The City of Dr Moreau

Description

A visionary new horror novel in the style of Wells' creepiest and most enduring fictions - a future history following the descendants of the Island of Dr Moreau In H G Wells' The Island of Dr Moreau a shipwrecked traveller finds himself alone on an island ruled by a mad doctor and inhabited by creatures who are at once both beast and human. He escapes...but that is only the beginning of the story. The City of Dr Moreau is a sprawling history of the islanders, and an alternative vision of our own times. Spanning more than a century, criss-crossing across numerous places and many lives, we witness the growth of Moreau's legacy, from gothic experiments to an event which changes the world. From the wharves of Victorian London to a boarding house with an inhuman resident to an assassin on a twentieth-century train ordered to kill the one man who knows the truth, we follow secret skirmishes and hidden plots which emerge, eventually and violently, into the open.

Jonathan is the author of Dracula's Child and three other critically acclaimed novels: The Somnambulist, The Domino Men and Cannonbridge (original and monumentally inventive - Washington Post). He writes regularly for the Times Literary Supplement and the Literary Review and is the author of numerous adaptations of classic Victorian novels, including The Invisible Man (starring John Hurt) and Dracula (starring Mark Gatiss). He is married and lives on the fringes of London. Last year, he made a pilgrimage to Transylvania.

"Barnes takes some hints from the original book, recreating the "Moreau Horrors" episode that Wells mentions in passing and giving a cameo role to his protagonist, Prendick... The City of Dr Moreau rattles along agreeably and has more than enough twists to hold the attention." - Times Literary Supplement "The plot is packed with incident and charcters, skipping from one vignette to the next like a flat stone thrown across a lake. The extrapolation of Well's idea is exemplary...Barnes both updates and innovates." - Financial Times "An epic 'what if...?' that significantly expands Wells' cautionary tale about genetic engineering, taking it to exciting new places." - Sci-Fi Bulletin On Dracula's Child: "A modern Gothic masterpiece, and one of the finest vampire novels of recent years. A perfect companion piece to one of the most pivotal novels ever written" Ginger Nuts of Horror 'A boldly inventive sequel to Dracula rips along with a sustained energy and verve, twisting and turning all the way to the supposed editor's epilogue' Times Literary Supplement "In style, story content, and characterization, Dracula's Child is truly the sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, succeeding where other, more famous attempts failed" New York Journal of Books "Inventive and spooky" Mark Gatiss, co-creator of the hit BBC series Dracula and Sherlock '[A] fitting tribute to Bram Stoker's Dracula, matching the original's tone and epistolary form with this choice sequel set slightly over a decade after the original's conclusion. . . Barnes's modern sensibilities shine through, the action and intrigue delight. This adventurous and dread-inducing tale will have readers hooked' Publishers Weekly "[A] thorough tribute to Bram Stoker's original, written in the style of Stoker's prose and imagining a continuation of the story this is a must-read for Dracula fans" Den of Geek "This epic tale of madness, temptation, and political scandal set in early-twentieth-century England strikes a resonant chord with today's political climate" Booklist 'A patchwork of dark thrills, woven skilfully from new and familiar voices - Dracula's Child is a macabre delight' Aliya Whiteley, author of The Beauty "It's a monumental achievement. The tale is engrossing, the tone is spot-on." Stephen Gallagher, author (The Authentic William James) and TV writer (Doctor Who) "Fiendishly plotted and full of sinister invention . . . a thoroughly modern re-imagining of the Count's undying menace" Richard T Kelly, author of The Knives and The Possessions of Doctor Forest "Gave me genuine chills and put J.S. Barnes on my list of go-to authors" British Fantasy Society "Bram Stoker's classic continues... It's just as dark, evocative, sensual, and horrific. A masterpiece" Horror Tree "J.S. Barnes' sequel to Bram Stoker's horror classic is a terrific read...I've not hung on to a book so tightly for many years, its grip so intense that it wouldn't let me go. At the end you take a deep breath and wonder where that time went, albeit time very well spent" Sci-Fi Bulletin "Genuinely frightening...There are striking moments of originality, where Barnes seamlessly merges modern sensibilities with a Stoker-like writing style...Immense fun and after decades of parody- manages to make the Count scary again" FrightFest