City Trilogy 1 - Procession Of The Dead [Paperback]

Plot Summary: Capac Raimi arrives in The City, eager to carve out a name for himself in the criminal underworld that flourishes under the top man, known to one and all as The Cardinal. When Raimi tries to think about his life before he arrived, it's like one big hole. He can't remember a thing, but that doesn't bother him as much as how people can disappear without a trace. Even their own relatives won't remember who they were, and Raimi's chances to get in good with The Cardinal will depend on whether he's willing to stay loyal, or whether he wants to know more about his own missing identity.

This is the kind of story where the last hundred pages makes me glad that I stuck with the first two hundred. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy Procession of the Dead until the end, but that last third was fantastic. I see how some readers wouldn't get into this story, so I think my job here is doubly important. I need to make sure that you get a feel for this book without spoiling it in any way.

I was confused when I first started reading, because I heard somewhere that this is an urban fantasy. It is, but that won't become apparent until the end, and that's wildly different from the usual UFs I read. I also think it's important to point out that this is a dark urban fantasy. You know what that means right? Don't look for somebody to ride in wearing a white hat for a triumphant finale of good over evil.

Much of this book reads like a piece of mafia/crime fiction. Everything spins around the criminal elements in The City (we never learn which one), and our hero is a wannabe gangster whose grandiose ambitions intersects with the head honcho, The Cardinal. The way the fantasy elements unfold completely took me by surprise. I never saw a hint of what was coming, and every few pages I was shocked again and again and again. I like being surprised as much as anything, and that's why this book ended on such a high note for me. I'm marveling at how this was crafted, rather than the content itself, which is closer to a horror novel than anything else by the end.

Procession of the Dead will be released in the U.S. on June 4, 2010. As far as I know, it's already available in many other countries. The next two books in the series are Hell's Horizon (January 5, 2011), and City of the Snakes (TBA).

I was actually unfamiliar with D.B. Shan prior to reading this book, but I've genuinely become a bit of a convert and am interested in seeing what else he's got to write! I hope this book is released in a wider format in the states at some point, but for now, keep it on your radar or find a copy on eBay.

The story is supposedly science fiction - and ultimately it ends in that way - but at it's heart I found it to be a gripping life of crime story, with the gritty portrayal of "The City" (aka London, England in the distant future) as equally interesting as the characters in the book.

Capac Raimi is an upstart young man on his way to "The City" to make a life for himself by working with his uncle. When he gets there, he is ushered into the underbelly of what makes The City tick - good ol' fashioned mafia crime. After a chance encounter, Capac is recruited by the head honcho of the city, a man referred to primarily as the Cardinal. Soon Capac is on his way to the top - training by day as an insurance salesman and spending his nights enjoying the luxuries of being one of the Cardinal's chosen few, including a friendship with a mysterious resident at his hotel complex, and a romance with an undercover siren.

Things start to turn ugly when Capac realizes his memory of anything prior to The City is nearly non-existent, and even worse when the memories of those around him start to forget his friends that mysteriously 'disappear' under the Cardinal's orders. Capac's friendships and romance with Ama Situwa both threaten his position but equally help him start to uncover the twisted web the Cardinal has woven, including his final plans for Capac.

I can't say much more than that without giving the plot away - but I will say this is easily my favourite book of 2008. The story is extremely fast-paced and shocking, with twists at every corner that never fail to surprise and scare you. Rarely have I read a book that gets my heart racing the way this one did - it was a page turner in every sense of the phrase. The characters were interesting and dynamic, the descriptions only benefitted the story rather than take away from it, and the final showdown(s) were excellently written. The only downside is the final explanation of the story is so implausible compared to the somewhat plausible premise otherwise - in that sense I'd advise keeping in mind this is a 'science fiction/fantasy' book because it does factor in. I didn't feel cheated by the ending, but it wasn't my favourite either. Still, an EXCELLENT read.

When Darren O'Shaughnessy sets his mind on writing adult fiction, the man doesn't hold back. If you thought his two YA horror/fantasy series - the Demonata and Cirque du Freak (written under his pen name Darren Shan) - featured dark, creepy elements, then the City trilogy does them one better. PROCESSION OF THE DEAD, originally titled AYUAMARCA, is the first in this frankly disturbing City trilogy, and it isn't at all new. AYUAMARCA was originally published in the UK back in 1999. Its sequel HELL'S HORIZON was published in 2000. The final book CITY OF SNAKES was never published, although that's about to change, from what I hear. The City trilogy is not at all intended for children. Believe me.

Capac Raimi is a cypher, just what Darren Shan intended. Capac Raimi, young and ambitious and suffering from memory loss, steps off the train and straight into this sinister unnamed megapolis, and it's quickly divulged that Capac means to be a ruthless gangster, with his crooked uncle promising to mentor him into this life of crime. But one treads lightly in the city. There's a pecking order in the underworld. The city is ruled by The Cardinal, this enigmatic, universally deified figure, and The Cardinal is so intimidating and so mythic a man that even the "The" part of his name is capitalized. Capac Raimi, new to town, watchful and learning fast, is shocked when The Cardinal - in very violent fashion - summons him to a personal audience. Capac Raimi is going places. Capac Raimi isn't so sure he wants to go there. The Cardinal is a scary mothereffer.

PROCESSION OF THE DEAD has things going for it, things going against. One deterrent may possibly be the sense of bleakness which occasionally blankets the story. But fans of film noir may fancy this. For me, primarily, the sticking point is that I found it hard to get emotionally invested in the central character. Capac comes off as an impenetrable and soulless anti-hero - although, as it turns out, there may be a reason for that - and whatever likable qualities there were in his persona are eventually stripped away. Capac Raimi's journey is bizarre and peril fraught, and marked with nerve-wracking encounters with The Cardinal. En route he is compelled into committing despicable acts. I can see why Darren O'Shaughnessy wanted his normal reading public to steer clear of this one. His young fans may go into shock reading the nasty, squirmy stuff that unfolds here.

I'm a bit torn. I don't care much for the protagonist, but I relished the imagination which went into the thing, as well as the tone which is in equal parts feverish and surreal, gothic and grotesque (and, as mentioned, bleak). Characters created by Tim Powers and Neil Gaiman would feel at home rubbing elbows with Shan's City dwellers, who are strange and marvelous: the old woman whose face gets younger every year; a feared assassin, oddly long-lived with facial snake tattoos; friends who suddenly vanish, all records and recollection of them vanishing in accord. Shan's world-building finds a place for James Cagney and Singin' In The Rain and Gary Larson's the Far Side, these familiar things sharing space with the macabre, with green fogs and blind Incan priests and puppets with beating hearts. The big, awesome revelation at the end makes sense of it all and, I think, makes up for much of what's negative about the book. It certainly convinced me to try to get ahold of HELL'S HORIZON, of which storyline runs parallel to PROCESSION OF THE DEAD, and CITY OF SNAKES which catches us up with Capac Raimi ten years after. This looks to be a very interesting, very dark, and discomfiting series. Reading PROCESSION OF THE DEAD you may find yourself ill at ease, shifting in your armchair, trying to find that good space in your head. You may not find it. That alone makes this book worth a look.

3.5 out of 5 stars.