The Remnant

by Charlie Fletcher

Overview

"Exciting, exhilaring, scary and moving in equal measure, The Oversight is a teeming world of dark deeds and dark magics, brilliantly realized." — M. R. Carey

The Oversight of London has been sworn for millennia to prevent the natural and the supernatural worlds from preying on each other.

Now, at its lowest ebb, with its headquarters destroyed and its last members scattered far and wide, this secret society will battle for survival and face the harshest foe it has ever met: itself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316279567
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Series:	Oversight Series , #3
Pages:	464
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Charlie Fletcher is the author of the internationally acclaimed Stoneheart trilogy. He also writes for film, television and as a newspaper columnist. Charlie lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two children.

Editorial Reviews

"[Fletcher] drives this impressive array of plot strands along with panache and dexterity... so rich is the characterization and surprising the narrative."—Kirkus (starred review)

"Those already familiar with this world will be delighted, and newcomers will eagerly lose themselves in this utterly imaginative fantasy."—Publishers Weekly (starred review) on The Paradox

"A thoughtfully dense, fully realized construct.... Best of all, you never know where it's going next. As good as or better than the opener. Grab."—Kirkus on The Paradox

"A teeming world of dark deeds and dark magics, brilliantly realized. This feels like the start of something amazing."—M. R. Carey on The Oversight

"Fletcher's Victorian London is juicily vivid, and laced with macabre wit. There's a real sense of grim danger, both natural and unnatural, hungrily awaiting the slightest mis-step."—Frances Hardinge on The Oversight

"I couldn't stop reading... It really is a richly atmospheric and intensely readable slice of Victoriana: gothic as all get out, with a splendidly eerie sense of the way the unearthly lies cheek-by-jowl with the mundane. Cheerable goodies, grotesque baddies: the whole book is adventurous and flavorsome and gripping. I really enjoyed it."—Adam Roberts on The Overight

"Utterly enthralling: Charles Dickens meets Susanna Clarke."—Lou Morgan on The Oversight

"I'll certainly be reading the next one."—Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing.net on The Oversight

"It's oh so moreish a morsel. I'd read a prequel this evening, a sequel as soon as."—Niall Alexander, Tor.com on The Oversight

"A trilogy worth sinking your teeth into."—SciFi Now on The Oversight

"The second book can't come soon enough."—Booklist (Starred Review) on The Oversight

From the Publisher

★ 2017-03-07
Final installment (The Paradox, 2015, etc.) of Fletcher's rich and splendid Victorian gothic fantasy trilogy, and once again independently intelligible.For centuries the Oversight of London has guarded the border between the natural and magical realms and kept hidden the deadly dangerous magical Wildfire. But now the black hats have learned of the Wildfire's whereabouts. The ghastly Citizen has made a pact with the seemingly immortal Elizabethan magician, Dr. Dee, to seize the Wildfire and release it into the mirror-maze. Viscount Mountfellon, the malign scientist-wizard, needs the Wildfire to realize his megalomaniacal dreams. But will the Templebane clan, sworn enemies of the Oversight, try to take advantage? What of the ancient race known as the Sluagh, now almost allies? Elsewhere, freelancer Caitlin Sean ná Gaolaire arrives in America with her apprentice, Lucy Harker, but the local Oversight, who call themselves the Remnant, prove independent-minded and reluctant to cooperate. Worse, the Remnant's being duped by a powerful somebody via the mirror-maze, as we readers but not the characters themselves immediately grasp. Wayland Smith journeys to the remotest corner of the Scottish Hebrides—but why, and who will he meet there? Will the mad Ghost of the Itch Ward fullfill her desire to kill Mountfellon, and will we learn why? Can poor abused innocent Amos Templebane learn how to control his gifts and find redemption? Yes, Fletcher keeps us intrigued by posing questions we want to know the answers to, and he drives this impressive array of plot strands along with panache and dexterity—again, it's easy to forgive the occasional flaw, so rich is the characterization and surprising the narrative. And in terms of the trilogy's sources and backdrop, it's certainly the most persuasive fictional use of British folklore since Robert Holdstock's remarkable Mythago Wood. A thoroughly enjoyable conclusion, the trilogy satisfyingly complete yet perfectly set up for future extensions.

Kirkus Reviews