The cover blurb for Sixty-One Nails, by Mike Shevdon, touts it as "A Neverwhere for the next generation" (C.E. Murphy). As Neverwhere was the first book I read of Neil Gaiman's (which made me an instant fan), I was snagged by this high praise--though I did have the niggling fear that Sixty-One Nails would be content to sit in Neverwhere's shadow and not speak up for itself.
If there are any big similarities, it's in the fact that a lot of the action in both books takes place in London's Underground system, and with similar premises about a chap getting sucked into a netherworld that exists around the corner from ours. I did find it refreshing, however, that this new guy, Niall Peterson, is much more proactive and aggressive than Neverwhere's Richard Mayhew, who seems to bumble around in a daze for most of the story, letting things happen to him and trying not to be killed. In Sixty-One Nails, Niall is determined to take action as soon as things get weird. He's driven to learn what's necessary to survive, and also protect those he cares for.
There are a number of story elements that could come off as cliche if handled by a lesser-skilled author. A few examples of these are (slightly spoilery):
1. The main character discovering he's "special" and has all these magical powers out of the blue.
2. The use of a prophetic vision to give the story its kick-start, rather than the characters discovering the main threat on their own.
3. Fairies. (Nothing personal against Fairies, Fae, Fey, Feyre, or however you want to spell it--but I'm always a little leery of stories that dip into this particular bucket of mythology.)
Fortunately, Shevdon does a great job of weaving these elements together along with a strong protagonist and a beautiful-yet-deadly fantasy world. His spin on familiar mythology is unique enough to keep you wanting to learn more. Sixty-One Nails' London is fun to explore, and that is more of what the story seems to be. An exploration. While the main plot moves along well, with characters struggling to survive and figure out how to solve various problems flung in their faces, the overall pace is liesurely. Even with the various fights and deadly magics being flung about, I came away from this read feeling like I'd taken a stroll through Mike Shevdon's imagination. Is this bad? Not at all, because it's a great place to visit and poke around. But if you go in expecting high fantasy adventure, you might be disappointed.
The one thing I felt came up a little short was the antagonist(s). They aren't nearly as fleshed out as the protagonists, and you don't really see much of them until right at the climactic showdown. Until then, they present a more ephemeral threat and background tension, lurking in the shadows, dispensing vague threats and occasionally jumping out and saying "Boo!" to spur the protagonists to run to the next bit of scenery or to provide the motivation for Niall to learn a new magical skill to deal with the threat.
The main plot grounds itself in some real history, so you get a lot of fantastical twists to familiar locations and events, which is always enjoyable. Nothing is as it seems in this world--even your closest friend or lover could be hiding their true identity.
Sixty-One Nails isn't going to reinvent the genre of urban fantasy, but it does provide a fun and imaginative adventure and introduces many characters I'd love to see more of. It is out now in the UK, and can be ordered through the UK Amazon or Angry Robot Books. Otherwise it will be released in the US next spring. In the meantime, check out Mike Shevdon's blog, where he provides tours of locations written about in the book.
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