I have yet to read THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU, by H G Wells, a tale of a lone, shipwrecked traveler in the South Pacific who finds himself on an ‘island ruled by a mad doctor and inhabited by creatures who are both beast and human. He escapes…but that is only the beginning of the story.’

J.S. Barnes’, THE CITY OF DOCTOR MOREAU, opens on the 16th of November, in the year 1877 London, and centers around the history of the islanders …

‘In the wake of the resultant scandal, many descriptions were circulated of the laboratory, which was owned and operated by Dr Moreau in the part of the old city known then as Ratcliffe. The popular press were most exercised upon the subject and strikingly vivid in their treatment of it. “Hovel of Horrors” was one such description, “Basement of the Bizarre” another. All of the reporting at the time made it sound like some gothic extrusion, some far-flung medieval castle. The truth …’

You have to read the book and find out. ;)

I will say I gasped a few times at the unexpected—and the ending—I loved It!

Thank you, NetGalley and Titan Books, for providing me with an eBook of THE CITY OF DOCTOR MOREAU at the request of an honest review.

Book Review: The City of Dr Moreau
Sue Cook

The City of Dr Moreau by J.S. Barnes was an exciting journey into the events that took place after the “conclusion “ of the incidents on the Island of Moreau. Although Dr. Moreau allegedly passed at the end of The Island of Dr.Moreau, it appears that one infant was smuggled off the island by a fisherman.

The City of Dr Moreau gathers any loose ends that may have lingered in my mind regarding Island of Dr. Moreau, and weaves a tapestry of beauty and horror in grand fashion. Tragedy befalls the smuggler and a boarding house in England becomes the stage where the child is left in the care of Coral Mayfield, who becomes his “mother,” setting the story into motion.

I always loved the book by H.G. Wells, as well as the movie “The Island of Dr. Moreau” (1977). It has been years since I have seen either but when I saw The City of Dr Moreau, I knew I had to read it. I didn’t expect the intense, visceral reaction that overwhelmed me as I read.It was both violent and ghoulish, and an absolute delicious book to read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In the same way that H.G.Wells spun his fantastic tale of eugenics, J.S. Barnes continues the narrative in the same sweeping fashion. The tale played out its deep dark song in my imagination, deepening my concern for the characters with each turn of the page. The cautionary warning at the end, jolted me into realizing that fiction may be way too close to reality in 2021.

The author tossed well-crafted twists that awakened me from complacency for the characters and set them to spinning out of control, recapturing my vigilance. I actually cheered at the end, with a resounding “yes!”

You’ll need to read this book several times to really set the characters to mind and feel the immensity of the horror. I found myself wanting to cast characters with celebrities, as you would a movie. I know it could become 2023’s blockbuster movie of the year.

The City of Dr Moreau certainly will keep people on the edge of their seats and pleading for more. I love that the legend of Moreau continues. This is a must read!

My thanks to Titan Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The City of Dr Moreau’ by J.S. Barnes in exchange for an honest review.

This is a reimagining of H.G. Wells’ ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’, that expands upon the original tale. Last year I enjoyed Barnes’ ‘Dracula’s Child’ and so was interested in how he would approach this classic horror novel. However, I won’t say too much about the expanded plot in order to avoid spoilers.

In the original story after being shipwrecked Edward Prendick becomes stranded on an island ruled over by a mad doctor and inhabited by creatures that are both animal and human. He manages to escape and return to England yet this is only the beginning. ..

In ‘The City of Dr Moreau’ J.S. Barnes continues the tale of Moreau’s legacy over the span of more than a century of alternative history.

I found this a fascinating tale told with skill and imagination by Barnes, who not only honours Wells’ original story and characters but further develops his themes. I felt that it was well written and thought provoking.

The novel is written in the melodramatic style of a Victorian penny dreadful, as its horrors are related with a breathless intensity.

‘The City of Dr Moreau’ was a chilling tale that is bound to please fans of H.G. Wells and those who enjoy classic-style horror and science fiction.

I had previously read Barnes’ Dracula’s Child, and fell in love with his style, and this book did NOT disappoint.
I am willing to bet all of my books that the author is actually from the late 1890/ early 1900, because I can’t explain, otherwise, how his prose sounds so classic.
If I didn’t know better, I could swear this book was written by Wells.
Barnes’ prose is marvelous. Its cadence, its pace, its richness. I feel like I read it with all of my eyes and all of my mouth.
And the plot follows the original work so masterfully, you won’t want to put the book down. Every character is beautifully painted. Yes, even those who are far from beautiful. And well, the monsters are real.
I already ordered a copy of this book. I can declare myself a fan of Barnes.

