Kings of a Dead World

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The Tyler/Narrator dynamic plays out in the relationship between fellow Janitors Peruzzi and Slattery: colleagues, quasi-friends, and partners in crime. While their decadent lifestyles spoil them with at-home gyms and Brave New World-inspired raves every three months, Slattery tempts Peruzzi into seeking out greater highs than pills and sex. Their explorations into the Sleeping world at first tap into a Fight Club-esque awakening of the blood, only to tip into Project Mayhem levels of voyeurism and violation in pursuit of confirmation that what they do actually matters. Suffice to say, I really enjoyed the book. It was insightful, intense and imaginative. Kings of a Dead World is a thought-provoking thriller of a novel that will entertain to the very end.

Although the Sleep is initially presented as a solution for the sake of the common good, it becomes clear that it is more of a life sentence than a sacrifice. “It’s the actual stealing of time,” Mollart says, “time is stolen from them, rather than time you can do something else in. If they were having beautiful dreams while they’re Asleep, it would just take away a little bit of the fear of it. … There should be nothing. Not to get into the comparison with death and all that, but it’s little incremental bits of death.” I don't know that it had anything particularly new to say, though. The picture it painted of a climate-apocalypse Britain felt detailed and interesting, and much like The Wall, it had a real sense of the landscape. The underlying messages about power and consequences I liked a lot, and again felt really real. But really new ideas? Not a ton, honestly. I feel like Early Riser did a much better job of thinking about the effects that hibernation would have on society, for example. On the flip side, I certainly enjoyed the pastiche of trading and ideas about what effect traders actually have on the world. Maybe that is the best compliment I personally can pay the Kings of the Dead, if it had been written by J G Ballard, I would not have been the least bit surprised. And this is also certainly true of Jamie Mollart’s Kings of a Dead World. It’s core concept — that dwindling resources and overpopulation leave the human race seeking drastic, and bleak, measures to ensure survival is an impactful premise because you know that it’s a real one and that whatever real answers we come up with aren’t going to be pretty, if we even come up with any at all.

Three narratives and two timelines - Jamie Mollart has done an exceptional job of fusing these together to create an awesome reading experience.

I think this may be a controversial book for some, then so were most of Ballards, he didn't do too bad as an author, did he? I would like to see Kings of a Dead World made into a 'cli-fi' film, marketed as both cautionary tale and satire.' Juliet Blaxland, shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize We’re in a world where all the resources on earth are running out and the powers that be have decided that the solution is something called “the sleep”, everyone sleeps for three months straight and then wakes for a month so essentially you’re only awake for 3 months in the entire year.

This book is one I’ve thought about for some time since putting it down. It is powerful and uncomfortable and real. And you should go read it, because it is out now! The conclusion off the man and his wife reminded me strongly of Amour (in general this feels like a masculine dominated book, with the women fitting neatly in wife/lover stereotypes and not really having much agency in any of the timelines). With its frightening future Britain and original dystopian ideas, Kings of a Dead World feels both visionary and vital. Its literary merits also make it an easy recommendation for fans of the likes of Ben Smith’s Doggerland, Jim Crace’s The Pesthouse and J.G. Ballard.’ Infinite Speculation But what about a Sleep with no dreams? “I wanted there to be a difference between forced Sleep and actual sleep,” Mollart says. “It shouldn’t be a thing where you get to restore your body and your mind. It’s like they’re turned off, literally turned off.”

Being the sleeper is easy, or so we think: Sleep Donation posits that donating sleep is as painless and noble as giving blood. That’s the party line for the Sleep Corps’ champ recruiter Trish Edgewater, who convinces the parents of newborn donor Baby A that she has a surfeit of the stuff, and to not give would be to doom the nation’s insomniacs to an agonizing, brutal, unnecessary death. For Baby A, or Washington Irving’s archetypal snoozer Rip Van Winkle, or the Narrator, they get to wake up into a changed world. It’s the people watching them sleep, moving through the insomniac hours, who have to do the actual hard work of breaking and reshaping the world. It is a frighteningly entertaining look at how good we are as a race at isolating and destroying ourselves.’ SFF World

My only real issue with the book is that it is a bit of a sausage fest, there aren't any strong female characters or indeed any characters that aren't in the book except to be a plaything for the male characters. Even Rose - Ben's wife is mainly there as a hinderance. Perhaps that will change in upcoming books but for now I am only looking at this one. In its detached and bleakness of narration, the book reminds me of Samantha Schweblin her writing. The anti globalist academics gone rogue turn-out rather unreflective while traversing a rural abandoned landscape, with gas stations selling diesel for ten pounds per liter (that will just take a few years and some more of inflation, crossed my mind sardonically).