BONUS HALLOWEEN REVIEW: John Dies At the End by David Wong

John Dies at the End by David Wong

Permuted Press, 2007

Review: If you like gory horror with a twisted sense of humor stop reading now and order this book. Seriously. If you don’t like jokes about genitalia, feces, and any number of things that wouldn’t be considered acceptable in polite company than stay the hell away.Seriously. I have to wonder if something is wrong with for having enjoyed this book. Sure it doesn’t feature nearly the same level of disturbing imagery as Conrad William’s Unblemished (the amputee stuff in particular *shudder*) but still. Having spend just under twelve hours watching horror movies this weekend I realized that this book is endearing towards me because it is similar in tone to those great schlocky horror movies that persisted throughout the 70s and 80s

The plot centers around two guys, David and (the titular) John, who after an encounter with a crazy Jamacian named Robert Marley (get it?) get suckered into taking a reality altering drug called Soy Sauce and are forever changed. Soy Sauce reveals to the two the hidden horrors of our world (and others) that everyone else cannot see or percieve.

The story is narrated by David and pays homage to untrusty narrator of Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart.” David’s credability is further thrown into question by his partner John (a compulsive liar and general wacko) and the strange effects of Soy Sauce itself. All-in-all David’s dry wit adds a certain brevity to a story that, without it, might have wallowed too much in its own seriousness. The fact that David is also the actual name of the author serves the same purpose of Horace Walpole’s prefaced claims that The Castle of Otranto was based on an obscure italian manuscript.  This device allows the reader to get closer to the horror (Danielewski’s House of Leaves is another good, more modern, example of this technigque) through the attempt to ground fiction elements in our own reality.

Permuted Press is a small publisher so if you really want John Dies at the End you’ll have to either order from Amazon or BN.com (a local B&N could also special order it for you if you’re not down with the whole online thing). For the computer junkies out there Johndiesattheend.com is the place to go. The novel was originally an online thing (similar to Wellington’s Monster series) that is slowly being reposted (they’re up to Chapter 8 as of 11/1). If you’ve already read the book you can also go there to check out the sequel. John Dies at the End was a fun read, reminding of that first magic time I saw Hellraiser. Horror fans (film and fiction) should check it out now.

Final Grade: A

Review: Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds

Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds

Ace, 2000

Review:
When reading sci-fi I find I gravitate towards stories with that feature humans (or something resembling a human) explore/discover the remnants of a dead advanced civilisation. The Martian elements of Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels are an excellent example (Broken Angels and Woken Furies in particular). This aspect of my reading habbit is what initially drew me to Revelation Space and, while the discorvery of ancient alien mysteries plays a part in the unfolding story, it is in the end eclipsed by the rather expansive nature of Reynold’s tale. The plot revolves around Dan Sylveste’s quest to discover the reason why an ancient alien species was wiped out completely, at the same time we get a starship’s quest to save it’s dying captain, an assassin lurking in the shadows, and potentially murderous synthetic lifeforms.

The novel gets off to a rather slow start and I found my interest hindered by the constant shifts between Sylveste, Triumvir Volyova, and Ana Khouri. The initial introduction to each didn’t seem to linger long enough to generate any major interest; at least in terms of plot. All three characters are well drawn, given enough eccentricity to draw them away from genre cliche, and situated in three interesting and diverse worlds. And while each of the settings used for these characters are interesting their geographic isolation from one another really stalls the plot and, unfortunatley, it isn’t until about halfway through the book that these three worlds converge and the action heats up.

While I found the Revelation space enjoyable it was not by any means a page-turner and I felt the Reynold’s writing wasn’t quite up to generating the level of supsense necessary to keep readers coming back for more. At the same time I can’t really fault his writing and I found that I really did enjoy his work. There are elements of the story that set my imagination running in particular the massive ship Nostalgia for Infinity could probably be the subject of a whole book itself. Reynolds did an excellent job of conjuring the mystery and hidden history of the ship enough so that I wish it had played a more central role in the plot.

Desipte the novel’s shortcomings I think it was a worthy read, especially for someone relatively new to the science fiction genre (I’m a fantasy fan mostly) looking to explore the genre. It serves as an excellent contrast to the more adventure/action heavy science fiction of Bujold (Miles Vorkosgian) and Weber (Honor Harrington). Revelation Space touches on some interesting themes, most notably the cost of science. Some of the elements in the story touch on the divide between cyberpunk and postcyberpunk fiction in particular when discussing the nature of humanity. Overall a recommended read.

Final Grade: B-