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    The Domino Men
    The Domino Men
    The Domino Men
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Domino Men

    Written by Jonathan Barnes

    Narrated by Gerard Doyle

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Jonathan Barnes, a shining new talent in the UK, intrigues listeners with his "wonderfully original concoction[s] of grotesque humour and sparkling prose" (Guardian)-providing a literary "cabinet stuffed with curiosities" (Observer). In The Domino Men, an ordinary office-working Brit discovers that he may be destined to wipe out the wicked House of Windsor. "... as sublime as it is ridiculous."-Entertainment Weekly
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMar 20, 2009
    ISBN9781440708527
    The Domino Men
    Author

    Jonathan Barnes

    Jonathan Barnes's own poor eyesight, combined with his biologist's curiosity and his frustration at previously published accounts of the Bates method, caused him to write Improve Your Eyesight.

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    Reviews for The Domino Men

    3.5/5

    114 ratings16 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I liked the first book but I really liked this one. The book didn't seem to get away from him at the end (I thought the last one did). I really like the style, it feels like a modern gothic. I can't wait to see what he does next.
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I think at some point I may have heard of Barnes’ first novel, The Somnambulist, but I can’t swear to that. This is book #2 in a series – a fact that irks me no end when I find out after I finished the book. But, I think they can be read as single novels with no detriment to the reader.This was classified as a horror/fantasy novel. I really got no sense of horror at all. To me this novel is fantasy through and through. Darn good fantasy too. There is definitely darkness to it but nothing that at all that verges into the horror genre.Henry Lamb is a civil servant. He is also a child star with an annoying catch phrase that follows him through life. His father died when he was young, his mother is a little daft with a series of boyfriends in tow. His grandfather, Henry’s mentor, is in a coma in the hospital.Out of the blue, Henry is promoted to a top secret assignment in the civil service. An area known only as “The Directorate” and which is housed in a mirage inside one the cars of the London Eye. A top secret prison/holding facility is located deep within the bowels of 10 Downing Street and in this facility are The Domino Men. They are a creepy set of twins, dressed as schoolboys and they have a very sadistic side to them.The Directorate is made up of all manner of interesting and eccentric characters who have been carefully recruited. Henry’s grandfather is one of these. And now, so is Henry. Their mission? To control and/or destroy a deal that Queen Victoria made during her reign signing away all of the souls of London to an inhuman entity.The House of Windsor is now in a position to carry out their end of the bargain and at the same time that The Directorate is trying to foil the plot, the House of Windsor is being infiltrated by the baddies to move the plot forward.This is a very English book with very English humor. I noted the disparity in opinions about the book and I know that English humor is not for everyone. The ending is a very dry, very black and extremely witty ending and I loved it. But that’s not say it will hit all readers the same way.While I am not constrained by genre, I am the first to admit that fantasy is probably one of my weaker categories in that I have not read as widely in this area. But I loved this book and I am going back to find the first novel. It took me a bit to get into the story but once I locked in, I found it hard to put down. I had to hurry up and get this review done! The book is already being snatched out of my pile to be read by someone else. And that speaks volumes about how good it is!
