Nate
Brian Evenson at his best is a transcendental blend of Lynch and Kafka by way of Ligotti, and there's a lot of that in this book (A Report, A Collapse of Horses, Seaside Town, Scour, Past Reno (best IMO), Click), but for every ‘A Report', there's a BearHeart(tm), and the collection suffers for it. All in all I really liked it, but it could use some serious pruning.
Shit this collection was good.
Horror is about loss. Loss of agency, loss of comfort, loss of love, loss of direction, loss of future, loss of goals, loss of desire, loss of innocence, etc etc etc. So to make people actually feel that horror, you need to make them care about what's being lost.
Maggie Siebert fucking CARES, and you can tell. There is so much longing and pain in this book. The emotional core stuffed inside these tight jagged stories is always burning brightly through, daring you to look away, making you pray for a happy ending even when you know it won't come.
In no particular order, the stories that stood out the most for me - Best Friend, Coping, Every Day for the Rest of Your Life (definitely my favorite of the bunch), Witches, and Smells
Need more..
Gordon Ramsay voice
“Finally some good fucking cosmic horror”
I didn't know this was an SCP book going in, and I'm glad I didn't because I definitely wouldn't have given it the chance it deserves.
There's a complex balancing act that is underway in this book and I don't think it lands it completely successfully, but it sure gets close.
The set-up/payoff for the emotional/human story is perfect. I loved the characters and qntm absolutely nailed their arcs.
At the same time though, this is a high concept plot driven scifi narrative, with one of the strongest and most interesting set-ups I've ever come across. A set-up/thought experiment that's going to be bouncing around inside my head for the rest of my life alongside other info hazards like Roko's Basilisk. This set-up gives this book 5 stars alone. I can't overstate how monumentally into this concept I am.
That said, the payoff was a bit disappointing. I was really hoping for a final third that matched the conceptual density of the opening third, but I don't think it really got there for me. It gave me the emotional catharsis and satisfaction of a well told character drama, but with it being so plot driven I was excited for and anticipating a surprising and/or interesting and/or thought provoking plot resolution and didn't really get that.
I think maybe telling this story within the confines of the SCP universe hamstringed the author a little. Might have gone better with the serial numbers filed off?
Either way, 5 fucking stars. I seriously loved it and am hype for anything qntm puts out in the future.
I've been thinking about The Marbled Swarm a lot since I finished reading it. Trying to put my thoughts in order. I've got a ton of feelings about the book, but trying to sort them out and put them into words is proving to be a herculean endeavor, titanically difficult. More than anything, a sisyphean task... and other Greek idioms.. Which makes perfect sense, because this book is a winding labyrinth with a minotaur at the center. The Marbled Swarm is less a novel, and more a transgressive literary experiment. It's fun. I promise.
Maybe labyrinthian isn't exactly right though. Synecdochal? That sort've works.. The titular “Marbled Swarm” refers to the twisted winding prose of the narrator, itself a bastardization of the flowery manipulative French his father (a billionaire Svengali-type with a penchant for perversion) speaks, which is then twisted and confused again through the translation to English. But it also refers to the narrator's crimes, ALSO a bastardization, mistranslation and failed copy of his father's. So it's a synecdoche right? The Marbled Swarm is both a microcosm and a macrocosm of its constituent parts. The title, the prose, the plot.
No. That doesn't feel right either though. Recursive? I guess, but also not as specific as I want.. Maybe fractal is closer to how I feel? Would I feel pretentious as fuck saying, “The Marbled Swarm” is the novelization of fractal geometry? Definitely. Lets go with it.
You know how when you zoom in on a fractal you get recursive structure? As you zoom into the center of this book you get recursive structure. Every character has a doppelganger, every estate has a copy (and mazelike secret tunnels), every transgression has a doubling. Every action is nested within itself.
For example, there's a scene near the exact center of this book where the main character is being told a story by his lawyer about a woman being told a story by her son about a surreal Kafkaesque play he performed in (written by a doppelganger of the main character's father) spanning the course of days which is a near perfect recursion of the plot of the entire novel.
Then at the same time I think it's a statement on modern transgressive fiction? A transgressive author transgressing transgressive fiction by parodying it and himself? TOO MANY LAYERS I CAN'T KEEP UP. SEND HELP.
