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A review by somecharm
Down Station by Simon Morden
4.0
My thanks to the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Down Station was a pleasant surprise overall. I went into the book with a little bit of dubiousness because I’m not generally a fan of dystopian novels but although it started out a little bit slower than it ended it certainly moved well.
The book follows 3 main characters:
Mary – an ex-prisoner who has obtained a job working on the Underground as a cleaner to become a better person. Some slight anger issues and distrust.
Dalip – a young Sikh man from Warrior tradition with an engineering background working on the Underground as a track layer and who had led a pretty sheltered life.
Stainslav – an Eastern European from a war-torn country who has done some pretty shady things in his past.
The story kicks off with Mary going to work and getting a little bit of background from her. She’s been in and out of prison, foster homes and the like, has a thieving background and has a bit of a temper and a foul mouth. Then the story passes on to the event where London goes up in flames and Mary and her fellow cleaning compatriots attempt to escape the Underground through an abandoned station. The same happens with Dalip and Stainslav who are working together repairing the tracks.
They go through to Down Street Station which is a disused tube station in Mayfair and exit a door with the flames swiftly following them. They emerge into Down – which as it emerges it not just the direction but also a place – a swiftly dystopian place with sea monsters and wyverns and bad guys galore.
The story then is Mary, Dalip, Stainslav’s and the other survivors’ journey of trying to get back home to London once the portal closed. It’s gritty, determined and slightly freakish in a good way.
It was as I said a pleasant surprise, normally I find dystopian’s hard to read but this was quite a smooth ride with little unexplained jumps between POV and settings – it was generally split over chapters so each chapter had one character’s POV. With good clear and concise prose and dialogue, shockingly normal characters (mostly) and a unique plot, it was a great debut novel.
Down Station was a pleasant surprise overall. I went into the book with a little bit of dubiousness because I’m not generally a fan of dystopian novels but although it started out a little bit slower than it ended it certainly moved well.
The book follows 3 main characters:
Mary – an ex-prisoner who has obtained a job working on the Underground as a cleaner to become a better person. Some slight anger issues and distrust.
Dalip – a young Sikh man from Warrior tradition with an engineering background working on the Underground as a track layer and who had led a pretty sheltered life.
Stainslav – an Eastern European from a war-torn country who has done some pretty shady things in his past.
The story kicks off with Mary going to work and getting a little bit of background from her. She’s been in and out of prison, foster homes and the like, has a thieving background and has a bit of a temper and a foul mouth. Then the story passes on to the event where London goes up in flames and Mary and her fellow cleaning compatriots attempt to escape the Underground through an abandoned station. The same happens with Dalip and Stainslav who are working together repairing the tracks.
They go through to Down Street Station which is a disused tube station in Mayfair and exit a door with the flames swiftly following them. They emerge into Down – which as it emerges it not just the direction but also a place – a swiftly dystopian place with sea monsters and wyverns and bad guys galore.
The story then is Mary, Dalip, Stainslav’s and the other survivors’ journey of trying to get back home to London once the portal closed. It’s gritty, determined and slightly freakish in a good way.
It was as I said a pleasant surprise, normally I find dystopian’s hard to read but this was quite a smooth ride with little unexplained jumps between POV and settings – it was generally split over chapters so each chapter had one character’s POV. With good clear and concise prose and dialogue, shockingly normal characters (mostly) and a unique plot, it was a great debut novel.