World's End: Book One of the Age of Misrule Book

Mark Chadbourn's first four novels were horror. This, his fifth, opens a contemporary fantasy sequence crammed with horrific events. Its interesting premise is that the New Agers' gooey rhetoric was partly right. Our age of reason is ending on Earth, giving way to "The Age of Misrule"--and it's not just brownies, mermaids and ley-line energies that return, but the worst nightmares of myth. A dragon strafes M4 traffic, shapeshifting demons infiltrate Heston Services and the Wild Hunt slashes bloodily through a pub crowd. Technology is fading, with random power and equipment failures. More conventionally, the hero and four varyingly dysfunctional companions have been Chosen to oppose the darkness by collecting a familiar set of magic objects hidden in booby-trapped locations around Britain: the eternal sword, spear, stone and cauldron/grail/kitchen sink. An ageing hippy who's strayed from an old ballad gives cryptic advice that doesn't seem much help when the legions of hell are in hot pursuit. All the main characters are painfully manipulated by non-human forces, with the distinction between good and bad guys growing blurred. Chadbourn is over-fond of magical "with one bound he was free" escapes from impossible situations, but his story rattles along compulsively--with many a nerve-tingling frisson--to a chill and unconventional finale. --David LangfordRead More