IT’S HARD NOT TO HAVE PRECONCEIVED IDEAS about the books one is asked to review. Sometimes the imminent arrival of that month’s offering fills you with eager anticipation, whereas on other occasions you mutter a half-hearted “okay” when asked to run the rule over a particular title.
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The sequel to Ayuamarca is also set in an alternate dimension where elements of the Incan civilization emigrated to escape the invaders from Europe. In their own pocket universe, they have created a unique culture dominated by the priesthood, which is often indistinguishable from the government. The protagonist is a young member of the city guard who is reassigned to help with a murder investigation, only to discover that the victim is his girlfriend, and that the solution will involve secrets of the inner circles of his society.
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An utterly fascinating and dark sequel to the equally compelling Ayuamarca, in which Darren O’Shaughnessy demonstrates the same quirky, imaginative style which made his first book in the sequence so special. Bizarre mysteries involving the dead, ghostly Incan forefathers and near0mythical assassins make this a truly compelling machine.

reviewed in Starlog, June 2000.

THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL RELEASE OF HELL’S HORIZON.

This novel follows Ayuamarca, Book One in the author’s ‘The City’ sequence [reviewed by John Newsinger in Vector 207]. I haven’t read the preceding volume but assume from the series’ subtitle that the nameless city in which Hell’s Horizon is set forms the connecting strand.
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Hell’s Horizon is, hands down, the hardest book I’ve ever had to write, requiring the greatest amount of rewrites and fresh approaches. It was a book that failed three times, that should have been scrapped, that seemed to be going nowhere, but which ultimately became what I look upon as my own personal greatest triumph.
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The first draft of Hell’s Horizon was radically different to the finished book. Not only was the story a lot simpler, but the style was far more clumsy. I was 23 years old when I started work on the book, in September 1995, and I still had a LOT to learn about how to write.
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When Hell’s Horizon was first published back in February 2000, it opened with a prologue set when Al Jeery was a baby. I thought the prologue was an interesting place to start, and it gave an early indication that Al was special, that he was linked in with the Incans.
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Below you can find two scans of the first set of notes I wrote up for Hell’s Horizon, back in September 1995 when I started work on the first draft of the book. As you’ll see, this was a VERY different beast to the finished novel!
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