As suggested to me by Trav, I picked up Only Forward from the local library and gave it a whirl.

Very briefly, the story revolves around a guy in the future who has to find someone who’s been kidnapped. The interesting thing about the city in which he lives is that it’s divided into “Neighbourhoods” (it’s spelled correctly, by the way; the author’s British). Each Neighbourhood is like a small, self-contained city focused on one specific thing. “Sound”, for instance, is completely devoid of sound; no one is allowed to make noise except for one hour a day. “Colour” has walls that change colour to compliment whatever gaudy outfit you’re wearing; again, it has an hour a day where everything’s black.

There is a major change to the story around halfway through the book when it begins to focus in the character’s adventures in “Jeamland” (a dream land) which I didn’t find as compelling as the first half — I kept wanting the story to switch back to the city, which I found more engaging.

The way in which the story is told is great, however. It’s told as if you were sitting at a bar with the guy telling you the story in a casual manner.

Ultimately, I found the big switch to be a bit of a letdown. I think there was probably enough ideas, imagination and storytelling that it could have been two separate novels. In the end, I still enjoyed it but can only think of what may have been.

Next up is Jack Faust, which is based on the German Faust tale; there are a lot of works based on Faust and this one sounds interesting. I also have One of Us up next, which is by the same author as Only Forward.