On a side note, what's with me and fiction involving cannibalism lately? It feels like every other book I've read this year trades heavily in cannibalism as symbolism. There's something about the allegory that I just find.. tasty (pun nintendo). It probably has something to do with the last 5 years in the world and the gross hyper-capitalistic dystopia we live in that treats humans as consumable and disposable? Something for me to chew on I guess.
Aaaaaannnyyyway. 4/5. A Baudelairean nightmare, a Sadeian fever-dream. I recommend this book to no one.
Couldn't put this one down. Layered with allegory and possible meanings, deeply feminist, but also darkly misanthropic (or maybe just misandronic?) and charming. I feel like this book could mean lots of different things to lots of different people. My personal read? It's about cycles of abuse and hurt people hurting people too. About capitalism and systems of oppression.
The writing could have been better. Definitely a first novel, and the end kind've petered out. Also a minor pet peeve, but I get annoyed when an author fills the book with ‘said' synonyms. Every character in this is either shouting or screeching or croaking or whispering or conceding or hemming or hedging or whining or cackling or etc etc etc. Just use ‘said' my man. It's too much.
Powerful novel though no matter what. Easy recommend. 5/5 I fucking loved it.
Not bad, kinda overrated.
I love Ryu Murakami's writing style and the surreality and dreaminess it evokes, but I feel his commentary and cultural critiques are kinda juvenile and shallow. Maybe because of the evolution of the discourse in the past 24 years since its publication, but also maybe because it's just actually shallow. (William Gibson and Paul Verhoeven had deeper reads a decade earlier)
The final 20ish pages are great and the afterglow almost makes me want to bump it to 4 stars, but then I remember how weirdly misogynistic a bunch of it feels and want to knock it down to 2.
Wish I could give this one more than 5 stars. Not just my favorite thing I've read this year, but probably one of my favorite things I've read ever? As soon as I finished it I wanted to reset my progress and start all over?? I never feel that way.
I don't think I've ever read anything that SO accurately expressed my inner mental state all the time? This book feels like it was pulled straight from my own brain.
It's not without its issues. A big chunk near the end drags a bit, and feels almost like it's taking a quick victory lap before the finale, but whatever, I could read 100 more Lu chapters.
Also Negative Space has the single most heartrending use of foreshadowing I've ever experienced. I spent the last third of the book dreading the inevitable use of a single word, and when it dropped it fucking wrecked me :'(
And I loooooved the LGBT representation. LGBT characters exist, and aren't defined by their queerness. It's not even brought up. They're just allowed to exist, and it's wonderful.
This book is going to stick with me for a long time.
(Also, I don't understand the people who are like “I wish everything was spelled out for me! They didn't explain any of the mystery?”, I dunno, learn to engage with your art more? Try more to interpret and less to be spoonfed? You frustrate me >:[ )
Barely any characters to speak of. Neither plot nor story. Just hooptedoodle, stacked on prose, wrapped in lyrical language, punctuated by fierce, sudden acts of horrific violence and meditations on life, the duality of man, and our place in the world. Rooted in disgustingly accurate history. Kind've fucking incredible.
I am a newly minted Grady Hendrix stan.
If Ligotti is a multi-course meal at a Michelin starred restaurant, Grady Hendrix is take-out from Five Guys. Cheap, quick, amazing, and greasy as fuck. And just like Five Guys, I couldn't stop stuffing it into my face by the handful.
Loved this book. Horrorstör drips style, oozes charm, and reeks of menace. Also, am hungry now.
Master class in short fiction.
While the stories themselves were pretty hit or miss for me, the skill on display was readily apparent. Alastair Reynolds crafts his stories with an artisan's touch, gently shaping and polishing his works to nearly radiant perfection.