This is a very engaging expansion of the world of Dr Moreau, though it does suffer somewhat from the perennial problem for stories that rely heavily on huge time jumps: is it a novel, or a gathering of short stories? Barnes does a lot of work to scaffold the connectedness of these stories, but it’s precisely this heavy-handedness with cementing this as a novel that detracts from enjoying the varied and inventive stories on their own merits.

Revisiting the Frankenstein themes of the original, the book leads us through an arch, if slightly inconsequential backstory to Moreau’s escape to the island, before moving to the far more meaty parallel stories of a mystery beneath the mystery on the island itself, and then a far more meaningful look at free will and consequence in the jump to the modern day. There is a very grand gallery of characters on show, and Barnes shows each attention and respect, augmenting his stories with a chorus of voices, but in the gaps between timelines, this can make following the overall novel thread much harder.

Not an easy book, but the author’s enthusiasm for the subject and the world means it never lacks for vitality or colour, and is a great addition to the mythology of the original. Recommended.

J.S. Barnes is no stranger to writing follow-ups to Victorian era fiction, Dracula's Child, also published through Titan Books last year, was an interesting and creative expansion upon Stoker's original work in a way that felt true to the original yet completely its own. Barnes is trying to do that again here with The City of Doctor Moreau, a companion piece to H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr Moreau.

Unlike with Dracula's Child I came to this book completely fresh, having never read the original work. As such, I don't know how well Barnes manages to recreate the writing style of Wells (something he did brilliantly with Stoker's writing); but it's easy to see how this book has a very different kind of voice to his other work, and very much feels like fiction from more than a century ago.

The book follows a number of different characters, across an ever expanding timeline as Barnes decides to focus on the world around Moreau, rather than simply trying to create what people would normally expect from a sequel. The story begins before the events of the original book, where we're introduced to several characters that will make multiple appearances across the narrative. This first time frame gives readers an insight into what led Doctor Moreau to leave his native home of London for his island home, shedding some light onto the characters past.

From here the book moves forward in time to a point that's almost running parallel to the original story, before jumping further forward to take place following the events of the book. This is really where the majority of the book takes place, as it explores the possibilities of what happened to the island and its inhabitants once the original tale had come to a close.

What's perhaps most interesting about the book and the way it's structured, however, is that it rarely focuses on the main events in its timeline. Instead, the book follows characters that are on the periphery of things, people who only discover some big event has happened after the fact. For example, we never see the inhabitants of the island taken away from their home directly, but we learn of it. We also don't see the construction or running of the titular city, but are there just after the revolution that takes place there. Barnes allows the reader to discover these major moments through outsiders looking in, much in the same way that most people learn about major events in the real world. We don't get to be a part of the revolutions, nor do we see the meetings that take place behind closed doors, but we do see the ripples these moments cause.

It's an interesting way to frame the book, and it's one that I'm not sure I've seen in other novels like this. Having been used to following characters that are the protagonists of their stories it feels unusual to have a book structured this way, though it proves to be an intriguing and entertaining way to learn about the world that Barnes is crafting here; using Wells' original work as a foundation.

As someone who hadn't read the original story I found this is be a great introduction to it. I learnt about the book, the characters, and their world without it ever feeling like it was required reading; or that the story was being spoilt for me. It was an imaginative and engaging tale that I'd have loved to have seen more of, to have spent more time with the characters to the point where I was a little sad to see it all come to an end.

I very much enjoyed H.G. Wells work and The Island of Dr Moreau is definitely among the favourites. So when I saw this appear on Netgalley I Had to get my hands on it… especially after enjoying what J.S. Barnes did in his Dracula’s Child.

I did read Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Dracula’s Child back to back, which really made the way J.S. Barnes made Stoker’s writing style his own stand out. I haven’t read the original of Dr Moreau in quite a while now though, so I can’t quite make that comparison. The writing style in City of Dr Moreau is quite distinctive though, so I dare to say Barnes gave it a good try at least. It did take me a bit to get into, but once I was (after 10% or so) it was an easy enough read.

And I really enjoyed what he did with this story. The story after what happens on the island certainly takes some interesting twists and turns, and I really hadn’t anticipated the extend to which it all would go.

But… the way Barnes choose to sturcture this book didn’t really work for me. Again, it was distinctive and interesting, but for me it resulted in disengagement. Prety much every chapter is told from a different character’s perspective… a character with its own backstory, motivations and knowledge of the situation. But because we only spend a chapter following them there is not enough time to get to know them. This in some cases even lead to confusion on my part, where for example some major event for said character would happen but because we didn’t know them or their backstories, we didn’t know why this would be so important to them.

There are also some big time jumps between the chapters… and again no explanations given to us as to how the world has changed in those 15 years. Some big plot points and developments happen of the page, and I was just a bit lost in it all. We jump around between characters and events but the thread connecting it all seemed to be missing.

