The Beast is loose.
After countless years trapped inside the World House, its sinister prisoner is loose and pure evil has been loosed upon the world.
Now the motley band of explorers, treasure hunters and thrill seekers must unit to imprison it once more.
Nothing to it…
A little less than a month ago I was sat in the audience for the raffle at Alt.Fiction and Restoration by Guy Adams came up as one of the prizes. The affable Mr Adams was hosting said raffle and when his latest book appeared he made the suggestion that as this was a direct sequel to The World House it might be a good idea not to jump straight into Restoration but try is predecessor first.
Never one to shy away from a challenge I immediately decided to ignore his advice and read Restoration without reading The World House first. I was curious to see if it was possible to read this sequel without any prior knowledge. I was willing to accept that I may miss some of the references to the first novel but I was still wanted to see if I could enjoy this second novel under its own merit.
Set apart from our universe the World House is a huge, sprawling construction of near endless rooms. The story follows a group of individuals as they attempt to capture the mysterious being that has escaped from his prison set deep within the rooms of the House. He has set his sights on our world and causing as much chaos as possible. The adventurers set off after their prey, moving through the House, across the continents of Earth and even within time itself.
If I am being honest it took me a while to get into the novel. As I was unaware of what has occurred in the story previously I was playing catch up initially. The time travel elements also threw me a bit. For example I didn’t realize three of the characters were actually the same person at different points in his life, in fairness each instance of the character had a different name. I should stress however that once I spotted this, and began to understand how Guy Adams devious brain works, I had a bit of eureka moment and everything seemed to make much more sense.
On the plus side, the interactions between all the characters are great. There are a couple of characters called Miles and Carruthers who make an enjoyable double-act. Their bantering back and forth is great fun. They end up in modern day America and Carruthers, a Victorian-age explorer, is a bit out of his depth. Needless to say this allows Miles to rib him mercilessly and creates some amusing situations.
Did I enjoy Restoration? Yes I think it is fair to say that I did. Would I have enjoyed it more if I had read The World House first? I’m going to have to say yes to that as well. I think that I may have missed out on some of the subtle nuances that Adams has included in the text.
Overall, Restoration is a lot of fun. It is a measure of Adams writing that I felt as thought I had been given a glimpse of something brilliant. Reading this novel has certainly compelled me to seek out The World House so I can complete the story and fill in the blanks.
Restoration is available now from Angry Robot. I am firmly in agreement with the author. I would also suggest purchasing The World House in addition to avoid any potential disappointment.
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