London Revenant

by Conrad Williams

London Revenant is a dark and magical exploration of London and the tenebrous world that lies beneath it.

A madman is pushing people in front of Tube trains. Adam Buckley has a feeling it might be someone he knows. But that is the least of his worries. His narcolepsy is worsening, sucking him into an uncertain, twilight state. He sees people at parties he has no memory of, but who seem to know him.

Deep within London’s sprawling Underground, he sees shadowy figures beckoning him into tunnels not shown on any map. His friends are drifting away, intent on chasing down insane, uncharted zones hidden within the capital, and they seem to be succumbing to a strange wasting disease. The suggestion of a half-remembered life and the encroaching shadow of violence threatens to engulf Adam and everyone he knows, unless he can unveil his true identity and that of his stalking nemesis.

Conrad Williams’ masterful novel peels back layer upon layer of the city’s skin to reveal the grinning skull that lies beneath.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

227 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

In 2007 Conrad Williams won the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel for The Unblemished. In 2008 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novella, for The Scalding Rooms. In 2010 he won the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel for One.

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

The short description of this book sounds exceptionally intriguing - someone is going around the London Underground pushing random people off the platform into the path of oncoming trains. London resident Adam suffers from narcolepsy and while he reads about these incidents in the newspaper, initially this has little impact on his life and social circle. But as his friends start to act increasingly strange, Adam has more frequent confusing episodes where he is unclear if they are fugue states secondary to his narcolepsy versus something truly strange going on in the British capital. However, as the novel progresses, scenes from the perspective of entities "from below" who are responsible for the pushed individuals occurs and the novel quickly transitions to one of the supernatural. Unfortunately, the plot progression becomes increasingly erratic as a consequence with subsequent difficulty in discerning exactly what was going on, leading to my overall dissatisfaction with this novel.

Author Williams has great depictions of a city riddled with grime, shadowy figures, and litter. The reader is taken on a journey that is intermittently occurring in the sub-terrain where strangely named wraiths predominant. It's a landscape of dark alleys, incidents of graphic violence, and frequent sexual conquests that certainly sets a great stage but eventually this is not enough to overcome plot challenges. Halfway through I was wishing for a speedy conclusion which did not manifest quick enough and even when it did occur, it was highly unsatisfying. Perhaps readers with more of an interest in stories that are entirely supernatural in nature would be more entertained but I found I was longing for a more straightforward story. In that sense, Williams failed to deliver in "London Revenant" and I would be hesitant to recommend this work to anyone.

[Kevin McAvoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very good writing in this book. The story-line was silly nonsense about other-worldly human bogey men living in the subway tunnels. This is my first and last "horror" book. Free from audible and narrated excellently with a few British accents. Surprised I made it to the end as it was not a great story.

[Dave · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dark and disorienting, this novel reads like one of the protagonist's narcoleptic hallucinations. The central conceit of this book is that underneath London's crowded, grimey streets are secret, inhabited tunnels (with fewer crowds but more grime). This confusing maze of a storyline involves a mad man pushing people in front of subway trains (pursued by the narcoleptic hero of the story), possibly imaginary/possibly invisible friends,hidden magical pockets of real estate in London, mysterious voices and signs from underground... also there's convoluted conflict among the "Topsiders" and the "Underworlders" not to mention the "Inbetweeners" and "Gonebads" (in case you haven't yet deciphered the code, "Gonebads" are people who have...um... gone bad). Oh yeah, and lots of greasey, visceral sex. Oh, and a secret mission that needs to be uncovered...and assassins(one of whom is a woman, and topless, of course). Oh, and London is destroyed in an earthquake. Okay... it was alright for a weekend read (maybe because of all the rutting) but it gave me a headache in the end. What I learned: In London "chips" are not the same thing as here in America, but more like what we call "fries." "Prozzies" are prostitutes. All snarkiness aside, I did like this Anglosim for someone not right in the head: "Not enough beans on his toast."
I think I would have enjoyed the book a little better if Williams had managed to give some grounding to all these disparate elements. Instead it felt like anything and everything was merely a hallucination, so there was no risk and it was difficult to sustain interest. I was unable to suspend disbelief for very long for the alternative which was that it was all true.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just finished this book and I'm not really sure what any of it was about. At first I enjoyed the switching between the two worlds and the grimy characterisation of London but towards the end it became increasingly indecipherable and annoying. Sorry to the author. I don't like giving a bad review. I did enjoy it in parts, which is why I gave three stars. I was waiting for some revelation at the end that would clear the confusion but it never came.

[Ed Fleetwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found the narrative a little hard to keep track of and the characters somewhat hard to engage with; but then in a novel dealing with aspects of identity, I don't know how that could be avoided.

[Sara]

How long since she had set foot outside the flat?horror novela.what about incect here.and idientity.violance memory.all in all in magical words.