Richard Brautigan - Revenge of the Lawn
62 small tales of giant stature take root in fertile soil and bloom.
Richard Brautigan - The Hawkline Monster
I love Brautigan. I read his In Watermelon Sugar way back in my stoned youth and loved the unrepentant hippie utopianism of it. Trout Fishing in America (probably his most famous) came next and was also wonderful but in a more poetical Beat manner. The Hawkline Monster is on the surface a more straightforward novel where two killers are hired by Miss Hawkline to kill the monster that lives in the caves under the house. Such a mundane plot was never going to satisfy Brautigan though and things soon take a side-step. For me though it's the gracefulness and the dance of his prose that is the real joy.
Eddie Campbell - The Fate of the Artist
(First Second)
Between 1988 and 1993 I worked in a comic shop. 4 days a week surrounded by garish depictions of overly muscled costumed superheroes. Comics were having one of their periodic resurgences and there were lots of very good writers and artists crashing through into the mainstream or at least as close to the mainstream as they were comfortable getting. British writers and artists were leading the pack - Alan Moore (Swamp Thing), Neil Gaiman (Sandman), Jamie Delano & John Ridgeway (Hellblazer), Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol), Brian Talbot (Luther Arkwright) and many more were amongst our biggest sellers. Most were still pursuing the American idea of comics of the fantastical and the amazing but they were doing it really well so that was cool. In amongst all this horror and violence I one day chanced upon a graphic novel that was to move my reading habits permanently, it seems, to the slightly left of centre - for which I am eternally grateful. It was called 'The Complete Alec' and was written and drawn by Eddie Campbell. Within it's sketchily drawn black and white pages were stories of love, loss, birth, death, childhood, adulthood, sex, incontinence, holidays, work, alcohol, philosophy and most of all the realities of friendship. 17 years later I still have my copy it gets reread every year or so. and it still makes me laugh and sigh in equal measures.
When I left the comic shop I parted company with comics - they were getting really bad by this point - and so fell out of touch with what was going on. Now and again curiosity would drag me into a comic shop. If I saw that beautiful scratchy art I would always buy it and so I had read some of Campbell's work since - the most famous being 'From Hell' - it's all been good, some of it very good ('The Cheque Mate!') but nothing has come close to replicating that original impact. Until, that is, I read 'The Fate of the Artist.' A detective story without a detective. The story of a missing person who is present throughout. An analysis of one man's life and it's impact on those around him. A peak behind the curtain and a dissection of fears, foibles, fantasies and family. As a narrative it's exemplary, as a piece of art it's sublime. A truly stunning read that doesn't so much demand your attention as deserve it.
Warren Ellis & Various Artists - Global Frequency: Planet Ablaze & Detonation Radio
Two graphic novels, by writer Warren Ellis and featuring some of the most distinctive artists in comics, based around the exploits of the Global Frequency rescue organisation. Think Thunderbirds for the X-Files generation and you're there. This isn't Ellis at his best (for that see Transmetropolitan) but it is a thoroughly enjoyable romp through the black-ops conspiracy nuts handook that manages to combine magick, le parkour, an alien 'meme' virus, biofeedback and bionics. As always it's deftly-handled and it really is a fun read but none of the stories really grabbed me as much as some of his other work. I was never much of a fan of Thunderbirds or the X-Files.
In tone these reminded me of a book by James Sallis that I reviewed (previously) called 'Death Will Have Your Eyes' - if you've not read this by the way then do, you won't regret it. Plot and conceptually it's nothing like it but it did have a similar vibe. Where the absolute joy of these volumes lie is in the decision to use a different, top, artist for each issue. Glenn Fabry, Steve Dillon, Simon Bisley, (the wonderful) David Lloyd and several others all contribute their distinctive styles to the proceedings giving each seperate story it's own unique visual identity.
John Geiger - Chapel of Extreme Experience
Soft Skull Press
subtitled 'A short history of stroboscopic light and the dream machine'. John Geiger's fascinating and informative history of the use of flicker in scientific and visionary research traces this phenomenon from the first recorded observations in 1823 by Jan E. Purkinje through psychedelic and hallucinogenic research of the middle of the century up to the work of the triumverate of Brion Gysin, William Burroughs and Ian Sommerville and onto recent(ish) flicker related incidents with the Pokemon cartoon. The focus of the book lies with the above three psychonauts and their use and development of flicker and in particular their 'Dream Machine'.
Geigers fascinating book offers an insight into an overlooked part of the legacy Gysin, the very marginal Sommerville (even though it was he who designed and built it) and Burroughs have left us. The 'dream machine' was very much Gysin's baby and so it's through him that the tale unfolds chronicling his many attempts to popularise and commercially exploit the machine although frequent sidetrips are made to check in on those researchers in the field whose circle wasn't quite so hip, such as W. Grey Walter and John Smythies and then over time to include other avant-artists like Tony Conrad and Genesis P.Orridge. Within this book Geiger has achieved that most difficult of balances, that of the scientific and the artistic. Neither side of the research is neglected, an impressive feat in a book so short, and indeed it is stressed how interlinked they were. A case of marginal figures within each of their respective disciplines finding kindred spirits outside of those disciplines. Geiger has produced what is an enjoyable, if slightly dry, read that in years to come, when the rest of the world catches up with the ideas of the book's core-figures, will be regarded as essential reading.
(www.softskull.com)
William Gibson and Bruce Sterling - The Difference Engine
Gosh! So very good. Never read any Sterling before but I'm a long time fan of Gibson. This, their collaborative steampunk novel (probably more correctly described as inter-connected novellas) was an absolute corker from start to almost finish. The picture they paint of a London (indeed a world) changed before it's time by the genius of Charles Babbage is simply awe-inspiring. You can taste the smog and feel the starched collars.
