[REVIEW] City of Dream and Nightmare by Ian Whates

I have had The City of Dreams and Nightmare on my TBR pile since the date of release and now wish I had read it sooner, for I denied myself the pleasure of a thoroughly good book! This is Urban Fantasy in the truest sense of the term... the city, Thaiburley, is a starring character in its own right and dominates the book with its brooding complexity. Also known as ‘The City of a Hundred Rows’, Thaiburley is a vertical city with a distinct hierarchy; the poorest live in the lowest reaches with the privileged in the heights. At the very top live… well, that would be telling! In between is a myriad of people, trades, professions, creatures – each row, or level, is clearly defined by it’s inhabitants, as described in the nursery rhyme quoted by Tom in the opening chapter

“At first he’d kept count, reciting the lines which every citizen, Below or Above, learnt almost as soon as they could speak, but there were so many of them…
From the Streets Below to the Market Row
From taverns and stalls to the Shopping Halls…
From trinkets so cheap to exclusive boutique…”

Yet for a city so seemingly ordered, Thaiburley is mysterious and full of secrets. The gothic-noir feel of the urban landscape adds atmosphere to the plot and informs the personality of the entire book. It is a city that intrigues me and I am very pleased that City of Dreams and Nightmare is just the first in a series because I want to immerse myself in Thaiburley again and again.

The main character, Tom, appears in the first chapter on a quest to obtain something from the very top of the city. He is a street kid from the slums of City Below, undertaking a task (stealing a demon egg) which, if he completes successfully, will earn him status with his peers in the Blue Claw gang and with Jezmina, the girl he wants to impress. In the upper reaches, hiding from two arkademics, he witnesses a murder which changes the course of his life forever. Pursued by Tylus, a reluctant Kite Guard, who is in turn being stalked by an assassin, Tom flees the higher rows back to the relative safety of City Below, where is friend and ally, Kat, is waiting for him. But Kat has her own issues. She is a strange and secretive girl, with unexpected connections and talents. Both Tom and Kat’s points of view dominate the novel and indeed, they are the most well-realised and complete characters as we follow them trying to survive all that Thaiburley has to throw at them. I particularly liked Kat’s mix of vulnerability, strength and sass and hope to see more of her in future, certainly her final scene would indicate that will be the case.

Ian Whates has drawn some very imaginative creatures and characters in City of Dreams and Nightmare: the nasty Dewar, ex-mercenary, butler and bodyguard who reveals his softer side on occasion; Magnus, the Machiavellian villain who hopes to destabilise Thaiburley for his own ends; the ‘Jerardine’, alien lizard-like creatures who have truly creepy ‘sculptures’; the magical cape-flying Kite Guards; and the monstrous Demon Hounds, spider-like parasitical creations that can influence the minds of the weak. All play their role in the book and, to be fair, some do it better than others, but I did appreciate the imagery used to create the overall sense of a city in danger of being toppled by corruption from within.

The sequel, City of Hope and Despair, is due for release early next year and I will be reading this as soon as I can get my hands on it. I want to return to immerse myself in the dark and exotic world of Thaiburley, with it’s weird inhabitants, both human and non-human; strange and sometimes warped magic; and hybrid cyborg machine-creatures. While the plot may be at times staid and familiar, I found this reassuring in such an imaginative setting, where the twists come, not necessarily from the plot, but from the characters and creatures found within possibly the most amazing and mind-blowing cityscape I have yet encountered. And that is no mean feat!

Reviewer: Cara (@murf61)

Rating: 8/10

INFORMATION
Title: City of Dreams and Nightmare
Author: Ian Whates
Series: City of a Hundred Rows, volume 1
Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Angry Robot (4 Mar 2010)
ISBN-10: 0007345240
ISBN-13: 978-0007345243
Genre: Fantasy
Copy: Bought new

Available from: Amazon UK - US | B&N | Book Depository

SUMMARY (on back of the book)
They call it “The City of a Hundred Rows”. The ancient city of Thaiburley is a vast, multi-tiered metropolis. The poor live in the City Below and demons are said to dwell in the Upper Heights.

Having witnessed a murder in a part of the city he should never have been in, street thief Tom has to run for his life. Down through the vast city he is pursued by sky-borne assassins, sinister Kite Guards, and agents of a darker force intent on destabilising the whole city. His only ally is Kat, a renegade like him, but she has secrets of her own…

REVIEW: The Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories ed. Ian Watson and Ian Whates

Title: The Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories
Edited by: Ian Watson and Ian Whates
Paperback: 591 pages
Publisher: Robinson Publishing (25 Feb 2010)
ISBN-10: 1845297792
ISBN-13: 978-1845297794
Genre: Short Story anthology
Reviewer: Cara
Copy: Bought myself

What if, in a split second, the world went another way? History as it might have happened…

Every short story in this wonderfully varied collection has one thing in common: a divergence from historical reality resulting in a world very different from the one we know today.

As well as original fiction specially commissioned from bestselling writers such as James Morrow and Ken MacLeod, there are genre classics such as Fritz Lieber’s ‘Catch That Zeppelin’ and Kim Stanley Robinson’s tale of the Second World War atomic bomber Enola Gay being replaced by the Lucky Strike – with profoundly different consequences. 

