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What's New
Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| Steve Aylett |
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 Our
Ranking Let's just start off by saying this
one is not for everyone. In fact, a bit of the way through it I was thinking to
myself that it wasn't for me either. Then, somehow, I just found myself hooked
in, unable to put it down, and maybe 50 pages later I was sitting there nodding,
saying "Oh yeah. This is for me." As you might have guessed from the title this
one is horribly violent. And it's not the violence that is the worst, but more
of the level of casualness in which the violence is executed. It is basically
set in a world where killing, murder and mayhem have become so common that it's
become cliche. At one point in the novel Aylett mentions casually that when the
junk yard for the dead had reached 15 stories, they decided to build a ski jump
onto it. To relieve themselves from the common drudgery of murder, the citizens
of this world strive to create more artistic, unique and eloquent ways of slaughtering,
leaving the basic routs and massacres to the police and military. Throughout the
book a wide array of very bizarre weaponry is described and used, most of it just
to add a little spice to the kill. Every character is more or less a stone throw
from death, it is more a matter of how they will die than if. All of the characters
are actually quite unique and well done but they do take some getting used to.
This more than anything (well this along with some of the writing style) is what
took so long for me to warm up to it. Each of the characters is very dark, grim,
mostly sarcastic and nearly all have a very off the wall philosophy on life which
acts as their chief motivation. This takes a bit to understand, especially when
couple with Aylett's writing style. The best way for me to describe the writing
is off the hip. He just seems to be writing in a groove firing sometimes seemingly
at random. Quips of philosophy or just general comments about the world the story
is based on are thrown in seemingly at random throughout the main story line.
At the beginning, there are so many my head was spinning and it seemed like they
were drowning out the plot. Towards the middle they seemed to cool off (either
that or I just got used to them) and the story really took over. This is about
the point I found myself surprised at how much I was into this, and really couldn't
put it down. The characters and the tale, while violent and sarcastic is very
entertaining, truly drawing you in to see where it will go. Also Aylett's wit
really stands out throughout the story. Some of the biting sarcastic one-liners
in here are classics and will leave you chuckling. This book is certainly not
for everyone, but if you are a fan of things a bit more on the darker or sarcastic
side I think you'll enjoy it. In a way it is a bit like a very accelerated Snow
Crash. Maybe more like Snow Crash on acid, laced with something stronger. If you
do pick this up, do yourself a favor and stick with it for the first 40 pages
or so. I think once you get past that it's clear sailing to a terrific book. |
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 Our
Ranking And I thought Slaughtermatic was a tough
one to read. Let me just start with a warning that I wound up not even finishing
this book. Before going into that though, let's start off with the positives.
First off, without a doubt, Aylett is an incredible writer. His imagination, wit
and sense of the one-liner are way up there in a rare class of writers. What's
weird (and I saw another reviewer write this and I have to agree) it is as if
Aylett writes these stories one sentence at a time. And I don't mean the literal
one sentence after the other. I mean that each sentence seems to have it's own
life, and hits you as the reader like a brick. Whether it be a brutal sarcastic
one liner or a vivid image of destruction, or just a surreal observation, there
are no wasted lines in an Aylett novel. Now, in Slaughtermatic this was done beautiful.
The lines, as powerful as they were, connected and flowed through an amazing story
and world of Aylett's creation. It took a little to get used to, but once you
did the story was outstanding. In the Inflatable Volunteer, it just didn't happen.
While each line was as powerful and surreal and witty as those in Slaughtermatic,
they just didn't connect. The story never seemed to surface. In essence this became
just a series of completely not interconnected sentences. Sometimes there would
be a hint of a plot, for about a paragraph or two, and then suddenly it was gone.