    • 3/5
      Overall Rating: Disappointingly Predictable The last novel of Jonathan Barnes, The Somnambulist, was mind-numbingly, awe-inspiringly, cleverly, allegorical, and though overall Barnes delivered a very well thought out plot and message, The Domino Men seemed to fall short of all it could have been. Barnes is still a brilliant writer, continuing to display his talent for finding the precise words to express himself perfectly and succinctly, rather than settling for a cluster of merely good words. His plot comes together neatly even though it begins from the most peculiar threads of fable spun through other characters, narrators, and long hidden secrets. However, unlike his first novel, his one is far more predictable. The plot between Joe and Abbey: called it as soon as Abbey referred to him as dangerousThe ‘twist’ of Estella’s true location: Saw it the moment they announced that they were looking for a missing person with a damaged mindAs well as several other minor occurrences, yet there were still several moments of redeemability, which Barnes embraced. Again, he centered his story on a brilliant allegory of complex layers and design which I always approve of. In a way, I suppose the simplicity of the plot, the easy predictability of it, may serve to ease readers into this complex allegory, however more seasoned readers, the ones who would even be able to grasp that such an allegory even existed should also be able to make that easy leap forward. This story did not have the same level of intriguingly bizarre characters and circumstances; perhaps this was due to the different time period, which, though I understood, I also did not find appealing. I noticed also an uncharacteristic lack of humor employed in this story versus the last, and while I understand that humor is not the goal of either story, it adds flavor and captures attention. Which brings me to another disappointment; though there was much action in this story, there were stretches of time where it seemed very dull, very dry, which could perhaps be a side-effect of its predictability. I still stand my ground on proclaiming Jonathan Barnes to possess an increasingly rare and astounding talent for writing, indeed simply for literature itself; however I believe that the The Domino Men does not display the true extent of his abilities as seen in The Somnambulist. My Favorite Quote: “Often I’ve made myself late watching that liquid history, wondering who has come before me and who shall come after, who has watched that same stretch of river, that same water ebb and flow in its endless mysterious cycle”
    • 5/5
      I picked this book up at a discount store on an impulse buy last year, and I'm really glad I did. I now recommend this book to anyone that'll listen- I Loved it that much. In fact, it was probably one of my favourite books I read last year. It's probably not for people that don't enjoy "out of the ordinary" situations. It's one of those books that takes a certain amount of suspension of disbelief.
    • 3/5
      This is one of those books with a fascinating premise, but in the end it doesn't quite reach its full potential. Henry Lamb, fading child star and erstwhile file clerk, is surprised to discover that he's an important player in a longstanding war between the Directorate and the House of Windsor, a war which must be won before Leviathan appears and engulfs the city of London. Mildly ridiculous throughout, with an unrelenting second half of nonstop action and then a totally bizarre ending. Even if you enjoyed Barnes' previous book, The Somnambulist, this one may be a skipper.
    • 3/5
      Did not think this was nearly as good as his first novel, The Somnambulist, but it was a fun read. Also, this book is written in a very different style than his last... true, it is a different trime period, so the atmosphere will be different, but since there are a few of the wame characters, it's a little disconcerting. A couple too many coincidences that seem kinda thrown in bug me a bit as well. Didn't like the ending at all.That being said, the story is very adventurous, and I could see Barnes really, really going for it in future novels, stretching the limits of conventional narrative, working with truly fantastic and inventive setting/time/narrator concepts. Kind of like the other Mr. Barnes from England. Only with grown men in schoolboy outfits.
    • 3/5
      Jonathan Barnes' engaging follow-up to his debut novel, The Somnambulist, doesn't fall prey to the usual failings of second novels, but it's not without its own problems. His determination to keep upping the ante ends up strangely fatiguing, and the helter skelter plot doesn't leave time for the atomospherics that made The Somnambulist so delightful.Henry Lamb's tedious life is about to be turned upside down. The hospitalisation of his grandfather propels him into a parallel world to the London we all know. In this world, a war is being waged between a top-secret government department and the insane royal family. The fate? Nothing less than London itself. Readers of The Somnambulist will recognise Barnes' competent prose and macabre ideas. His vivid imagination is well-executed on the page and the book hums along at a decent pace. Domino Men has a Lovecraftian bent that comes and goes and I found myself hungering for more - especially in light of the slim characterisation. Indeed, this becomes somewhat of a problem with the book - I'm not sure Barnes knows what he wanted it to be. On the one hand, you have a kind of action-fantasy romp, on the other we see a more leisurely atmospheric conjuring designed to be read on cold nights. Sadly, the former aspect gains ascendency as the book goes on, and I don't feel it's the strongest part of the novel.It becomes especially problematic in the second half, where the book is essentially reduced to 200 pages of narrative climax. This un-ending fever pitch of tension actually becomes monotonous after a time, and you end up really hungering for some light and shade - a contrast Barnes is more than capable of based on his debut novel. Instead, we end up with a cinematic-style climax and denouement - both of which serve to reduce the potency of what's come before. It's a little bit disappointing, and that's why I've rated this three, but ended with a decidedly mixed review. The book taunted me with what it could have been instead of what it could be.
