King of the City
Michael Moorcock
421 pages
published in 2000

Billed as a sequel to Mother London though the only connection between the two is the city of London as centre stage. Whereas Mother London revolved around WW II and the Blitz, King of the City is more nineties orientated, though it does move back and forth in time from the fifties till "now". Also unlike Mother London, it also occasionaly moves away from London.

The core of the book is the realitionship between the main character, Dennis Dover, ex-rockstar turned paparazzi, his cousin Rosie whom he loved from childhood and their old childhood "friend" John Barbican Begg. All three grew up in Brookgate, but while Fenny became a rockstar/photog, Rosie became heavily involved in various global charity and direct action groups and Barbican became the most ruthless multimilliardair alive.

All this is told by Dennis in stream of consciousness ranting, jumping back in time from the death of Diana and following paparazzi backlash he is unfortunate enough to be caught, telling his lifestory in no particular order, but with much verve and energy.

To be honest, the plot is no great shakes and marred by a dieu ex machina ending and it's his ranting that's the main attraction of the book. It does mean that this is a very disjointed book and very in your face about it. I liked it, but it was tiring after a while. It's a pity the ending was so weak and so enforced happy, cause otherwise it would've been marvelously bleak and bitter.