this book ever happened. The less said the better.
More...