    • 4/5
      The Domino Men is Barnes' second trip to a London in peril. I enjoyed the Somnabulist, so I had been looking forward to this book for some time. Even though I've given both a four-star rating, if pressed, I would say I enjoyed this time around a little more. Even though it didn't have much of a connection with the first book, some recurring characters and overall, the oddity of the story Barnes tells were better-served by being acquainted with the first book. If I had read them in the opposite order, I might have liked the Somnabulist more...Still, this book is welcoming for anyone that enjoys an odd tale, a bit of a mystery/thriller and dark humor (the Prefects anyone?) I can understand Barnes' offerings aren't for anyone, but I'm a bit surprised how low the ratings are for the books when I see far less-worthy works held in higher esteem.
    • 5/5
      This contemporary fantasy novel is about a file clerk suddenly thrust into the middle of a life-or-death battle over the future of Great Britain.Henry Lamb is the sort of average person who exemplifies the term "civil servant." One day, he is taken to the giant ferris wheel called the London Eye, where he meets a humanoid being named Dedlock living in a tank of amniotic fluid. Henry is forcefully recruited into The Directorate, one of those super-secret organizations that doesn’t officially exist.For the past century and a half, The Directorate has been fighting an all-out war against the British Monarchy. Queen Victoria agreed to a "deal with the devil"; she signed over London and all its inhabitants to a multi-limbed being called Leviathan. Dedlock, who was one of the Queen’s advisors, vowed to use any means at his disposal to stop it. Now the bill is coming due.Henry was recruited because his grandfather, now hospitalized in a deep coma, was a former high-ranking member of The Directorate. All Henry has to do is to find a woman named Estrella, who is the key to everything, in time to keep Leviathan from rising out of the Thames, and destroying London.In a cellar of 10 Downing Street, in an ultra-secure prison cell, are the Domino Men, the most feared serial killers in British history. They are two young men, who dress like British schoolboys, and who think nothing of killing large numbers of people, giggling the whole time. They seem to instantly know a person’s deepest fears and insecurities, and enjoy exploiting the heck out of them. The Domino Men say that they know where Estrella is, and are taken out under very heavy police guard. They don’t stay in custody for very long. Can Henry find Estrella and stop Leviathan before it turns London into a giant insane asylum?Here is a wonderful piece of writing. It’s nice and strange without being too strange, it does very well as a thriller and it will certainly keep the reader’s interest.
    • 4/5
      The high concept is familiar: A bland everyman learns that he has inherited a crucial role in an age-old war between Good and Evil. In The Domino Men, everyman is Henry Lamb, as meek and ineffectual as his name, once a child actor by virtue of nepotism rather than talent, now a government file clerk timidly attracted to the pretty girl from whom he rents his flat. Good takes the form of the "Directorate", an organization about which he can learn nothing. (Google has blacked it out.) Evil emanates from Britain's royal family, party to a conspiracy beyond the wildest fantasies of Lyndon LaRouche.The story moves forward with great verve, peopled by vividly drawn characters like the bewildered Prince of Wales (a late initiate into the conspiracy), the Directorate's aquatic leader, who maintains his HQ inside the London Eye, and the glib, cross-talking "domino men" of the title, a pair of vicious supernatural adolescents.As is often the case with books of this sort, a little common sense and cooperation on the part of the heroes would forestall the villains by about page 40, and the resolution of the plot is rather arbitrary and capricious. Also, the purpose of Evil's scheme, once revealed, sounds like it was salvaged from Douglas Adams' wastebasket, quite out of keeping with the tone of the rest of the book. Facetious though the Domino Men are, this is occult horror, not slapstick comedy.In the end, the author ties matters up deftly, though leaving room for, and all but promising, sequels.While not a classic of its kind, The Domino Men is inventive, well-paced and witty, satisfying fare for a long weekend.
