“‘Resurrection . . . resurrection . . . remember Simul,’ stammers Lord Vane, before sinking back, seemingly at peace for his confession. … Mander closes his eyes and readmits the son and heir.” My thanks to Quercus Books Jo Fletcher Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Simul’ by Andrew Caldecott. This is the sequel to his wonderfully strange ‘Momenticon’ (2022). Caldecott advises in his opening Author’s Note that “Simul is a sequel and its story will make little sense unless the first volume, Momenticon, has been read first.” At the end of ‘Simul’ Caldecott provides a glossary of things and places along with a dramatis personae. However, he does warn that this additional material contains major spoilers for ‘Momenticon’. I had adored ‘Momenticon’ and while I didn’t have time to reread, I was able to refresh my memory before reading ‘Simul’, including by accessing the provided material. The book is structured with Part I as a prequel to ‘Momenticon’ that ends where it begins. After this Parts II-IV picks up after ‘Momenticon’’s final page and carries the story onwards to its conclusion. It’s difficult to give any kind of summary of ‘Simul’ as it quite unique and is best experienced first hand. It is a hybrid novel that playfully combines a number of genres: a literary post apocalyptic science fiction adventure with absurdist and steampunk elements. I especially loved the inclusion of various works of art and the homage to Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’. The hardback edition is beautiful with a cover by Leo Nickolls and decorative endpapers by Nicola Howell Hawley. There are also line illustrations by Nick May scattered throughout the text. Overall, I finished ‘Simul’ in awe of Andrew Caldecott’s imagination and creativity. His writing is excellent and quite lyrical. I consider both ‘Simul’ and ‘Momenticon’ amazing and intend to do a leisurely reread of the duology later this year. Highly recommended.

Simul is the second part of the story that began in Momenticon. Almost impossible to summarise, it features a near-future world destroyed by pollution. Only small islands of inhabitability survive amidst the Murk - a toxic substance that erodes pretty much anything that isn't heavily protected or very lucky. These protected zones tend to have been engineered, in particular the domes operated by two companies - Tempestas and Genrich - organisations with different ideas about how to preserve humanity. In Momenticon, the story started in another dome, one built to house a museum of art, and we met Fogg, its Curator, who rather drove that story, though he plays much less of a role in this book, although he does appear as do many of the characters from that earlier book. Others appear to be fortuitous, the result of freakish weather patterns or other features The cast is extensive. though the author provides a handy list, it took me a little time to work myself back into knowing who was who - that was perhaps made harder because many don't come across as very different people, and the story, told in short chapters, flits between them and between locations (travel is possible on airships, though perilous). As I've said, Momenticon was much more focussed on Fogg, so I did feel a bit more adrift among new people, scenes and plot developments (there are a few flashbacks. It's rather one thing after another as these people - some loveable, some roguish but nearly all very archly peculiar, if that makes sense - race to achieve very different objectives. To do that they will need to unpicking an extensive history, since almost nobody here really understands what is happening (or has happened) and why. A new threat has emerged as Nature - infuriated by the way she has been treated, or perhaps merely irritated by this gallery of eccentrics - strikes back, carrying out new attacks on both flesh and on metal. It is a threat that nobody expected, but to which all respond in ways one would expect. Some try to coop the menace as a new weapon, others to find a defence, still others, a means of counter-attack. Crossed with all the conflicting motives, hatreds and misunderstandings that were set up in Momenticon and develop in the first part of Simul, that makes for a pretty exciting conclusion where - I don't think this is a spoiler - the villains (more or less) get their comeuppances and the heroes (more or less) their just rewards (although a few fall by the wayside). It is maybe a bit less satisfying the more you try to understand what's going on and exactly how it came about. There are so many rabbits pulled out of hats that Watershed Down could well be in production somewhere in the background. However I don't think that most reader swill worry too much about doing that but will rather be enjoying the rush of events - so, probably, no harm done. The cover design, illustrations and map (by, respectively, Leo Nickolls, Nick May and Nicola Howell Hawley) are evocative and intricate.