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Normal #1
Normal: Book 1
A smart, tight, provocative techno-thriller straight out of the very near future--by an iconic visionary writer
Some people call it "abyss gaze." Gaze into the abyss all day and the abyss will gaze into you.
There are two types of people who think professionally about the Foresight strategists are civil futurists who think about geoengineering and smart cities and ways to evade Our Coming Doom; strategic forecasters are spook futurists, who think about geopolitical upheaval and drone warfare and ways to prepare clients for Our Coming Doom. The former are paid by nonprofits and charities, the latter by global security groups and corporate think tanks.
For both types, if you're good at it, and you spend your days and nights doing it, then it's something you can't do for long. Depression sets in. Mental illness festers. And if the abyss gaze takes hold there's only one place to Normal Head, in the wilds of Oregon, within the secure perimeter of an experimental forest.
When Adam Dearden, a foresight strategist, arrives at Normal Head, he is desperate to unplug and be immersed in sylvan silence. But then a patient goes missing from his locked bedroom, leaving nothing but a pile of insects in his wake. A staff investigation ensues; surveillance becomes total. As the mystery of the disappeared man unravels in Warren Ellis's Normal, Adam uncovers a conspiracy that calls into question the core principles of how and why we think about the future--and the past, and the now.
Some people call it "abyss gaze." Gaze into the abyss all day and the abyss will gaze into you.
There are two types of people who think professionally about the Foresight strategists are civil futurists who think about geoengineering and smart cities and ways to evade Our Coming Doom; strategic forecasters are spook futurists, who think about geopolitical upheaval and drone warfare and ways to prepare clients for Our Coming Doom. The former are paid by nonprofits and charities, the latter by global security groups and corporate think tanks.
For both types, if you're good at it, and you spend your days and nights doing it, then it's something you can't do for long. Depression sets in. Mental illness festers. And if the abyss gaze takes hold there's only one place to Normal Head, in the wilds of Oregon, within the secure perimeter of an experimental forest.
When Adam Dearden, a foresight strategist, arrives at Normal Head, he is desperate to unplug and be immersed in sylvan silence. But then a patient goes missing from his locked bedroom, leaving nothing but a pile of insects in his wake. A staff investigation ensues; surveillance becomes total. As the mystery of the disappeared man unravels in Warren Ellis's Normal, Adam uncovers a conspiracy that calls into question the core principles of how and why we think about the future--and the past, and the now.
27 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 2, 2015
58 people are currently reading
320 people want to read
About the author
Warren Ellis
1,971 books5,766 followersWarren Ellis is the award-winning writer of graphic novels like TRANSMETROPOLITAN, FELL, MINISTRY OF SPACE and PLANETARY, and the author of the NYT-bestselling GUN MACHINE and the “underground classic” novel CROOKED LITTLE VEIN, as well as the digital short-story single DEAD PIG COLLECTOR. His newest book is the novella NORMAL, from FSG Originals, listed as one of Amazon’s Best 100 Books Of 2016.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
The movie RED is based on his graphic novel of the same name, its sequel having been released in summer 2013. IRON MAN 3 is based on his Marvel Comics graphic novel IRON MAN: EXTREMIS. He is currently developing his graphic novel sequence with Jason Howard, TREES, for television, in concert with HardySonBaker and NBCU, and continues to work as a screenwriter and producer in film and television, represented by Angela Cheng Caplan and Cheng Caplan Company. He is the creator, writer and co-producer of the Netflix series CASTLEVANIA, recently renewed for its third season, and of the recently-announced Netflix series HEAVEN’S FOREST.
He’s written extensively for VICE, WIRED UK and Reuters on technological and cultural matters, and given keynote speeches and lectures at events like dConstruct, ThingsCon, Improving Reality, SxSW, How The Light Gets In, Haunted Machines and Cognitive Cities.
