Battle without Honor or Humanity: Volume 1

by D. Harlan Wilson

Taking its cue from the theme song of Kill Bill by Tomoyasu Hotei, Battle without Honor or Humanity is a thought experiment in the short story form. The deranged politicians, simian film directors, choleric tyrants, fevered academics and berserk everymen that populate this first volume scurry like vermin through dreamlike environments that have been imploded by the hammer of media and information technologies. Based in part on the author’s lifelong practice of the martial arts, especially judo and Jeet Kune Do, unlikely English professor D. Harlan Wilson weaves a tapestry of narrative violence and wages an attack against conventional fiction while calling for a higher understanding of what it means to write, to read, and to make meaning. Challenging, absurdist and stylish, this book is a mad Rottweiler that goes for the jugular at every turn.

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2015

About the author

D. Harlan Wilson is an award-winning American novelist, literary critic, editor, playwright, and college professor. He is the author of over thirty book-length works of fiction and nonfiction, and hundreds of hist stories, plays, essays, and reviews have been published across the world in more than ten languages. Recent books include Strangelove Country: Science Fiction, Filmosophy, and the Kubrickian Consciousness, Minority Report, Jackanape and the Fingermen, and Outré.

Reviews

[Benoit Lelièvre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chalk this one as : "I think I liked it."

BATTLE WITHOUT HONOR OR HUMANITY, VOL.1 is a series of short, dreamlike vignettes that each attempt to transcend the boundaries of traditional storytelling. D. Harlan Wilson is unbound by characters, plot or even settings. Sometimes, his ideas turn upside down in the middle of a page, other times they do in the middle of a sentence. I believe this book would qualify as action/pulp if it had been written in more conservative fashion, but I can't be sure.

So, what is the point of BATTLE WITHOUT HONOR OR HUMANITY, VOL.1, right? It's a thicker question than it seems. I think the point was to question the idea of meaning and examine if it was needed to write contemporary genre literature. I might be wrong. There's a lot of BATTLE WITHOUT HONOR OR HUMANITY, VOL.1 that's just D. Harlan Wilson having fun writing the most surreal scenes too.

Anyway: to consume slowly, one or two vignettes at the time. Fun, but quite puzzling literary experiment.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: I was involved in publishing this book

Battle Without Honor or Humanity is unlike anything else out there. Prepare yourself for the full assault of Wilson's mind; many have crumbled before it. In fact, you may not be smart enough to read this book. But if you like a challenge the gauntlet has been thrown! You'll find his trademark metafiction laced with bitter irony, cutting insights and hilarious moments. Short enough to read in just a few sittings but strong enough to satisfy your existential midnight cravings, this is a book not soon forgotten.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Equal parts high intellectual and radical bonkers!

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 4 out of 5]

|This book was won from a Goodreads giveaway|

The best way I can describe this is Naked Lunch, but not as good. Which is the reason for the four stars, because Naked Lunch was seriously one of my favorite books last year and if this didn't remind me of that it would be given five stars.

But, seriously. It captures the total inane, gory, insane quality of Naked Lunch. It's a set of short stories, but none of them have any coherency within them or connecting them to one another - they're just a wild smashing together of ideas and descriptions and sentences. And I love that. Like, seriously, that's my favorite kind of book, is one that doesn't have any coherency, one that's just a raw study of nothing.

So I did really enjoy this - enough, I think to pick up volume 2 at some point, and I would recommend this for fans of books such as Naked Lunch, because it is just amazing how much of a spiritual sort of successor this is to that. Because it was fantastic. Just not quite as fantastic.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I scored an ARC copy from author in exchange for review. The authors name should hold the review to any book he releases.

D. Harlan Wilson has a vivid mind state when it comes to dreamlike environments. Written as some sort of autobiography of the authors life so far. Told with a slice of truth.

Page 37 The section titled "Abattoir" has a strong catalog of words that shows Harlan's powerful signature style of absurd surrealism that just drags your eyes across the page with page turning hypnotism and trying to put thought in what really goes on in the authors mind.

D. Harlan Wilson is in a world of his own, open this book and get a small glance or idea of what goes on there. No passport is needed.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story, loved every second and was sad when it ended. I cannot wait for vol.2!