The stories include:

• Stephen Baxter’s ‘Darwin Anathema’ – the triumphant Church puts Darwin’s bones on trial for heresy
• James Morrow’s ‘The Raft Of The Titanic’ – believed by the world to be dead, the passengers and crew are saved by their own efforts
• Harry Turtledove’s ‘Islands In The Sea’ – only pockets of Christianity remain in an Islamic Europe

Contents

• James Morrow - The Raft Of The Titanic
• Ken MacLeod - Sidewinders
• Eugene Byrne and Kim Newman - The Wandering Christian
• Suzette Hayden Elgin - Hush My Mouth
• Harry Harrison and Tom Shippey - A Letter From The Pope
• Esther M. Friesner - Such A Deal
• A.A. Attanasio - Ink From The New Moon
• Pat Cadigan - Dispatches From The Revolution
• Fritz Lieber - Catch That Zeppelin
• Paul McAuley - A Very British History
• Rudy Rucker - The Imitation Game
• Keith Roberts - Weinachtsabend
• Kim Stanley Robinson - The Lucky Strike
• Marc Laidlaw - His Powder’d Wig, His Crown Of Thornes
• Judith Tarr - Roncesvalles
• Ian R. MacLeod - The English Mutiny
• Chris Roberson - O One
• Harry Turtledove - Islands In The Sea
• George Zebrowski - Lenin In Odessa
• Pierre Gevart - The Einstein Gun
• Robert Silverberg -  Tales From The Venia Woods
• Gregory Benford - Manassas, Again
• Pamela Sargent - The Sleeping Serpent
• Frederick Pohl - Waiting For The Olympians
• Stephen Baxter - Darwin Anathema

I have long been a fan of alternate history, sparked by reading ‘Fatherland’ by Robert Harris, basically a crime novel set in a 1960s Germany which won World War II. Since then I have read various books including ‘Pavane’ by Keith Roberts, ‘The Man In The High Castle’ by Philip K. Dick, ‘Gloriana’ by Michael Moorcock and ‘Romanitas’ by Sophia McDougall. My favourite of all alternate history novels has to be ‘The Years of Rice and Salt’ by Kim Stanley Robinson where the Black Death of the 14th century kills 99% of the people in Europe and over the next seven centuries, India, China and the Islamic world come to dominate the planet. All of the books mentioned begin with the premise “What if…?” and the world-building grows from there. A minor deviation in history can effect significant change in the future, something all of these authors have imagined from their initial starting point. What would our world be like now if

• China had claimed the Americas before Columbus?
• Harold had won the Battle of Hastings in 1066?
• Guttenberg had not invented the printing press?

It’s an interesting exercise in imaginative thinking for all you writers out there, and ideal for the short story form.

The 25 authors included in The Mammoth Book Of Alternate History have all considered the “What if…?” questions in their own particular way. Some tackle a world where Christianity is not the dominant religion, others explore an enduring Roman Empire, all take a familiar concept and show us how it could be very different if one particular event from the past was changed in some way. Three of the short stories were commissioned specifically for inclusion in this anthology and the others have been published elsewhere, the oldest of which, Weinachtsabend by Keith Roberts, dates from 1972.

While each story has it’s merits, I am not going to review each one individually although I did have my favourites. What I would say is that all are worth reading as each brings a new idea to the table. Some are executed better than others, in my view, but for me, the collection worked as a palate cleanser in between novels. I could read two or three SF stories before embarking on another Fantasy book, and I found I enjoyed this, to the point that I have since bought several more anthologies. At this point I should credit Gav at Nextread, whose Short Story Month prompted me to read more short stories, a form I have largely neglected in the past.

The highlight in the Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories is Stephen Baxter’s ‘Darwin Anathema’. Although it is the final story in the book, I read it first as Stephen Baxter is one of my favourite authors. It is set in a London where a hidebound Catholic Church reigns supreme and the Inquisition puts Charles Darwin’s bones on trial for heresy. Given the current attacks on evolutionary theory (and evidence) by the Creationist movement, the story has particular resonance today. One particular line made me laugh at it’s irony…

“We prefer not to use that word [Inquisition],” he said evenly. “The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, newly empowered under Cardinal Ratzinger…”

mainly because it is actually true in our world, up until he became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. While the story is set in 2009, the technology is still mainly steam and coal powered and indicates how the resistance of the Church towards free-thinking has hindered the progress of science, with all that this entails. A fascinating story with a surprising conclusion.

Another story that made me stop and think was ‘Hush My Mouth’ by Suzette Haden Elgin which dealt with an alternate American Civil War and the legacy of this. The strong theme of this story is pride and how ultimately it is a destructive emotion, contributing to the demise of Matthias Darrow. Only 8 pages, and the shortest of all the stories, ‘Hush My Mouth’ packs a powerful punch and stayed with me for some time afterwards.

My final selection from the Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories is by another of my favourite authors, this time Kim Stanley Robinson. ‘Lucky Strike’ is the name of the plane brought in to replace the Enola Gay, which crashed on a training run while preparing for the atomic bomb drop on Hiroshima. We meet the crew of the Lucky Strike and events do not pan out as we know them, but how, and more importantly why this happens is the point of the story, not the outcome. Robinson does not disappoint in his treatment of this premise.

Overall I found the Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories to be a high quality read. I was able to dip in and out of the book as I felt like it and subsequently rediscovered the joy of the short story. While a few stories did not impress, this was mainly due to personal preference and not any failing on the author’s part. In all, this is an excellent anthology, and for anyone interested in exploring the sub-genre of alternate history, it makes an excellent starting point from which to further explore more work by these authors.

Rating 8/10