"A Man of Shadows" by Jeff Noon

 Set in a world which is divided into Dayzone (permanently light), Nocturna (permanently dark) and Dusk, and in which different places and institutions and even people have their own timelines, necessitating a constant readjustment of watches, this science fiction thriller follows a somewhat hapless stereotypical private investigator as he tracks down and repeatedly loses a teenager who may or may not be linked with Quicksilver, a serial killer who kills unseen despite being in full view.

The plot is straightforward thriller and the characters are straight from the thriller stockroom. The narrative and the prose are straightforward; it is easy to read. But since this is science fiction, there is a huge emphasis on world-building and this is where the book has some claim to originality. In particular, the idea that we all dwell within our individual time frames, an idea perhaps derived from the 'frames of reference' of Einstein's Theory of Special relativity which catty the consequence that time travels at different speeds for different observers: "It was like being on your own personal timeline, one that no one else can ever travel on ... Time is still passing for you, and you can act within it, but you're outside of other people's time frame." (Part Two)

Selected Quotes:

• "He was hot sweaty and uncomfortable. His shirt was clinging to him like a second layer of skin." (Part One) This is a great image ... but as an ex-scientist I had a niggle. Skin is already multi-layered. The sentence works better as 'another layer of skin' or 'a second skin'.
• "The naked bulb burned brightly for a second and then dimmed once more, setting itself into a slow irregular pattern like the work of a drowsy Morse code operator" (Part One)
• "Eyes that were already lost to daylight." (Part One)
• "The walls stank of all the sweat they had collected over the decades." (Part One)
• "The future pulling him forwards, forwards, forwards ... dragging him along a straight and narrow track as surely as a locomotive moves to its next destination." (Part Two)

July 2022; 377 pages

This review was written by the author of Motherdarling  and The Kids of God