THE DARK NET

released 3 aUGUst

253 pages | Paperback/ebook

Author Benjamin Percy

Publisher Hodder & stoughton

The internet can be quite a scary place – and according to Benjamin Percy’s techno-horror novel we don’t know the half of it. The Dark Net blends ancient myth and a Satanic “End of Days” fable with ultra-modern paranoia as Percy delves into the teeming underside of the web – the parts of the net that aren’t searchable and which are largely concerned with conducting illegal activity. Think Mr Robot meets The Prophecy, with elements of Tron thrown in.

Spiralling down a dizzying rabbit hole, The Dark Net leads us from character to character, building a picture of a city (Portland, Oregon) on the verge of crisis. Lela is the journalist investigating the appearance of strange relics under a new building; Cheston is the amoral tech geek hosting servers for dodgy activity; Hannah is the blind teen who has been given sight via a headset; Mike is the homeless shelter owner with a dark past; while Sarin is an ageless being who possesses special powers.

Although it gets off to a bold start, latterly the novel falls into tech silliness as one of our heroes attempts to actually “go into” the internet. This makes the end of the novel a bit of a fail. But this is in no way a wasted journey. Packed with pacy prose and heaps of inventiveness, this is a fascinating fantasy set in a terrifying underworld that’s only a click away.