are doing all the taking. The story of Jack Randall: burnt-out dropped out and way overdrawn at the luck bank. But as caretaker on a Spares Farm he still has a choice and it might make a difference.
surroundings. Then there's Red close by: if you want to see a tactical nuclear battle recreated as a sales demonstration. Stark has friends in Red which is just as well because something is about to happen.
breakout novel. Hap Thompson has finally found something he can do better than anyone else. And it's legal. Almost. Hap's a REMtemp working the night hours having people's anxiety dreams for them. For the first time in his life Hap's making big money -- and that should have been enough. But then Hap is made an offer he just can't refuse: proxying memories instead of dreams. This is not almost illegal -- this is illegal in bold with flashing lights. The last thing the cops want are criminals who can pass lie detector tests and Hap knows it but he's relying on the promise that he won't have to carry anything that relates to a criminal offence. Big mistake. Before he knows what's happening Hap is locked in a vicious nightmare that threatens to tear his mind and his life apart...And as in all Michael Marshall Smith novels that is just the start.
first piece of fiction Smith ever wrote -- a short story called The Man Who Drew Cats -- won the World Fantasy award. It's included here along with many others some unpublished which show the incredible versatility of one of the most exciting writers working in Britain today. The collection is stuffed with surreal disturbing gems including: 'When God Lived in Kentish Town' Someone comes up to you when you're quietly eating your stir-fried rice in a great Chinese take away and tells you: 'I've found God'. You try to ignore them right? But what if they have and what if He works in a drab old electrical store on Kentish Town Road and he's not getting many customers? 'Diet Hell' Some people will do anything to fit into their old jeans. 'Save As...' What if you could back up your life? Save it up to a certain point and return to it when things went horribly wrong? 'Everybody Goes' An idyllic childhood day from a long hot summer. The kind you want to last for ever. All good things must come to an end mustn't they?
the genre aspects of their books to grant them more mainstream credibility. This resentment is fair enough, in that no one need be ashamed of creating a top-notch SF novel. But these readers will be doing themselves a great disservice if they do not pick up Michael Marshall Smith's superb collection of short storiesWhat You Make Itmerely because the jacket has been designed to suggest mainstream fiction without the slightest SF association.Smith has always been one of the most quirkily inventive and surprising of writers, with novels such asOnly Forwardand the remarkableSparesdemonstrating an imaginative grasp all too rarely encountered these days. But his greatest achievement is his totally individual use of language and dialogue, and this highly diverse collection has 17 brilliant microcosms of his style. From terror in cyberspace to bizarre fusions of man and machine, through twisted manifestations of the artistic impulse to highly disturbing future sex, Smith has the measure of it all. And his gift for the bizarre image remains as acute as ever:About a week afterwards, I noticed that my back was looking a little hairy. I figured, what the hey, maybe some hormonal thing. Then it started getting harder to hold things. My thumb seemed to be going a little weird, not as opposable as it used to be. There were a couple of days when it looked like there was some kind of tail deal developing.--Barry Forshaw
notable for the sunniness of their disposition--even when his heroes are escaping hitmen, or clones are being dismembered for their bits, there is a basic good humour to the proceedings. This collection of his short stories, most of them from early in his career, reminds us that he made his name with tales of gloom and terror, a key figure in the New British Horror of the late 80s. What unites these stories with his later work is his capacity for poetic surrealism based on naive literalism. Take 'The Dark Land', for example, whose protagonist finds himself trapped in a house whose furniture constantly regresses to the 50s and whose kitchen constantly becomes squalid, unless he opens the front door and lets progress in. His horror stories have a nightmarish capacity for simple ideas taken to logical conclusions--the hero of 'More Later' checks a porno Web site in an idle moment and gets considerably more than he bargained for. For anyone with a taste for the bleak and the macabre, this is an impressivelyliterate collection of short stories. --Roz Kaveney
...This is an enthralling read, part crime, part horror, but overall compelling fiction.
The story concerns a missing child and a man's mysterious past. The story develops quickly and you are soon drawn into the plot. The plot is well paced and the drama unfolds at a good level.
The characters are immediate and very real, they have real depth and their actions are all thoughtfully proposed and written, their actions and speech are all essentially very natural and go well with their each individual personalities. They are also likeable and you will be rooting for the hero to the very last page.
As the book develops and the plot gathers pace, the drama gets very exciting and I could not turn the pages fast enough to satisfy my desire to reach the conclusion.
If you have read any MichaelMarshallSmith books before you should enjoy...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Advantages: Exciting, original and written in a fantastic style! Disadvantages: NONE!!
...and horrific things that shock both the reader and Stark!
The book is quite jumpy going from one world to another but still is an easy read, it only makes the book more exciting.
Stark, the narrator keeps us hanging by our toes as despite living in a futuristic world he is just like us, in particular forgetful. He forgets critical things which could change the entire course of the novel, it only adds more supsense!
Like any MichaelMarshallSmith book the story isn't all it seems its more!...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Intelligent and deeply involving Disadvantages: none
...about a man working in a 'farm' of human clones. The clones are of wealthy people who keep a copy of themselves spare incase they ae involved in an accident and need a replacement body part that wont be rejected. The spares are kept in appaling conditions with absolutely no stimulation. The main character Jack Randall, with the help of a defective droid embark on a program to educate and enlighten them, but they are forced to escape the farm and are dragged into a violent revenge attack from Jack's sureal past.
Upon finishing this book, one of my ambitions in life became meeting MichaelMarshalSmith and congratulating him on penning such a fantastic work!...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
somewhat helpful 28.02.2003
(11.03.2003)
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