The main reason this is 4-stars instead of 5 is because I noticed he tends to focus hyper-specifically on one main facet while letting others fall to the wayside. For example, incredible characterization (Minla's Flowers, Zima Blue, Thousandth Night), outstanding worldbuilding (Beyond the Aquila Rift, Diamond Dogs), intense and wonderful storytelling (Vainglory, Trauma Pod)
Major standouts include Minla's Flowers (holy shit, the slowly changing meaning of the titular flowers? Top tier for that alone), Zima Blue (entire reason I read this was because of the LD&R adaptation of this story, the short story is even better, mind-blowingly incredible), Diamond Dogs (David Bowie reference in the title? Story about Math geniuses upgrading their mental capacity to ascend a tower of puzzles?? You can't get any more up my alley than this. Planning a TTRPG campaign based on this story, very high marks), and Thousandth Night (maybe my favorite in the collection? Love how Reynolds plays with massive timescales and he does it best here I think).
Badass book, wildly imaginative and thought provoking. Alastair Reynolds is one of the modern SF greats.
Oof. Went into this with the same desire I had with Damned and Doomed, to read a newer Chuck and disagree with the popular opinion that his recent novels are trash. I couldn't do it.
This is the kind of book I would write if I was trying to emulate Palahniuk. It feels amateur-ish and low-effort.
Started Snuff immediately after finishing Adjustment Day and the difference is obvious. What draws me to Palahniuk's work is scathing subversive satire, and a deep, painfully intimate, understanding of the mentally ill. Broken people on the fringes of society making strange connections through stranger circumstances. For example, Snuff's main character is the abandoned child of a porn star. He accidentally discovers his heritage, and through wild deviancy (buying sex toys of mom, watching her videos, etc) and childlike sweetness (saving images of her fully clothed and vacuuming, cooking, folding laundry, etc) he begins to forge a confusing relationship with her. This is relatable satire.
I also feel like this book was poorly researched, or at the very least written without the bravery necessary to approach this topic. Writing a book like this, at this moment in time, and not mentioning Trump, or George Lincoln Rockwell, or The Turner Diaries or any of the myriad manifestos that would have been a direct through-line to Adjustment Day actually occurring was a massive mistake. What this book needed was something that made it visceral and possible, what it didn't need was a ripoff Wakanda, psychic black people, and a woefully problematic golliwog caricature (BUT SHE WAS ACTUALLY WHITE AND DYED HER SKIN BLACK SO ITS OK RIGHT?).
Fuck, dude. I miss the old Chuck-ye. Still a forever-stan though.
Really enjoyed it. Feels like a lot of reviewers missed the point and want Chuck to stay in his lane. This isn't Invisible Monsters, this isn't Fight Club, this is Judy Blume by way of Anton LaVey; this is a coming of age story about a dead girl; this is fucking Young Adult Fiction by our favorite heir to Burroughs and Vonnegut, good old Chucky P.
Wish this book had come out while I was younger though. 14-16 year old Nate would've 5-starred the shit out of this, and would never have shut up about it.
Side note - Huge fan of the chorus he uses in this one (Are you there, Satan? It's me, Madison). Probably my favorite of his since Invisible Monsters.
I always want to be punk and hipster and hate Chuck Palahniuk because he's popular, but I can't. Fuck. Whatever. I guess I've read Invisible Monsters twice now, and fuck, it was even better the second time through, and fuck, the remix format is kind've fucking brilliant. The calling out of the fashion magazine vignette-y format at the beginning brought some next level verisimilitude. It feels like a House of Leaves style experiment, but more streamlined? More focused? What's another word for verisimilitude? Cinema verite? Who knows, fuck it. I love this fucking book.
Solid and well paced the entire way through. Hit some really strong emotional highs near the beginning and at the end, but (no spoilers) I expected something a bit darker and raw.
One of the rare books I'd actually be excited to see adapted into a film. Really really enjoyed it, and the mixed media format was super charming and refreshing.
Iain M. Banks wasn't just the greatest sci-fi writer to have ever lived, he was one of the best writers ever. This book proves it.
Since his death, I've slowed down my consumption of his books dramatically. Knowing that as soon as I finish reading his final works, there'll be one less thing in my life to look forward to.
“But then, as she knew too well, the more fondly we imagine something will last forever, the more ephemeral it often proves to be.”
Was randomly made aware of this through a reddit thread and decided to give it a shot. Ended up finishing it in one sitting D:
Mediocre translation, confused identity, disregard for its own internal logic, and middling writing, but for some reason I couldn't put it down. I had to find out what happened, and am prooooobably gonna finish the entire series.
Great guilty pleasure and palate cleanser between more highbrow works.