David Mitchell: Number9dream

BY MICHELE HEWITSON

"Dead is dead. Why bother?" asks one of the strange characters who inhabit this nightmarish, funny and multilayered dash through Tokyo.

Number9dream takes a series of nightmares, throws them in a blender and pushes pulse.

It's manic in tone, surreal in execution. Eiji Miyake is on a quest. As his 20th birthday approaches he arrives in the city to find a father he has never known.

Vidboys, bioborgs, cheapskate bum jet-trash hackers, John Lennon, and organ harvesters pop up along the way, like characters in a fast-moving video game.

Some of them, the cyber equivalent of red herrings, are never seen again. Stylish good fun.

Spectre

$34.95