Warren Ellis has recently developed and curated the revival of the Wildstorm creative library for DC Entertainment with the series THE WILD STORM, and is currently working on the serialising of new graphic novel works TREES: THREE FATES and INJECTION at Image Comics, and the serialised graphic novel THE BATMAN’S GRAVE for DC Comics, while working as a Consulting Producer on another television series.
A documentary about his work, CAPTURED GHOSTS, was released in 2012.
Recognitions include the NUIG Literary and Debating Society’s President’s Medal for service to freedom of speech, the EAGLE AWARDS Roll Of Honour for lifetime achievement in the field of comics & graphic novels, the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire 2010, the Sidewise Award for Alternate History and the International Horror Guild Award for illustrated narrative. He is a Patron of Humanists UK. He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Essex.
Warren Ellis lives outside London, on the south-east coast of England, in case he needs to make a quick getaway.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
July 12, 2016
Warren Ellis is, to some, a digital messiah. He's tweeted at least once that he is Sexy Internet Jesus and people ran with it. At least one married couple met on one of the many forums Ellis has curated. He's got his fingers sunk into every social media, and he's listening to everyone with new ideas. He's managed to weave himself into the fabric of the Internet, and in Normal he attacks the implications of being swallowed whole by the digital maelstrom and being put back together with none of it in sight.
Book 1 introduces the idea of Normal Head, a retreat for thinkers, tinkers, futurists, and modern minds who have tried to tackle the networked world of modern mayhem and bounced off it. There is no Internet of Things here, just things. Introductions to a handful of characters promise fantastic dialogue and open doors to any number of possible conflict.
Ellis's language always stands out - he describes in a way that is unmistakably his own, bizarre but familiar , eloquently vulgar. Normal is absolutely worth the read and I'll be staring into the abyss of the Internet waiting for the next installment.
Book 1 introduces the idea of Normal Head, a retreat for thinkers, tinkers, futurists, and modern minds who have tried to tackle the networked world of modern mayhem and bounced off it. There is no Internet of Things here, just things. Introductions to a handful of characters promise fantastic dialogue and open doors to any number of possible conflict.
Ellis's language always stands out - he describes in a way that is unmistakably his own, bizarre but familiar , eloquently vulgar. Normal is absolutely worth the read and I'll be staring into the abyss of the Internet waiting for the next installment.
Read
July 22, 2016This isn't really a book, but if its sold as such I feel justified in including it in its solo form on Goodreads. I'm going to finish the series before I rate and review though.
(But so far so good).
(But so far so good).
July 29, 2016
A start, things don't seem clear in the life of the protagonist, his surroundings and inhabitants of Normal aren't by any standards normal.
Makes you wanna read more , the next volume and understand more the story and its setting.
Makes you wanna read more , the next volume and understand more the story and its setting.
July 13, 2016
Uncle Warren has done it again!
The best way to describe this book is that it's a bit like Injection meets One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.
Roll on week 2!
The best way to describe this book is that it's a bit like Injection meets One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.
Roll on week 2!
May 1, 2019
Hated this book...which I rarely say. Not sure what all the hype is about. Ugh. Yuk
May 6, 2021
Vert enjoyable. This near-future sci-fi tale has many parallels with the current/future state of things. Especially our escalating lack of privacy, whether freely given via social media, or unwittingly through nation-state surveillance programs. Generally, it is hard to 'tell the future', which is the bane of most sci-fi. But, Mr. Ellis sets this tale in the not-so-distant future and his prognostications of near future technologies are entirely plausible. Highly recommend this book.
March 28, 2020
Classic Ellis
Three stars might become more for the overall cycle of this story, once I move through the subsequent volumes. Overall though, an enjoyable ETC start to something that feels very much like classic Warren Ellis.
Three stars might become more for the overall cycle of this story, once I move through the subsequent volumes. Overall though, an enjoyable ETC start to something that feels very much like classic Warren Ellis.
