
Kit Burgoyne is Ned Beauman writing under a pseudonym, although no one seems to be making any secret of this, so I’m not 100% sure what the point is. The (excellent) NB books are at least genre adjacent, so a move into outright horror isn’t a complete swerve. This is schlockier than those, to be fair, but that’s also a big part of the enjoyment. And it is very enjoyable and fast moving enough that at no point do you stop and go “hang on…”, which is some achievement in a book that mixes revolutionary anti-capitalism with The Omen. It’s a hugely fun romp (as long as your definition of “fun romp” includes devil worship, mass death, and human sacrifice, which I’m afraid mine does), with a healthy political / satirical edge (guys, what if capitalism actually was the devil?). Makes me wish Dennis Wheatley had turned out to be a pen-name of George Orwell’s.
Kit Burgoyne is Ned Beauman writing under a pseudonym, although no one seems to be making any secret of this, so I’m not 100% sure what the point is. The (excellent) NB books are at least genre adjacent, so a move into outright horror isn’t a complete swerve. This is schlockier than those, to be fair, but that’s also a big part of the enjoyment. And it is very enjoyable and fast moving enough that at no point do you stop and go “hang on…”, which is some achievement in a book that mixes revolutionary anti-capitalism with The Omen. It’s a hugely fun romp (as long as your definition of “fun romp” includes devil worship, mass death, and human sacrifice, which I’m afraid mine does), with a healthy political / satirical edge (guys, what if capitalism actually was the devil?). Makes me wish Dennis Wheatley had turned out to be a pen-name of George Orwell’s.