Simul by Andrew Caldecott

4 STARS

A thinking-person's book, no doubt. Satire, science-fiction and a little bit of menace mixed with silliness is all in order here. Make sure you read the first book, Momenticon first, otherwise much of this won't make sense. An entertaining sequel.

This is the sequel to Momenticon and it is vital to read this before attempting Simul, I eagerly anticipated this follow on book as I thoroughly enjoyed the first book. Caldecott is an exceptional author and having adored his Rotherweird series, I knew this series would be just as good. His ability to create another world which is full of characters so believable is reminiscent of Pratchett and even Tolkien. I became immersed in the story and was keen to know what became of the characters we met in Momenticon. I'm not going to try to explain the plot because I wouldn't know where to stop! Suffice to say, this is a superb series of books which I encourage anyone to read. Thank you Netgalley and Quercus for the opportunity to read and review Simul by Andrew Caldecott.

Simul is the second part of the story that began in Momenticon. Almost impossible to summarise, it features a near-future world destroyed by pollution. Only small islands of inhabitability survive amidst the Murk - a toxic substance that erodes pretty much anything that isn't heavily protected or very lucky.

These protected zones tend to have been engineered, in particular the domes operated by two companies - Tempestas and Genrich - organisations with different ideas about how to preserve humanity. In Momenticon, the story started in another dome, one built to house a museum of art, and we met Fogg, its Curator, who rather drove that story, though he plays much less of a role in this book, although he does appear as do many of the characters from that earlier book.

Others appear to be fortuitous, the result of freakish weather patterns or other features

The cast is extensive. though the author provides a handy list, it took me a little time to work myself back into knowing who was who - that was perhaps made harder because many don't come across as very different people, and the story, told in short chapters, flits between them and between locations (travel is possible on airships, though perilous). As I've said, Momenticon was much more focussed on Fogg, so I did feel a bit more adrift among new people, scenes and plot developments (there are a few flashbacks. It's rather one thing after another as these people - some loveable, some roguish but nearly all very archly peculiar, if that makes sense - race to achieve very different objectives.

To do that they will need to unpicking an extensive history, since almost nobody here really understands what is happening (or has happened) and why. A new threat has emerged as Nature - infuriated by the way she has been treated, or perhaps merely irritated by this gallery of eccentrics - strikes back, carrying out new attacks on both flesh and on metal. It is a threat that nobody expected, but to which all respond in ways one would expect. Some try to coop the menace as a new weapon, others to find a defence, still others, a means of counter-attack. Crossed with all the conflicting motives, hatreds and misunderstandings that were set up in Momenticon and develop in the first part of Simul, that makes for a pretty exciting conclusion where - I don't think this is a spoiler - the villains (more or less) get their comeuppances and the heroes (more or less) their just rewards (although a few fall by the wayside).

It is maybe a bit less satisfying the more you try to understand what's going on and exactly how it came about. There are so many rabbits pulled out of hats that Watershed Down could well be in production somewhere in the background. However I don't think that most reader swill worry too much about doing that but will rather be enjoying the rush of events - so, probably, no harm done.

The cover design, illustrations and map (by, respectively, Leo Nickolls, Nick May and Nicola Howell Hawley) are evocative and intricate.

This human being is a huge fan of Andrew CAldecott, Loved Momenticon and could wait for this novel, the second part in a duology that mixes distopia and Alice in Wonderland.
You never know if you're on a acid trip or lost in a novel full of fantastic twists and puzzles. I know I loved it, was hooked, I rooted for the my favourite characters and was enthralled.
And was left hoping for another novel by Sir Caldecott.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

4,5 stars

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

The weirdest of journey down the rabbit hole continues with author Andrew Caldecott making you believe countless impossible things the whole way, because he has the genius to do that.

He also has the genius to make me find his dystopian duology tale, started with "Momenticon" utterly exciting and enjoyable.

"Simul" is taking up the thread of the plot exactly where Momenticon ends while giving us flashback of past events previously unexplained (or only partly explained). The main characters, Morag and Fogg, accompanied by Niobe and the mysterious Benedict have to leave Deception Island and go down their own rabbit holes in search of answers of what exactly is Simul? and how find a tree of life (able to purify the toxic air of the Murk ) that could save mankind or kill it once and for all.

Again it is a crazy, but captivating journey that reaches its climax in a very satisfying way.

ARC provided by the Publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

Momenticon introduced us to a weird, future-world, where mankind is surviving the collapse of the ecosystem inside giant domes. Two corporations own and run most of what’s left of the planet, and the quirks of the ruling families have led to villages designed to look like famous paintings, or vat-created creatures straight out of Alice in Wonderland. This is a book of wild and strange ideas, and there are more of them crammed in than I could cover in a dozen reviews!

Simul picks up where the first book left off, and you will have had to have read that (and preferably not that long ago, unless you have a much better memory than me!) for this to make even slight amounts of sense. Even at that it’s not guaranteed, as we also start here with several threads of flashbacks, or what was going on concurrently to the events we’ve already read. It broadens the picture, while at the same time feels a little fast a gallop through rather a lot. It’s head-spinning, and that’s before we’ve started on the really weird!

As our main characters, Morag and Fogg, journey out, we get to see a lot more of the world these books are set in. There are new wonders to find – including a very, very strange tree, and some very nasty bugs (not of the sort to trigger my phobias, thankfully!) – and many new characters to meet. If I’m honest, I didn’t really connect with any of them, which didn’t really help my overall enjoyment. I’d say this is more about the world-building, and the story – that is tied up by the end, but the weave of plot threads old and new is quite dense, and jumps about a lot getting there. So, do pay attention!