To complicate matters even worse, the story was told from a first person perspective,
and a lot of it was described in dialogue. Basically, you were left trying to
piece together what had occurred by reading in between the lines of the spoken
words between the characters. When a line read "Put that down" (and nothing in
here was even remotely that simply) you were left to figure out that a character
had picked up a baseball bat. To even further make this more confusing, the character
who told the story was insane and was impossible to decipher. I basically made
it through about 70 pages of this short novel and just had to put it down. I was
getting nothing out of it except sound bites of writing abilities with nothing
holding it together. I hate not finishing books but this becomes only the third
other book I've ever done it to. (along with Gibson's The Difference Engine and
Hubbard's Mission Earth) I will probably try to go back at this though just because
he is so incredibly talented and maybe I'm missing it somehow and it's not the
book. If you are new to Aylett though, start off with Slaughtermatic. This may
be one we need to grow into. |
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 Our
Ranking I am the one
writing this review. It's been a little over a year since I last read an Aylett
story, and well, if you read the review of The Inflatable Volunteer, you'll know
it wasn't my best reading experience. However, after enjoying Slaughtermatic so
much, I knew I had to give Aylett another try so I picked up Atom. I'm glad I
did. Atom, is certainly a bit more like Slaughtermatic in that there is a plot
(it's a loose one, but a plot nonetheless). It takes place in the now familiar,
incredibly violent Beerlight; a city that you consider yourself lucky if you manage
to live through the day. The story is centered around the main character, Atom,
who is somewhat of a detective. Atom has been pulled into a caper involving the
recovery of the frozen brain of Kafka which apparently if used correctly, has
some pretty amazing abilities. As you can expect from Aylett, this is about as
normal as the story goes. From here, the real twists begin. One of the things
I enjoyed about this one, was that like Slaughtermatic, you could really relate
a bit with the characters. Atom was extremely mysterious and bizarre, but at least
he was consistent. The gangsters that are double, triple and quadruple crossing
each other, also were well written and pretty diverse. (If you read the book,
you'll understand the first line of the review is from one of the funnier gangsters)
Aylett even brought back an old favorite from Slaughtermatic, Blince the police
chief who is just as violent and vaguely thoughtful as in his last appearance.
However, the character that really stole the book was Atom's talking pet/bodyguard
piranha, Jed. There is one scene in particular involving Jed playing the piano
that literally had me rolling I was laughing so hard. Atom once more showcases
Aylett's amazing ability to twist the English language onto its head and then
spit out some of the most surreal, witty and intuitive metaphors on either side
of the Atlantic. Some of the one liner's in here will leave you utterly confused
while others will have you shaking your head in wonder. It really is somewhat
of an artform that Aylett possesses, and from what I read, he is the unquestionable
master at it. Overall, I still prefer Slaughtermatic over Atom, but this was still
an enjoyable book to read. At times, it did get a bit convoluted and tough to
follow, but no where near the level the Inflatable Volunteer dragged you to. If
you're new to Aylett, this isn't a bad book to start with, but prepare for a rough
ride. Aylett is not an author you can read only half paying attention. |
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 Our
Ranking I really don't know what it is about Aylett,
but I always grab one of his books with a slight sense of intimidation. One reason
certainly is that these aren't books you can read casually. By page 2 you are
already engulfed in a sea of metaphors that are as twisted as they are colorful.
Another reason is maybe the dialogue which is less speaking and more poetry, the
characters dancing around the actual message itself. Or maybe it's just because
I've been burnt once, but I do try to avoid being that gun shy. No matter how
you cut it though, one thing is obvious when it comes to reading Aylett: he is
not someone you can just read casually. You need to focus on his stories, taking
in everything in order to get a semblance of what is going on. Shamanspace turns
out to be no different. Where Shamanspace is a little different (not much, but
a little) is that it is probably the most developed and well, consistent, plot
I've read by Aylett so far. Not that being consistent makes it any less out there.
Shamanspace is essentially about a group of assassins who in what is a pretty
amazing opening scene, discover the way to get at God and finally complete their
mission of destroying Him. These assassins are able to rip through dimensions
(I personally think these "dimensions" are actually levels of cyberspace, but
might be wrong) God doesn't seem able to get at and therefore get a jump on Him.
Aylett dives into some very heavy philosophical arguments with this one. At the
base of the entire plot is whether the world will cease to exist once God is destroyed
or whether it will continue on. Obviously some folks that think the world will
be wiped out attempt to stop Alix, the main assassin chartered with completing
the mission. Alix's character is cocky, headstrong and also the antagonist of
a lot of the philosophic debates that are just slightly buried beneath the metaphorical
writings. Overall, this is a very good book. It is very intriguing and certainly
left me thinking after a very well written conclusion. The whole God plot reminded
me a little of Phillip K Dick's Divine Invasion, but this was certainly much more
modern. This is also an amazingly quick read. Only about 100 or so pages and with
a pretty big font size to boot. Only took me about 2 hours to finish it up. If
you're an Aytlett fan, give this a read. And also, as a little fyi, if you're
a Radiohead fan, Amnesiac was the perfect mood setter for this one. Had it on
repeat the full reading. |
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