    • 4/5
      Whether burned or bloody, Jonathan Barnes does love to see London in complete chaos. It happened in his last novel The Somnambulist, and has now continued in The Domino Men. Few things crossover between the two, save the intriguingly bizarre characters constituting his uber-secret and not-so-normal civil service division called The Directorate. Oh, and The Prefects, can't forget them.The story centers around Henry Lamb, a completely ordinary though perhaps even dull, clerk who through a series of extraordinary though familial events is drawn into a hunt, a race to prevent London's descent into utter ruin. By all accounts he has no business within the Directorate or even approaching The Domino Men, the only ones who can either help or even destroy the chances for success.Barnes excellently scripts his mystery around the fog that continually encompasses London, though he also lowers a fog over the reader's mind as well, keeping us in the dark about the major players of the novel. He offers breadcrumbs about the Directorate and the Domino Men, the comatose grandfather of Henry, and the ever over-confident mastermind Director Dedlock , though his description is never enough to quash the ever-lingering questions the reader may conjure. A frustrating yet gripping method. We know of a battle waged for centuries and that the Prefects are dangerous to say the least, but Barnes, hopefully in anticipation of another novel, tells us only what were allowed to know of the process. All that is requested is that we must "trust the process". And in the end, the distinction of who the villain was is not at all clear.In several ways the Domino Men surpasses The Somnambulist; the ending is much more captivating though at times the pacing can be a bit slower. His inclusion and description of the aristocracy (Prince Arthur in particular) is quite interesting, for it is neither kind nor overtly cruel. The Prefects, however, were a bit under-described as they were in the former. Their playfully comic nastiness, hinted to atmospheric levels, falls just short of their behaviour, though admittedly ruthless and reckless as the story hits its crescendo. Their actions are more a vehicle of the story than the framework. Overall, its another fascinating story about London, manipulated by all creatures forceful and ubiquitously normal. Fun yet creepy, one can only wonder how many times and what twisted ways London has fallen and yet continues to rebuild itself in the mind of Barnes.
    • 4/5
      Very funny, although there's an awful lot of dumping on Prince Charles.
    • 4/5
      Since 1857, the British government - particularly, a supersecret agency known as the Directorate - has been at war with the House of Windsor to prevent the execution of a contract between the ruling family and an entity from beyond our universe. Henry Lamb is caught up in this war after his grandfather, an agent of the Directorate, is incapacitated with a vital piece of information that will win the war for whichever side gets it first. The Domino Men is Jonathan Barnes' follow-on to The Somnambulist - not so much a sequel as another book set in the same universe, although a slight bit of carry-over from one book to the next will be noticed by those who've read the earlier work. The Somnambulist was good; The Domino Men is better. Barnes has improved his story pacing, and the narrative technique he uses in The Domino Men works quite well. I got a chance to read this one in a single sitting, and it's a good thing because I may not have been able to put it down otherwise!
    • 4/5
      The Directorate has been fighting a secret war with the British monarchy for the people of London. An alien called Leviathan made a pact with Queen Victoria. He told her he would protect the monarchy, but he wanted London "when it is ripe." Henry Lamb, a milk toast file clerk, is conscripted into the Directorate because his grandfather was one of its greatest agents. At the same time Henry is learning about the secret war Arthur Windsor, the Prince of Wales, is learning about his families involvement. They both must find the courage to fight Leviathan and save London.The setting is modern London. I usually read books where the setting is Victorian London. I enjoyed the change. The main meeting place for the Directorate is the London Eye, the Ferris wheel on the Thames. The leader of the Directorate lives in a tank of amniotic fluid in one of the pods. He was disfigured, given gills, by the Prefects, otherwise known as the Domino Men, two strange entities that look like grown men, but dress and talk like school boys. Even though the book is named after these characters they are only peripheral until the end. They are scary boogey men who threaten to wreak havoc.The story is told by Henry from a manuscript he wrote and left with AW. Every few chapters someone else jumps in and adds their own story in italics. This bothers Henry and he claims he knows what is happening and he “fears the worst.” I like this writing technique. It gives the reader a wider perspective of the story than you would through the eyes of one narrator. It’s also a play on the unreliable narrator that Barnes used in The Somnambulist.