At it's heart there is a relatively straight forward spy vs revolutionary storyline but orbiting this is a bewildering array of subplots and narratives that occasionally impact upon the main in ways that are not always immediately apparent but it is the world they have created for their tale that is the real delight here.
Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima - Samurai Executioner vols 1-10
(Dark Horse Comics)
Having completed it's mammoth task of publishing the entire 28 volume run of 'Lone Wolf & Cub' (incidentally the single greatest piece of storytelling in the history of words and I don't care if you disagree because you're wrong). Dark Horse Comics turns it's attention to the precursor to that work, the story of Asaemon, the decapitator of prisoners and tester of the shogun's swords. As anyone who has read LW&C would expect this is a beautifully researched and realised excursion into the world of Edo period Japan. Koike's painstaking research, flawless characterisation and monolithic plot building mix seamlessly with the power and clarity of Kojima's lines to enable the reader to feel, to smell, to hear, to taste and to touch, and be touched by, the stories. The one flaw to this series lies in the fact that unlike LW&C there is no over-arching storyline to power it along, instead we simply have a collection of loosely related storylines that are simply wonderful to read.
(www.darkhorse.com)
Jason Lutes - Jar of Fools
Story about a conjuror on the verge of a breakdown, his senile mentor, estranged girlfriend and the homeless father and daughter con artists they befriend. It's a brave attempt at a Harry Crews style cavalcade of freaks style story that almost succeeds. It's let down only by the slightly contrived and rushed feel to the ending. the art is clean, clear and concise. Not my preferred style (i like a more scratchy look to my art (Eddie Campbell is the man as far as I'm concerned)) but it flows nicely and suits the tale very much. A good read and one that I think warrants a re-read but probably not for a while.
George Mann - The Osiris Ritual
The second of his Newbury & Hobbes Steampunk mysteries. I thought the first (The Affinity Bridge) was a fun, if a little flawed, romp through a fog-ridden london that mixed zombies, robots and airships into an entertaining neo-victorian thriller. It's recommended for those looking for a more than satisfyingly pulp steampunk fix.
this second one wasn't as good as it's predecessor. The plot was a little rushed and lacked grandeur and scope but mostly i think he sacrificed too much of the world-building that was so well done in the first. I heartily approved of how naturalistic he allows the newly emerging technology to feel but half the joy (for me at least) of this sort of genre fiction lies in how the author interweaves technology and the subsequent cultural and societal changes into the narrative. i felt like i didn't learn anything new about the universe he's created and without that it may as well have been set (to an extent) in our own victorian era.
That said though, Mann has an engaging style and the book was a fun, fast-paced read with a third volume still to come.
Richard Mattheson - I am Legend
(Gollancz)
I've wanted to read this novel for years. For those that don't know, it was filmed as 'The Omega Man' starring, that well known humanitarian, Charlton Heston. The basic premise of this book is that the worlds population has been turned into vampires (zombies in the movie) with the exception of one, lone, increasingly deranged / lonely / drunk man. Unlike the movies' sanitised 'military man searching for a cure' premise the book's is a tale of an everyman trapped not only inside the walls of his, fortress like, home where he sits and drinks himself unconscious every night raging against his memories and desires, but also of a man trapped by his own fears and ignorance. With this truly unique take on the vampire genre Mattheson takes us on a ride that is compelling and thrilling, culminating in a finale that's as unexpected as it is breathtaking.
Hope Mirrlees - Lud-In-The-Mist
This turned out to be a proper windbag of a novel. Endlessly impressed by it's own intelligence without ever really putting that intelligence to work in a meaningful way. By the halfway point i found myself referring to it as Lud-In-The-Mud as a result of the effort involved in wading through the sticky morass of the authors prose. I think there was a pretty nifty little tale in there somewhere but her writing style was distinctly lacking in any sort of wit or melody and as such it never ceased being an effort to keep my attention on the page.
Michael Moorcock - The Warlord of the Air
Fantastic. It's been a while since i enjoyed anything quite so much. Barstable (the protagonist) is a slightly dim man with a moral compass that points straight ahead. Moorcock takes him on a journey to the heart of his misconceptions regarding the steam-driven 'utopia' he has found himself in in a way that is realistic, believable and wonderously fantastical.
Michael Moorcock - The Land Leviathan
The second in his oswald bastable steampunk series was, whilst not being the airship and anarchist laden romp of the first (The Warlord of the Air), still a fine way to spend the day. This one spent more time on world building than on plot development which made for a nice gear change but i'm hoping the third will be a combination of the two.
James Sallis - Death Will Have Your Eyes
(No Exit Press)
I can probably count the number of spy novels I've ever read on the fingers of one hand. In fact, I can probably count the number of spy novels I've read on the index finger of one hand. I know nothing about them except exploding pens, ejector seats and butlers with killer-frisbee bowler hats. To be fair, to both myself and the genre, the tagline of this book is, 'A novel about spies', not '...about spying' you notice. This is a very important distinction. Sallis' book is primarily about the people not the situations they find themselves in. The protagonist, David, is a re-activated sleeper agent fighting against the comfort of his current life and the demands and duties his former life is now making of him. James Bond this isn't. David is an utterly human character. Sure, he can do 'spy' type things but that really isn't the point here, the point is what's happening inside his head more than outside it. Sallis cut his teeth writing science fiction in the 1960's for 'New Worlds' magazine but is deservedly noted for his 4 (to my knowledge) Lew Griffin pulp-noir novels.. Evidence of both of these can be found here. His theories on spying (given voice here by David's memories of his training) are pure sci fi (so much so they're probably true) whereas his noir roots show in a writing style that is slow and meandering through a plot that is airtight and beautifully paced, peopled with characters that you become genuinely fond of.
(www.noexit.co.uk)
