Momenticon by Andrew Caldecott

(Joe Fletcher Books, 2022)

Reviewed by Susan Peak

Andrew Caldecott, who is a barrister as well as a writer, published Rotherweird in 2017. This book, a mixture of historical fiction (1558) and a modern setting (the village of Rotherweird), depicted twelve strangely gifted children and the deliberately isolated place in which they and a small number of other people lived. Two characters, whom the story follows, want to reveal its secrets.

That book was the first of a trilogy, and now Caldecott has written Momenticon, a separate book. It is similar in style, both in terms of Caldecott’s writing, and in terms of the strange location and people.

Rotherweird reminded many readers of Gormenghast—a complex and fantastical place with odd people carrying out incomprehensible rituals. It also had echoes of The Prisoner TV series, with one of the outsiders, a teacher, trying to find out about the place and about what happened to his predecessor.

These themes recur to some extent in Momenticon, but here the similarity is with the Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland books, and this is both strong and explicit. One form of character in this book is constructs, for example: the Mad Hatter, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. These, however, seem to exist more as proof of a concept than as agents since little use is made of them.

Unlike in Rotherweird, it’s quite hard to work out what is going on, certainly in the early chapters, and the backstory is at best sketched in. The setting appears to be post-apocalyptic—the ‘Fall’ is referred to—but it’s unclear precisely how this happened, or how the (apparently) remaining three locations exist. One is a museum—another isolated and mysterious place, where the story starts—and the other two are towns, each run by a Lord: Vane and Sine. They have different visions for humanity’s future but have collaborated; it’s unclear how the vision of either would actually be affected. It’s also possible that one of them caused, or contributed to, the Fall which led to this setting. None of the narrators appear particularly reliable, so the backstory and context do remain vague. But this does have the effect of focusing attention on the immediate story, foregrounding it. It very much has the arbitrary and rather hallucinogenic atmosphere of the Alice in Wonderland books.

The story is also initially confusing, especially in the early chapters, as Alice tries to adjust to her new surroundings. No explanations are given, we are dropped straight into the story. She is an innocent there, and there are two other innocents here: Fogg and Morag.

The book is very plot-driven, and events can seem arbitrary. Other characters are also either manipulating Fogg and Morag, or at the least having multiple agendas around them. Very few of the characters are likeable, although they can be interesting; this makes it hard to care about any of them. The Fall, for example, has Biblical echoes, perhaps of the evil apparently done by one of the Lords, or it could even refer to Alice’s fall down the rabbit-hole. Or both. It’s that kind of a book.

Momenticon ends on a scene that clearly leads into the next book, but it is not a cliff-hanger (Momenticon has been written as a duology, and the second book, Simul, is mentioned but with no publication date). However, it’s really not clear if there is enough of substance for another book; it’s hard to see what it would be about, and therefore a sequel/second part seems of little interest.

In brief, if you like the Alice in Wonderland books, you may very well like this one; just expect the weirdness to be considerably cranked up if you have read Caldecott’s earlier books.

Review from BSFA Review 18 - Download your copy here.