Reviewed by annieb123 on
Within Without is the 4th Nyquist SF/fantasy mystery by Jeff Noon. Released 11th May 2021 by Angry Robot, it's 373 pages and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.
This is such a very surreal and weird book. The writing is superb and the characters are clearly written - but the background scenery and settings so very surreal and dreamlike and written in such an unvarnished and realistic way as to instill a creeping sense of dread in the reader which just doesn't dissipate. It's not populated with jump scares in any way; the author dispassionately describes horrific scenes (free-floating disembodied skinlike "images" (enhancers) in liquid tubes for an example from the beginning of the book) completely deadpan without any sense of outrage - and it's supremely unsettling.
The mystery itself is very well constructed, precisely engineered and clever. The characters are (mostly) believable, and the dialogue is well written and never clunky or awkward (except where it's *clearly* meant to be such). Someone described it as Kafkaesque and I would agree with that assessment.
After reading the book, I'm not entirely sure if I actually *liked* it... but it intrigued me enough to go back and pick up the first three books in the series. Fans of China Mieville, Guillermo del Toro, and Mervyn Peake (and especially those who love all of the above) will find much to enjoy here. Cleverly written and constructed, it's weird and wonderful.
Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 11 February, 2022: Finished reading
- 11 February, 2022: Reviewed