I think the best I can do is to say that I found this book interesting. There’s a lot of great imagery, huge amounts of imagination, but overall it felt like a bit too much crammed in. I think, for instance, that the Wonderland elements add little to the tale overall, and could have been better done ‘otherwise’. That said, it is very well written and it’s rare to find works of just such absurdity, especially while still having an internal logic and satisfactory conclusion.

Perhaps recommended to fans of Terry Gilliam movies!

“‘Resurrection . . . resurrection . . . remember Simul,’ stammers Lord Vane, before sinking back, seemingly at peace for his confession. … Mander closes his eyes and readmits the son and heir.”

My thanks to Quercus Books Jo Fletcher Books for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Simul’ by Andrew Caldecott.

This is the sequel to his wonderfully strange ‘Momenticon’ (2022). Caldecott advises in his opening Author’s Note that “Simul is a sequel and its story will make little sense unless the first volume, Momenticon, has been read first.”

At the end of ‘Simul’ Caldecott provides a glossary of things and places along with a dramatis personae. However, he does warn that this additional material contains major spoilers for ‘Momenticon’.

I had adored ‘Momenticon’ and while I didn’t have time to reread, I was able to refresh my memory before reading ‘Simul’, including by accessing the provided material.

The book is structured with Part I as a prequel to ‘Momenticon’ that ends where it begins. After this Parts II-IV picks up after ‘Momenticon’’s final page and carries the story onwards to its conclusion.

It’s difficult to give any kind of summary of ‘Simul’ as it quite unique and is best experienced first hand. It is a hybrid novel that playfully combines a number of genres: a literary post apocalyptic science fiction adventure with absurdist and steampunk elements. I especially loved the inclusion of various works of art and the homage to Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass’.

The hardback edition is beautiful with a cover by Leo Nickolls and decorative endpapers by Nicola Howell Hawley. There are also line illustrations by Nick May scattered throughout the text.

Overall, I finished ‘Simul’ in awe of Andrew Caldecott’s imagination and creativity. His writing is excellent and quite lyrical. I consider both ‘Simul’ and ‘Momenticon’ amazing and intend to do a leisurely reread of the duology later this year.

Highly recommended.

I found the glossary and dramatis personae at the back of the book really useful as a reminder, seeing as it is quite some time since I read Momenticon

The first part of Simul is the prequel to Momenticon, the second part of this book resumes where Momenticon left off. Which encourages the re-reading of the original I think.

A really clever book which leads the reader through puzzles and the weirdest of scenarios, which all do make sense in the end.

I really liked the characters, even the 'baddies' who acted out their parts in order to fulfil the story line. I was convinced that one of the main characters would end up murdered or dead. The different areas of the world were so different to one another because of the 'Fall' and this made how things worked together much more interesting as well.

If there is a third book I will definitely be reading it. I heartily recommend these books (Simul and its precursor Momenticon).

3.5. A solid second installation. I'm really liking Caldecott's writing style. His character work is good but I wouldn't say it's groundbreaking. Overall, a decent read.

How to describe this book?
Simul is the concluding part to the Momenticon duology. It's a bizarre, post-climate apocalypse world of poisoned air, protective domes and controlled by one of two companies, and weird genetic experiments that are both whimsical and disturbing. Needless to say, you really really need to have read Momenticon first and, preferably, recently.
There are lots of characters to keep track of and plots within plots in Simul -there's no easing you in to the story. In fact, the start of Simul goes back and follows what some of the characters were up to off-page in Momenticon before continuing where we left off.
The main plot revolves around the discovery of a mysterious tree that could just save humanity from the murk or it could possibly kill everyone.
Much like Caldecott's previous series Rotherweird, these aren't easy books to follow - you need to be paying attention - but they do come together pleasingly in the end- like fitting jigsaw puzzle pieces together to gradually reveal the whole picture.
It is weird, absurdist, dystopian, science fantasy with an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland twist and I really enjoyed being taken along for the ride.

Simul is the second and final volume of Andrew Caldecott’s second series which began with Momenticon. Suffice to say that if you have not read Momenticon, this second volume, even with its glossary of people and places at the back, is no place to start. To the point where even the description of the plot in this review is possibly not going to make too much sense. This is because when you buy into Caldecott’s altered reality, whether in this series or his previous Rotherweird series, you have to be all in and prepared to go where he takes you.
When Momenticon ended, the main heroes were separated after a big battle. Fogg and Niobe were left on Deception Island and Morag and Benedict were headed to a preprogrammed location in a balloon-powered airship, pursued by the evil Lord Vane and his mother. At the same time, various of the other characters in other parts of the post-apocalyptic world are lining up either on one side (Vane and the equally evil Lord Sine) or the other (Fogg, Morag and their allies). All of the action, when it is not about the bad guys chasing the good guys, centres around the discovery of a tree that has the ability to clear the ‘murk’ that accompanied the apocalypse which killed most of the wildlife and drove the surviving humans into domes. With this tree, though comes a danger that has the capacity to wipe out all of the survivors. Meanwhile various machinations for domination, discovery and revenge swirl around each other.
Caldecott is nothing if not idiosyncratic. In Simul he builds on his steampunk crossed with fantasy post-apocalyptic world. From balloon-driven vehicles, to hidden academic outposts, to villages that replicate famous paintings, to robotic characters out of Alice in Wonderland, to quests that replicate those from Greek mythology. And all of this infused with word games and puzzles, the ultimate in this volume being Lord Vane’s diabolical Tower of No Return which presents a series of puzzles that Morag and Benedict have to solve or die trying.
In the end, much like in the Rotherweird series, Caldecott sticks to a good versus evil plot. But readers will not be coming for the plot. They will come for the bonkers flights of fancy, the games and puzzles and the Terry Gilliam-esque characters, locations and set pieces. In those respects, Caldecott once again delivers in spades.