Hello all, I'm new to the group and this thread seems like a
good place to jump in.
A brief introduction - My name is Neddal, I'm from St.
John's, NL, and I write and make noise.
Recent reads -
"Game" by Conrad Williams. I'm not sure if this novella is
typical of Williams' writing as I've not read his novels or
his short story collection (all SF/horror). The novella is
set in and around a slightly off-kilter version of London.
The plot revolves around a chance encounter gone bad, a
sadistic gangster, a scam involving bad meat, and a woman who
is an "arrester."
(One of a group of people who catch glimpses of the future.
Problem - The visions cause them to "arrest" or black out
and, uh, loose things...I can't go much more detail than that
w/o blowing part of the plot.) It's a great, quick read. I
hope Williams does more crime fiction soon.
"Brotherhood of Mutilation" by Brian Evenson Evenson is
another horror-writer-by-day exploring noir. This
chapbook
(published by the same press as the Williams book, Earthling
Publications <http://www.earthlingpub.com>)
is pretty bleak. The story centres around a detective who's
lost a hand in the course of an investigation. As the story
opens, he's drowing in self-pity when he's approached by two
men who believe that he's uniquely qualified to work their
case. Things get real nasty, real quick. It's shot through
with a particularly dark sense of black humour that balances
the bleakness. As with the Williams, it's a quick read.
"Altered Carbon" by Richard Morgan by Richard Morgan It's
been getting a lot of hype in the SF community. It won the
PKD award and has been optioned by Warner Bros. (I believe.)
It's set in a future where people can store their
personalities on a database and if killed, seriously injured
can download themselves into new bodies or
"sleeves." I'm not sure what I was expecting going in, but I
was a bit disappointed. Morgan has some great ideas, but the
execution is sloppy and it comes off as a Gibson/Ellroy/PKD
pastiche. Granted it's extremely well-done, is a fun read,
and in the right hands will make a hell of a movie, but I
expect more from a book that's supposed to be
"mind-blowing."
Nice to meet you all.
Cheers,
-Neddal
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