October 26, 2023
DNF - I thought I would love this book; a bit of a mystery and some future stuff? YES! But I found myself having to focus too hard on the terms and what exactly these people do. Then I realized it was a lot of talking about futures and data and I found myself not enjoying it.
February 16, 2017
Horrible
Reading this was like getting hit in the face with a pie when you were expecting a kiss. An absolutely ludicrous and disconnected ending.
Reading this was like getting hit in the face with a pie when you were expecting a kiss. An absolutely ludicrous and disconnected ending.
July 8, 2019
It was good.
It’s a very good story so far. Interesting hook, excited to see where parts 2 and 3 go. * *
It’s a very good story so far. Interesting hook, excited to see where parts 2 and 3 go. * *
August 11, 2020
All it talks about is people in mental hospitals, and I found it to be very depressing. Don't take it personal, but this is not my type of book.
March 17, 2021
I thought this was a great concept, and felt like other conspiracy based plots from Ellis. I will continue reading as this short book was very obviously just the beginning . . .
June 16, 2022
wonderfully weird, frightening and relevant - I read this in a single sitting, couldn't bring myself to put it down
August 12, 2023
Interesting views on the future and shows how thinking about what lies ahead can impact our mental health
October 23, 2023
I like the story idea but found it reaaaaaally cringe
February 27, 2024
Interesante pero muy lento
December 14, 2024
I usually like sci-fi novels but this one was formulaic and pulpy, unfortunately without the retrofuturist charm that older, low-quality sci-fi releases have developed over the decades.
October 11, 2016
A short introduction to an intriguing world. We barely scratch the surface of the characters and their lives, but it leaves a lot of interesting questions to draw you back for more.
February 6, 2017
Normal is anything but. Print novels are not what Warren Ellis normally writes (he’s more known for graphic novels and digital works). The setting for the work is Normal Head, the last safe haven for people who have gone mad thinking about the future for a living. What’s normal at Normal is what amiss.
Adam Dearden is the latest arrival to Normal Head, having had a breakdown while working in Windhoek, a remote town in Namibia. Upon arrival he meets Clough, who finds salvation in Danger Mouse, and Lela, an urbanist who won’t touch people, and Dickson, his aide. By the time he meets Dr. Murgu, his psychologist, he’s had his fill of personalities. “He just nodded. This is how the cycle went. Emotional incontinence, and then hyper-focused on the environment but drained of words. No sensory input/output. Human -shaped camera. Two facets of terminal panic, he supposed.” What is meant to be a place for healing wounds brought on by “abyss gaze,” Normal only offers Adam mystery.
The biggest mystery comes in the form of a disappeared patient (inmate). Clough and Adam are present when Normal staff find not Mansfield in his bed at room check, but a swarm of insects. Adam imagines what life must be like for such bugs. To them, humans are “towering blurs of things, terrifying and unpredictable natural disasters on the move.” Not content to let the staff solve the mystery for them, Adam leads a group of fellows to investigate for themselves. What they find is that perhaps they aren’t terrible, moving, unpredictable blurs to the bugs, but that the bugs are a clue to a devastating and towering force at work among them.
“The thing about the future is that it keeps happening without you.” In the midst of an invigorating investigation, during which Clough and Lela have more fun than they’ve had in months, Adam loses the will to live. He knows too much. He’s tried to predict and control the future and has failed. Does he have the will to try again, in as unconventional a manner as anything possible at Normal?
The short novel ends on a cliff hanger, apt for a book about the future. What is yet to unfold, whether we’re involved in it or not, has a stranglehold on the present, on our reading experience. Ellis excels at cinemagraphic engagement. (Take Jasmin Bulat: “she wore a sports bra that may historically have been white and the ugliest knee-length shorts in the world.”) The story happens in episodic bursts, less than 150 pages divided into three parts. Don’t expect the “normal” dystopia woe. Normal is part warning, part lament, part farce and part silent movie.
