Metropolitan Dreams

Cityscape #1

by Mark A. King

Librarian Note: Older cover of 9781540878656.

This is a tale of two cities.

Darkness and light.

Sinners and angels.

In the daylight, London sparkles, beckoning tourists, optimists and dreamers from across the globe. The sunlit city weaves together the lives of repentant crime-lords, altruistic nightclub bouncers and resolute detectives.

In the darkness, London festers, drools, tempts and corrupts. It is a world where the desperate are lured, the weak are exploited, and good men wrap themselves in the blanket of criminal rewards. In the seething streets, the hissing underground stations and lost subterranean rivers, the metropolitan dreams of ethical hackers, desperate criminals and traumatized Tube-drivers unfold.

Maria, a vulnerable twelve-year-old from Kerala, India, has travelled half the world in search of her past and hopes for the future. Within hours, violent chaos engulfs her. Maria is tracked, hunted and pursued—she can rescue the city, but first she must save herself.

328 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 2017

About the author

Mark A. King was born and raised in London and is from Irish descent .
Metropolitan Dreams, his debut novel, was released in January 2017.
He is passionate about short fiction and has been published in several magazines and anthologies.
King is a founder of FlashDogs, a global community of talented flash fiction writers who have donated the proceeds of their anthologies to global children's literacy charities.
King created the increasingly popular #vss365 hashtag on Twitter to encourage daily short fiction writing, this work has now been taken forward by a team of dedicated volunteers.
His work has been described as gritty and realistic, and reviewers have compared his work to Neil Gaiman and Philip K. Dick.
He is working on Metropolitan Fear, a sequel to Metropolitan Dreams which will be based in New York.
King is honoured to be a British Fantasy Society Emerging Horizons author.
He lives with his family in Norfolk, England.

Reviews

[Emily Street · Rating 5 out of 5]

This unique book has layers, the kind of layers that will provide a deep and impactful reading experience. If you enjoy atmospheric urban fiction, the New Weird, or tales told from many points of view, this is one to add to your collection.

The story opens with the sort of senseless and random act of violence most of us fear. From there, the event spirals out into various levels of London’s society—but especially its underbelly.

Via the points of view from many characters, the story of the city unfolds—its past, its present, and its future.

This is a story of modern corruption and greed, but it is also a story of an ancient battle between light and dark.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page-turner this and the further I got into it, the harder I found to put it down. A merger of fantasy with some pretty gritty ... and grim ... reality, it created believable characters that you found yourself rooting for when they ended up in the tightest of spaces. I even found myself warming to a dying crime boss as he sought his own redemption. (I was quite sorry that he was killed off though, it would have been interesting to see old-school crime going properly head-to-head with the modern crime barons.) Entertaining and enjoyable it set the scene perfectly for the sequel(s) to follow.

[Taryn Kloeden · Rating 4 out of 5]

This outstanding debut evokes Gaiman-esque mythpunk with its exploration of the forces of good and evil battling for Londoner's hearts and minds. I have never read a book quite like this--that so effortlessly blends quantum mechanics, modern angst, and a human story. The writing is beautiful, allowing London itself to come alive as both a setting and a character. The only reason I gave 4 stars is I did find the ending somewhat rushed and I still had so many questions. Here's hoping for a sequel that dives deeper into this intriguing mythos.

[Tamara Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

The debut novel from talented flash-fictioneer Mark A King packs an urban fantasy punch that leaves you wanting more (thankfully, this is a BOOK 1 so signs are looking good). A host of likeable and unlikeable characters prowl the streets of London, mingling with the criminal underworld, the spiritual world, and the downright gritty-side-of-life-bits of world.

There’s many types of London, and Kings’ London is gritty, with a dark and a light side – full of ghosts who aren’t seen because they’re ghosts, and people who aren’t seen because they’re the sort of people crowds ignore.

And even though King covers some pretty heavy topics, there’s humour in the darkness, witty edges to characters that make the book deeper and the characters more real.

Half urban fantasy, half London-noir, with strains of Neil Gaiman thrown in for good measure, Metropolitan Dreams is a page turner that you’ll wish didn’t run out of pages.

