Tony Ballantyne launched Dream London a few hours from the capital on October 19th, choosing Oldham Waterstones for its debut. No doubt so as to make sure he avoided the mutating occupation of the big smoke that is revealed in the novel. Unsurprisingly, this amazing book sold out long before the event finished. And on the very same day that bible of the City of London, the Financial Times, had this to say about the book:
“Since financiers in the Square Mile struck a deal with otherworldly beings, London has succumbed to endless unnatural change. Buildings grow, parks expand, modern technology fails, new railway lines appear, streets shift position, even mathematics loses its meaning. The city seems to be collapsing into some kind of entropic singularity, its inhabitants losing themselves in orgiastic decadence and regressing to social and gender stereotypes not seen since the Victorian era.
In the thick of this inescapable protean morass stands former soldier, now whoremonger, Captain James Wedderburn, an antihero as charming as he is disgraceful. Various factions try to enlist him to spearhead a revolution against the shadowy figures responsible for London’s ruin, but can he trust anyone in a place where loyalty, like everything else, is a mutable commodity?
Dream London is a sweetly dark satire shot through with Occupy-era indignation and a bizarre dream logic in which everything makes sense as long as you accept that nothing makes sense. This is as strange and unclassifiable novel as it’s possible to imagine, and a marvellous achievement.”
The Financial Times, October 19th.
It might have sold out in Oldham, but it’s available in bookstores everywhere, and right here in ebook on the rebellionstore.
No comments:
Post a Comment