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Alex, being a careful and considerate author (as well as a goddam genius) has set out a list of the “unusual things” that readers can expect to encounter in Waterblack. I include it here for your delight: alifonjers who become angels alifonjers who have become angels reverting to being alifonjers again when the person who changed them into angels is severed from the weft an angelic army angels in such number that they boil the sea angels who stop being angels when the person who changed them into angels is severed from the weft art collaboration display sites artworks an assassin who tries to kill a baby, but who is prevented from doing it by the baby’s father Bachelor’s Walk, flooded a ball of dirt big enough to block out a sun best-laid plans going agley billions of infants that fall from the sky birthing sheds at a dog breeder’s premises Blakey’s a bomb that collapses intermediate realms into the material realm a bomb that doesn’t make a noise when detonated a bomb-barge a book that can read, write, and illustrate itself boundary stelae a boy trodden on by an alifonjer calf a boy who dies a thousand times or more a boy who has his nerves filleted a boy who kills an earlier version of himself a boy whose parents don’t love him a boy whose skull is cracked along the sagittal and metopic sutures a brothel madame carpets in a pyramid children raised communally children who kill each other either on purpose or by accident children’s toys in the likeness of firebirds a city drained of its solidity clothes that light up clothes that use boys’ optic nerves to broadcast images across their surfaces that render the wearer invisible the Collapse Zone convex lenses a demon mistaken for a pet a demon who evolves to bore through the earth a dog whose temper gets the better of him dogs who scare a man to death the Dying Mud an enormous descending cube enormous volumes of cold, dark water faecal and urinary scat a firebird with three legs some flat champagne flawed children floating platforms frozen dancers a ghost barking at the corpse of a dog a ghost of a man who goes on to successfully pretend he is the formerly living man a gill-man falling to a weight of pieces that would exceed his original weight a god killer gods caged in cubes gods fighting each other a governess who receives a cleaver thrown into her back a great number of dead cats, working as actuaries the Ha’penny Bridge, flooded a heart compressed into a locket a hex that prevents violence in a brothel a horse-faced man a knife so sharp it passes frictionlessly through any object a large amount of opium consumed gratefully a lorgnette that sees long distances and annotates the things it sees a machine that can read a book and point to instances where a word has been used a man called Black Bill because of his unwillingness to wash himself clean of dried blood a man who evolves in order to do the work he has set himself a man who tears out a woman’s heart a man whose body accommodates a tentacled fluke mechanical lungs that work through osmosis mention of Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait Merchant’s Arch, flooded millions of dragons of all sizes mobile concentrate platforms moribund dogs who sacrifice their lives to send a puppy to the future murders, repeatedly acted out a murmuration of dragons a nail factory a nail factory supervisor a nail factory undermanager an octagonal tower used as part of a house parents murdering their children pens designed to facilitate the murder of pigs a people called the Dumnonii people intending to win money by playing cards people killed for not listening attentively enough to the performance of a song people substituted with replicas of themselves people who are not as easy to kill as all that people who go out to dance together in the darkness people who have been killed, repeatedly living out the conditions of their death a person once accepted as a member of the tribe of the Albidosi a person who is unable to seize her godhood in time Phoenix Park, flooded a piece of chalk that creates portals a pirate who has sworn off drinking a plaza, flooded the poisoning of a man’s stash of opium a Portable One-way Quarantine a primitive language made through the cracking of a whip the privilege of losing one’s life in the summoning of demons Prophylactic Prism Powder a puppy who can tell the future with the help of ghosts a rack that anchors a weft-parasite in one spot realms that are repeated in the same place so often that reality begins to collapse realms that collapse into other realms a repetitive flashing light the resurrection of God the reverse rapture the River Life scenes from old books acted out in this one scenes from the past acted out in the present scenes the writer refuses to write, and that the reader shouldn’t wish to read several people who aren’t who they think they are a ship called the Serapis Christus some slavers a solicitous look that affects a war Solomon Peel, crushed by the pressure of water the sound of a heartbeat a spiral staircase made of crates, boxes, and other bits and pieces a substance called ‘quick-root’ that works like an amphetamine tens of pipe junctions all occupying the same space triangular-headed fluke piglets two brothers who father their own brother/son a variety of kitchen knives a whistle that summons a dragon god
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