Title: Nekropolis
Series: Nekropolis Book 1
Author(s): Tim Waggoner
Genre: Horror, Detective, Urban Fantasy
Publisher/Year: Angry Robot/2009 (UK/AUS), Angry Robot/2010 (US)
-Webpage: Tim Waggoner
-Blog: Tim Waggoner MySpace Blog
-Buying Options:
-UK/AUS: Amazon UK Book Despository
-US pre-order (July 2010)
-Kindle
Synopsis: Meet Matt Richter. Private Eye. Zombie. His mean streets are the city of the dead, the shadowy realm known as Nekropolis. This place has always been ruled by the vampire lords. Now they're planning to destroy the city. Over his dead body. More pulp than Pulp Fiction, more butt-kicking than Buffy, Nekropolis is the first in a deathly new series.
Review: I know that's a whole lot of buying options up there, but I figure its a good thing to list in case you guys aren't in America, or you want it right away. Book Depository has free shipping world wide remember (yes I do love them).
I'll let you guys guess which attracted me to the book first--whether it was the Zombie part or the Private Detective noir part. It was both honestly, but to be fair the Zombie part won me over first. Love me my Zombies!
In a literary world saturated with urban fantasy worlds another one may not seem like such a great thing. Been there, seen that, didn't that just get a movie made from it? Nekropolis though comes off less like its trying to be a fresh new urban fantasy and more like a noir that hey just so happens has supernatural elements! The main character, Matthew (and to be clear I don't often enjoy books with a male first person narrative) is a zombie but that doesn't give him super-advantages (other then immunity to pain and if a limb gets torn off he can probably have his friend Papa Chatha patch him up. Maybe. If something doesn't go horribly wrong) and he still has to do things the old fashioned way. Network. Talk to sources. Trail folks and look into the dirty laundry and garbage.
Nekropolis, as a city and book, is dark, dirty and teeming with every nightmare you can imagine and probably a few you haven't dare to. Honani, a genetically modified lyke (shapeshifter more or less), is a massive hulking monstrosity cobbled together from various animals (almost like a Chimera I suppose). Despite this, or maybe in spite of this?, Matthew is a good guy in the classic sense. Helps the down trodden, sets out for justice and doesn't use evil manipulations to get his way (underhanded or sneaky, possibly, but not evil).
As expected in a Noir-esque book there is a femme fatale, but some of her charm is tarnished since though Matthew admits had he been alive she would be a tempting handful, as a dead man...well he can only admire. And admiration isn't as easy to manipulate.
I liked that Waggoner (who I've read previously only once, a short story in Zombie Raccoons and Killer Bunnies called 'Bone Whispers', which creeps me out still) didn't try to make this 'the most unique world ever', but instead tried to add layers to the worlds and creatures that exist already(vampires with holographic eyes playing a twisted board game...).
This was a surprising delight for me that made me glad I took the step to read it. Horror, as a genre, doesn't appeal to me that often, but I don't believe this is really a 'horror' book. It doesn't convey a sense that what Waggoner is writing is meant to give you nightmares and scared of the shadows. Chills perhaps, for a world similar to our own but obviously not our own, but not nightmares. Waggoner uses wit and irony to draw the reader in and engage their attention. Matthew didn't claim to be the smartest, or fastest, or best detective in the world, but he did get the job done and he cared, that's a win in my book.
From what I gathered this was once a novella length story (back in 2004 or so), then it got expanded to the current book it is and is the first in a planned trio of urban fantasy novels. The second book, Dead Streets, has a landing date of March 2010 in the UK/AUS and in September 2010 (2 months after Nekropolis) in the US.
Once you finish the book, and before you start Dead Streets, check out this short story set between the two books "The Midnight Watch"