I loved how Barnes extended on Wells story and how far he managed to take it. The way he decided to tell the story is interesting and has the feel of a classic, but I personally needed a bit more explanation which lead to me never really getting sucked into the book as much as I would have liked.

"The City of Dr Moreau" blew me away. Not only is it a fantastic story, but it keeps the feel of H. G. Wells's "The Island of Dr Moreau". This isn't so much a sequel as an expansion (although we do get to beyond the events of "Island"). I just loved the whole tone of the book, the characters, the story... and the writing is incredible. Classics fans should not miss this!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

Firstly, thank you to Titan Books for providing me a copy of this book via NetGalley.

The story of the island and its inhabitants didn’t end with Moreau’s death. Not according to author J.S. Barnes, anyway.

Last year, I received a copy of Dracula’s Child by Barnes, and absolutely loved it. In that, it was immediately apparent Barnes was very well versed in classic literature, and he made Dracula’s Child really stand out for the use of the same sort of language and style Stoker himself used. Barnes achieves the same with this sequel to H.G. Wells’ 1896 The Island of Dr Moreau.

It's hard to explain too many elements of the plot, mainly because it covers such a vast space of time and a variety of different characters. From the group of men who originally discover Moreau’s experiments, thereby driving him to escape to the island, to a young woman who discovers an interesting guest in her mother’s boarding house, to an assassin stalking a twentieth-century train looking for her prey, Barnes expertly crafts a story spanning decades, and moves us seamlessly from one character to the next.

The book acts as a history of the islanders, from their beginnings through to what seems a new dawn for the whole world. Barnes carefully stacks the pieces up, allowing us to gain an understanding of every character, every motivation, and the type of world each lives in, and he combines various genres, blending them together to create something that really does read as if it could come from Wells.

It also shifts the world just ever so slightly, weaving in the alternative history aspect with sci-fi and fantasy elements, keeping it overlayed with a dose of horror. Barnes zeros in on the key moments, gradually introducing us to each character who plays a vital role in the story, sometimes leaving it a while before showing exactly the impact they have. It’s a technique he does really well, and one that stands out as reading more like an older book than something contemporary. Definitely one of Barnes’ strengths in these books.

I admit, I haven’t read Wells’ novel, and most of my knowledge of The Island of Dr Moreau comes from the Simpsons parody, so I can’t compare it to the original. But it was easy enough to read up on the plot prior to reading Barnes’ continuation, and it served well enough, but I would expect those who have read the original will get even more out of it.

Barnes has a real talent for this kind of writing, and of taking a classic and updating some of the ideas and themes while keeping grounded in the original, and it’s something he does excellently here. Both this and Dracula’s Child are well worth checking out.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for the eARC of this incredible title!**

This book operates in the universe of Well’s island, and did an incredible job creating a mini “prequel,” then running parallel to Dr. Moreau’s time on the island, and finally telling a terrifying future as well. As if Dr. Moreau’s experiments weren’t heinous enough, one “visionary” orchestrated an extension of the experiments on the island for his own gain.

Without giving away too much, this book tells a cautionary tale of people that push the edges of morality without considering the consequences. There was a significant amount of foreshadowing throughout the book, yet I still found surprises and connections around every turn.

The writing was beautiful and flowed well, my only complaint was the large gaps in time between some of the chapters. They were well labeled, but I still found myself flipping back a few pages to get caught up on where the story was at the time. This is more of a personal preference - Barnes did a great job of labeling time jumps and keeping character story lines separate, and easy to follow.

If you have read The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells, you should find this novel to be a great addition to the universe. If you have not read The Island of Dr. Moreau, this book will give you great insight into the original story without spoiling the book entirely!

I would recommend this book for fans of H.G. Wells, sci-fi, suspense, light horror, and books regarding genetic experimentation!

It's well-written and well-thought-out. It took me longer than expected to get into the story, but I'm glad I haven't DNF-ed it. Ultimately, it's immersive and atmospheric. Well worth a read.

Very interesting and entertaining take on the old science-fiction classic! Love the way take the story or the concept and make it his own, the story that came out of it was incredible and a lot of fun. I recommend reading it, even more if you are a fan of the classic book by Wells!

The City of Dr Moreau follows on the themes of HG Wells original novel. The narrative moves through time starting with a possible reason for Moreau's disappearance to the island, as time moves along we come across Edward Prendick following his return to London and witness the interest in his story from some very secretive people, I won't reveal anymore....
The themes in the novel and where the plot takes the reader is very relevant to where we are in the world today and it is an interesting take of Wells original tale. JS Barnes has done a stirling piece of work on Moreau, check out Dracula's Child which is another great read.