Adam Dearden is the latest arrival to Normal Head, having had a breakdown while working in Windhoek, a remote town in Namibia. Upon arrival he meets Clough, who finds salvation in Danger Mouse, and Lela, an urbanist who won’t touch people, and Dickson, his aide. By the time he meets Dr. Murgu, his psychologist, he’s had his fill of personalities. “He just nodded. This is how the cycle went. Emotional incontinence, and then hyper-focused on the environment but drained of words. No sensory input/output. Human -shaped camera. Two facets of terminal panic, he supposed.” What is meant to be a place for healing wounds brought on by “abyss gaze,” Normal only offers Adam mystery.
The biggest mystery comes in the form of a disappeared patient (inmate). Clough and Adam are present when Normal staff find not Mansfield in his bed at room check, but a swarm of insects. Adam imagines what life must be like for such bugs. To them, humans are “towering blurs of things, terrifying and unpredictable natural disasters on the move.” Not content to let the staff solve the mystery for them, Adam leads a group of fellows to investigate for themselves. What they find is that perhaps they aren’t terrible, moving, unpredictable blurs to the bugs, but that the bugs are a clue to a devastating and towering force at work among them.
“The thing about the future is that it keeps happening without you.” In the midst of an invigorating investigation, during which Clough and Lela have more fun than they’ve had in months, Adam loses the will to live. He knows too much. He’s tried to predict and control the future and has failed. Does he have the will to try again, in as unconventional a manner as anything possible at Normal?
The short novel ends on a cliff hanger, apt for a book about the future. What is yet to unfold, whether we’re involved in it or not, has a stranglehold on the present, on our reading experience. Ellis excels at cinemagraphic engagement. (Take Jasmin Bulat: “she wore a sports bra that may historically have been white and the ugliest knee-length shorts in the world.”) The story happens in episodic bursts, less than 150 pages divided into three parts. Don’t expect the “normal” dystopia woe. Normal is part warning, part lament, part farce and part silent movie.
March 22, 2017
For me this was a strange little book, a mere 150 pages and part 1 of a serialised 4 part series - and I’m still not 100% sure of my opinion. In the end I see it as an allegory/satire on the cacophony of privacy intrusion and social media frenzy of current society, and the disconnect between futurists and future planners using statistical models . There is a plot of sorts but I feel the embedded messages in the story carry more weight and, of course there is no plot resolution, probably you need part 4 for that.
I was initially annoyed by the authors somewhat florid prose style but this seemed to settle down after the first 10-20 pages. Character development is extremely superficial but this isn’t the sort of book where that’s important. Of the top of my head the ‘messages’ are about: mental breakdown due to the afore mentioned cacophony; the benefits of getting away from it by denial of connectivity ( a beautiful thing or a horror depending on how you live your life ); paranoia about the potential all pervasive surveillance of society; induced psychosis by said surveillance; psychiatrists and psychiatric drugs; fear of a dystopian societal melt down; a desire to escape all this to a place that is ‘normal’ : jam packed to say the least and, as I say, this is off the top of my head – there’s probably more I’ve missed. Quite a package for 150 pages.
This part book did get me thinking, and the author did create an interesting milieu. I’m probably not the target audience – I’m almost 74, use facebook minimally and no other social medium and use severe email and computer filters. Still, I’m not being smug; I do realise that Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple etc and probably the government have profiles of me. Come to think of it – that does make me a little paranoid......
I was initially annoyed by the authors somewhat florid prose style but this seemed to settle down after the first 10-20 pages. Character development is extremely superficial but this isn’t the sort of book where that’s important. Of the top of my head the ‘messages’ are about: mental breakdown due to the afore mentioned cacophony; the benefits of getting away from it by denial of connectivity ( a beautiful thing or a horror depending on how you live your life ); paranoia about the potential all pervasive surveillance of society; induced psychosis by said surveillance; psychiatrists and psychiatric drugs; fear of a dystopian societal melt down; a desire to escape all this to a place that is ‘normal’ : jam packed to say the least and, as I say, this is off the top of my head – there’s probably more I’ve missed. Quite a package for 150 pages.
