The wizard of weird, Jeff Noon, in his fourth Nyquist mystery, provides a fun romp through Delrium, a portal to an infinite number of strange lands that are inhabited by ghosts, magicians, supernatural entities and literary characters including Alice in Wonderland and Mr. Hyde. This was a well written and easy to read novel. I highly recommend this novel and all the other novels

I’m never really sure exactly how to review the brilliant mind that is Jeff Noon. The Nyquist novels are amongst my favourite reads ever, yet if you ask me to explain why, explain THEM I really struggle.

This is a series you experience rather than read. I always feel like I’ve gone a bit mad at the end of them and the nights are full of odd dreams every time. Surreal, intuitive and insanely plotted, Nyquist’s world is a world like no other.

In Within Without, Nyquist is literally in Delirium, where the borders are fluid and your inner life comes to, well, life. In this crazy place he must find a glamorous image, save a friend and try to hold onto his sense of self. Aside from that I can’t tell you anything.

Unique in his writing style and with an imagination that blasts past almost anyone else’s, if you are looking for that read like no other, then this author and this series is for you.

My brain hurts.

Highly Recommended.

DNF at 10%.

Aside from a few awkward lines, the writing style is pretty and there is definitely an imaginative story in there.

The problem I have with this book is that, 10% into the story, there are 3 important characters introduced, but I know almost nothing about any of them. I know that Nyquist is a detective of some sort. I know that Teddy is helping Nyquist in some way, is a big fan of Craven, and had a seizure or something like a seizure going through something like customs to enter the city. I know that Craven is a film star who is now less attractive since he has lost some sort of symbiote named Oberone. That is all. I don't know these characters and I don't care what happens to them. I need someone to root for and that is too far overdue. Also, I spent the first 5% of the book reading about one character standing in a line. I'm done.

The fourth novel in his Nyquist series, Within Without, is Jeff Noon firing on all cylinders and exhibiting true mastery of his craft. He is one of those rarified authors who can inextricably tie together worldbuilding, story, and character. While you can read them in any order, once you meet Nyquist in his 2017 debut A Man of Shadows, you’ll want to grab them all. Nyquist is the noir detective you may not have known you were missing in your reading life.

The first novel follows the orphaned John Henry Nyquist who grew up in Dayzone, a city that is terrified of the dark neighborhoods that lie a train ride away through the hallucinatory terrain of Dusk. Solving this first murder mystery will require Nyquist to travel within the strange landscapes of commoditized time itself and come to terms with his fraying sanity.

The second novel, The Body Library, picks up with Nyquist traveling to the city of Storyville where stories themselves become the centerpiece of reality. How do you know if you are the main character in your own story or only a passing participant in someone else’s tale? What happens when storytelling has real power?

Its follow-up, Creeping Jenny, has Nyquist heading to his birthplace, Hoxley-on-the-Hale, in search of his past. Every day of the year a new Saint is selected and the town’s inhabitants, who find comfort in understood rituals, must adhere to the rules of the day. Nyquist and the reader are thrown into the deep end from day one navigating this bucolic village meets simmering horror while once again trying to solve a series of murders. For the first time in the series one of the characters, the earnest Teddy Fairclough, will be assisting Nyquist on his further adventures.

You’ll know immediately that you’re in for the wildest ride yet because Within Without is taking you to a city named Delirium and the small town at its heart named Escher. This is a story about boundaries, being caught betwixt and between them, and all the symbolism and imagery that comes with borders internal and external. Every chapter unveils a new element of this mysterious city like a marvelously strange revelation. You’re in for the most mind-bending and philosophical Nyquist experience to date. You’ll uncover the enigma behind asymmetrical ladybugs. You’ll meet Vince Craven, a popular movie star whose image has gone missing, and have an audience with the gelatinous Royal Highness King Edwyn III King of Freemantle. Square Circle Square Circle will have you thinking about it long after you’ve put that ingenious chapter behind you. You’ll run into Gregor Samsa from Kafka’s Metamorphosis and Mr. Hyde and Alice Liddell and Miss Havisham. Did I mention the cartoonish black holes peppering the cityscape? Much beyond that and we get into spoiler territory. You should experience Within Without with all the delight of sinking into the carefully orchestrated madness that Noon constructs here with his trademark flourishes of wordplay. The Inception-like journey of this novel leads to a satisfying and elegant ending that feels well and truly earned.

I cannot wait for more.

** Thank you Angry Robot Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest, unbiased review **

Jeff Noon is an ever-favorite. In his latest, Within Without, Noon plays with the universe, genre, and our expectations. A literary speculative text from an author who always offers intriguing work.

Imagine China Mieville went to binge-read Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe books before attempting in an LSD-fuelled fever dream to rewrite Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast in the style of Kafka. That is what Within Without reads like, and I mean that fully and in every way as a compliment.
And this is how you should read the book, too: not in spurts and snatches, but in one feverish nightmare session that leaves you gasping for air, unsure if what you've just read was a dream, a memory (and if so, was it your own?) or a hallucination, and if it wasn't perhaps the best thing that has ever happened to you.

I realise that this review, so far, is not helpful in explaining what this book is about, but I honestly don't think I can. I don't think I understood it, not in the way it wants to be understood. It's like glimpsing greatness and dimly being aware that you lack the intellectual capacity to grasp it.

Let's try again. Nyquist and his friend Teddy travel to Delirium to take on a case - and the name of the town should already tell you where this goes, because they continue going down one rabbit hole after another (and the Alice in Wonderland-reference isn't accidental), in which we follow the thread of the narrative through a setting that becomes increasingly surreal, in much the same way that Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is surreal, another book from which this text has drawn inspiration. Add a dash of Kafka, and perhaps you begin to see why I am rambling the way I am.

It's brilliant. Read it. I think that's the only coherent thing I can say.

By the way, I have read and enjoyed the first in the series but not book 2 and 3 (yet - what can I say, I'm bad at series), and while I'm sure I missed some references because of that, I do think this can well be read as a standalone with no previous knowledge of the other books. You'd be missing out, but that's on you.

I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free ARC of this book. All opinions here expressed, however, are my own.

This was my first Jeff Noon read and I have to say even though this was the fourth book in a series, it was rather fun to make up my own idea as to the events that came in the three novels before this one.

I really love the cover on this one (and the whole series). This was a perfect mystery with historical elements and a sprinkle of fantasy. If you're looking for a genre-bending novel about weird cities and its weirder inhabitants, pick this one up.