    • 4/5
      London is engaged in a secret civil war. It's been raging for more than a century between the people of London and their rulers, the Windsor family. Okay, it's not really "the people," it's a shady group called "the Directorate" fighting on their behalf. And, yeah, the royals don't really rule anyone today, but you get my point. The Windsor's have sold the city's soul to an inhuman entity called Leviathan, and we are warned: He is coming. Conscripted into this secret war is our protagonist, the aptly named Henry Lamb. Henry is a file clerk at the Civil Service Archive Unit. Shortly after his grandfather falls into a sudden coma, strange things begin to happen in Henry's life--such as his work transfer to the Directorate and his new (and very welcome) relationship with his landlady. Slowly at first, but eventually with greater and greater understanding, Henry comes to realize that everything he knows about the world and even about himself is now called into doubt. It is all much stranger and scarier than he previously believed. Henry is writing his story for posterity from some point in the future. Right from the opening, Henry tells us that "time is now very short for me." About 100 pages in, suddenly the text becomes italicized, and a new narrator is telling a concurrent story. That is the story of the heir to the British throne, Prince Arthur Windsor. Arthur has his faults and weaknesses, and is being preyed upon by the mysterious Mr.Streater--a character with dialog so distinctive that I could literally hear his voice in my head. Arthur and Henry's stories fight for prominence through the rest of the novel, the struggle itself supposedly an indicator of Henry's eventual fate. The Domino Men is rife with foreshadowing, but Jonathan Barnes has done a masterful job with the novel's construction. As I read, realizations would come to me--I am sure--exactly when Barnes intended for each epiphany to happen. Suddenly the light-bulb would snap on and I'd understand something important. And time and time again I'd flip back in the book to see all the exactingly placed clues. They were all there. Sometimes when I finally "got it" everything would be so right and so obvious, but all revelations came in their own time. Aside from the well-timed epiphanies, there were more than a few twists that managed to take me completely by surprise. By the end, I was extremely satisfied with all the major questions having been wrapped up, while still leaving a bit of room for a sequel--though I really don't believe that one is necessary. On the subject of sequels, I had absolutely no clue The Domino Men was a sequel to The Somnambulist. I remembered being interested in reading The Somnambulist when it was first released, but I never got around to it. (I definitely will now.) The Domino Men was so deftly plotted however, that if I missed anything important by not reading the first book (set more than a century prior), it's not at all obvious to me. The book is well-written, in a distinctly British style. The vocabulary alone is a joy to read, and though some turn their noses down at genre fiction, the use of language here is quite wonderful. Many times I paused to linger over a turn of phrase or sentence. There is a lot of humor that buoys the story as well. My biggest criticism, and the reason for the loss of one star, is that I believe that the novel could have been shorter. It dragged a bit in the middle and through the end. I'd find myself very caught up in what certainly felt like a dénouement, and I'd find myself thinking, "There's another 150 pages? No, not possible!" The book was never boring, but I do think it could have been slightly condensed. I'm extremely grateful to have discovered this young author at this time. I am very much looking forward to now reading the first part of this tale, and will likewise be very interested in seeing where Mr. Barnes goes next. This novel is highly recommended for fans of Neil Gaiman and other writers of contemporary fantasy.
    • 4/5
      A tale of magic and conspiracy in contemporary London, The Domino Men reuses some characters from Barnes' first novel (The Insomnambulist) and makes the unreliable narrator device even more overt. It also shows none of the pacing problems found in that earlier book. A secret government department works to foil the covert wrongdoings of the royal family that stretch back over more than a century.