A Man of Shadows

By: Jeff Noon

Narrated by: Toby Longworth

The brilliant, mind-bending return to science fiction by one of its most acclaimed visionaries.

Below the neon skies of Dayzone, where the lights never go out and night has been banished, lowly private eye John Nyquist takes on a teenage runaway case.

His quest takes him from Dayzone into the permanent dark of Nocturna. As the vicious, seemingly invisible serial killer known only as Quicksilver haunts the streets, Nyquist starts to suspect that the runaway girl holds within her the key to the city's fate. In the end there's only one place left to search: the shadow-choked zone known as Dusk.

©2017 Jeff Noon (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

Cool worldbuilding and mystery, meh ending

I had a great time with this book, it hooked me and really flew. The world building was fun and the mystery was cool to unravel. Unfortunately the ending fell flat for me, the defeat of the villain was abrupt and unsatisfying.

Weird film noir

strangeness and weirdness infused into a more traditional film noir murder mystery with private investigator, wealthy family, and so on. the end chapters are fully weird, with time and space no longer making sense. it was interesting, and I like mystery books, but it was a little too nonsensical for me. also the main character was a jerk. but read it anyway! fully appreciate the creativity. it's set in the mid-century.

The amazing ideas and worldbuilding.

This was an excellent mystery story set in a science fiction/fantasy setting. The worldbuilding in this story was second to none. Some of the ideas in it were completely original and mindblowing. The lead character was a perfect grizzled detective. The narrator has a great voice and created an eerie mood that fit perfectly.

Interesting world,unlikable protagonist. Near miss

Basically the title. The world was interesting, if a bit confusing to me. One of the central themes--a Time Crash--is never actually explained. The reader is just kind of supposed to take it as a bad thing but it was unclear (at least to me) how one would happen and why it was so bad to begin with. The hero of the book, though, is pretty much unlikable, and doesn't seem to get a completed redemption arc. I have to conjure Maxwell Smart: "Missed it by that much." Great narration though, and that helped keep me interested.