This book deserves to be made into a film, or be the next grit-fantasy (that’s a genre, promise) TV box set we’re all talking about. And when we’re finished talking about that, hopefully the next one will be out, because we certainly need to hear more from King.

Favourite line: “you’re thicker than an Eighties mobile phone.”

Read with: An underground map, and a soundtrack of tube trains.

[Alva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every city has its underworld, its crime-fighters, its do-gooders, its innocents. London is no exception and Mark King has gone underground in more ways than one to discover a dark belly of urban crime, exposing everything from petty stealing offences to murder, cyber-crime, crooked cops and those who unwittingly find themselves bound into the system. Street children, homeless hostels, immigrants, petty thieves turned murderers. It's all here in Metropolitan Dreams, along with fantasy, other worldliness, tube drivers, jumpers, ghosts and dreams.
This is an amazing story of courage against all adversity. An array of colourful and evil characters flow between the pages of Metropolitan Dreams until you're not quite sure who you're rooting for anymore. One thing for sure, Mark King's London never sleeps, never gives up and never stops twisting and turning, giving us some degree of reluctant understanding of what goes on in every city in the world, every day. Scary, clever, emotional and real. When an author can make fantasy feel real - be afraid. Brilliant!

[Caitlin Farley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charlie is returning home from her job as a nightclub bouncer when she’s caught up in an attempted robbery. She intervenes and gets stabbed in the side. The two robbers kill another woman, but her daughter escapes. Across the street, Iona, a cyber crime detective who isn’t supposed to be there looks on helplessly, knowing she can’t intervene. Jimmy was once a powerful crime boss but he now lies dying in a hospital bed. He’s incensed when his most trusted employees report their involvement in the blundered robbery. Jimmy decides to spend his last days trying to do the right thing, even if it means becoming a grass. All of them feel the silent tug between light and dark, a struggle Cal becomes part of as he finds himself caught between the friendly manifestation of London’s hopes and ambition and the mysterious woman who embodies all the darkness of London’s inhabitants.

The characters in Metropolitan Dreams are easy to relate to and engaging, but more than that, they exude a genuineness and realism that few authors can achieve. Mark A. King’s writing is fluid and peppered with just enough colloquial dialogue to keep the reader firmly in London. The plot intertwines the fantastical aspect of the the two spirits of London with the more realistic one of organised crime. The threads of both these sides of the story are equally intriguing and kept me wondering how it will all come together. Metropolitan Dreams is thought-provoking and original. This debut novel displays an impressive amount of writing skill, stamping Mark A. King as an author to keep an eye on.

(Reviewed for Reader's Favorite)

[Avalina Kreska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark's debut novel was exciting and a real page turner. Set in London, it follows the 1st person point of view of several people whose stories all converge around one crime. Great characterisations, cleverly executed, wonderfully descriptive, and with a touch of the mystical. Something for everyone: thriller, crime, supernatural and psychological.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Metropolitan dreams has a complex narrative that feels very different to anything I have read in a while. It alternates between first and third person and switches between several characters, allowing the action to move around at a fast pace but also provide insights into characters motivations and feelings. It is based in London and the author does a wonderful job of painting the city in vivid detail, including some of the seedier parts of town. Having worked just outside St. Pauls cathedral several of the areas featured were familiar and the writing really took me back there. This is not a picture book London, it is a dark and dangerous place.

I loved how the story slowly layered in the more magical elements onto an otherwise gritty London. I don't want to say too much about these powers for fear of spoiling the fun, but they were intriguing and I look forward to seeing how they continue to evolve and develop in the next book. The 'magical' characters were two of my favorites and I enjoyed the interplay between them.

One thing I will note is that with the shifting perspectives and multiple characters it did take me a little while to get used to the rhythm of the story and the early chapters jumped around quite a bit, but once I settled into the idea of moving between characters I really enjoyed this style. The other challenge was with the sheer number of characters. Some of them didn't get as much air time as I would have liked. In particular I would have loved to know more about the main villain, but there are several other antagonists who do get a lot more background.

Overall I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to the next one.