cover image London Revenant

London Revenant

Conrad Williams, . . Night Shade, $24.99 (227pp) ISBN 978-1-59780-010-5

Not for the squeamish, this dark contemporary fantasy explores the rotting underbelly of London, where desperate 30-somethings live out meaningless lives devoted to sex, alcohol and perversity. Adam Buckley, a narcoleptic who suffers horrific dreams, gradually finds the line between waking and dreaming harder to distinguish. Events from his conscious life take on a surreal cast. He meets people from his dreams on the streets of London. Ordinary events transform into Grand Guignol and his friends become obsessed with a new game that threatens their sanity and leaves them covered in unnatural sores. Terrified of the London Underground for reasons unknown, Adam dreams of traveling its many disused and dangerous tunnels, while a madman begins a reign of terror, pushing Londoners under the wheels of the Underground carriages. An unreliable narrator, who's often unclear on what's real and what isn't, Adam is the perfect vehicle for this stylish and bloody novel. Williams (Head Injuries ) moves seamlessly back and forth between realism and the fantastic, capably bringing his tale to a murderous and apocalyptic ending. (Oct.)