This part book did get me thinking, and the author did create an interesting milieu. I’m probably not the target audience – I’m almost 74, use facebook minimally and no other social medium and use severe email and computer filters. Still, I’m not being smug; I do realise that Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple etc and probably the government have profiles of me. Come to think of it – that does make me a little paranoid......
May 24, 2022
L'action de ce petit roman de science-fiction se déroule dans un centre de repos pour prospectivistes surmenés. Cassandre des temps modernes, ils finissent tous en burn-out devant l'insouciance de l'humanité, qui fonce dans le mur à toute allure, et l'inaction des dirigeants, qui refusent d'écouter les alertes lancées. On a donc droit, dans Normal, à une brochette de personnages caricaturaux, névrosés, paranos, déprimés ou illuminés, qui critiquent allégrement les grandes tendances de nos sociétés actuelles, tout en enquêtant accessoirement sur la disparition mystérieuse d'un des leurs.
On le devine : le ton est assez cynique! Je crois que l'intrigue aurait pu être un peu plus développée, mais j'ai tout de même trouvé l'ensemble plutôt divertissant. Ça se lit rapidement et nourrit bien le rebelle-adepte-de-la-théorie-du-complot intérieur!
Visitez mon blog : https://chroniquesbookaddict.wixsite....
Suivez-moi sur Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Les-chroniqu...
On le devine : le ton est assez cynique! Je crois que l'intrigue aurait pu être un peu plus développée, mais j'ai tout de même trouvé l'ensemble plutôt divertissant. Ça se lit rapidement et nourrit bien le rebelle-adepte-de-la-théorie-du-complot intérieur!
Visitez mon blog : https://chroniquesbookaddict.wixsite....
Suivez-moi sur Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/Les-chroniqu...
July 25, 2016
It took one of my favourite futurist writers releasing a digitally serialised novel about a rehabilitation facility filled with broken futurists for me to take the plunge and install the Kindle app on my phone. I don't do digital books; it's the main reason why moving house is such a pain in the ass these days...but for Warren Ellis, the man with the robot head of Jack Kirby sitting on his desk, I have made an exception. He doesn't waste any time setting up the fractured mindset of his protagonist, an analyst of networked surveillance culture who has developed a severe case of Abyss Gaze ("Everyone here gazed into the abyss for a living. Do it long enough, and the abyss would gaze back into you."), or wrapping you up in the positively phildickian madness of the totally off-the-grid asylum that is Normal Head. "Normal" is shaping up to be anything but, and so far it's a rollicking good read.
July 15, 2016
Warren Ellis nennt den Band selber „Novella“ – also ein sehr kleines Bändchen, welches im ersten Teil eigentlich nur das Setting aufbaut. Die restlichen drei Bändchen erscheinen als EBook im Wochentakt. Eine Papierausgabe folgt im November.
Das Setting ist aber vielversprechend und durch die Wochen zwischen „Pokémon Go“-Hype und Terroranschläge, bemerkenswert gut getimet: anscheinend eine konsequente Fortschreibung einer Welt mit Gruppenzwängen, App, Quantified Self und „freiwilliger“ Kontrolle.
Das Setting ist aber vielversprechend und durch die Wochen zwischen „Pokémon Go“-Hype und Terroranschläge, bemerkenswert gut getimet: anscheinend eine konsequente Fortschreibung einer Welt mit Gruppenzwängen, App, Quantified Self und „freiwilliger“ Kontrolle.
July 13, 2016
If this is Normal...
Great start to the new Warren Ellis book. It reads a bit like a "what if" the Injection story was all in your head and now it is time to try to get better.
#abyssgaze
It is a twisted world inside the head of Mr Ellis, and reading it isn't for everyone. But if Tarantino's your cup of tea, this might be the pill you need.
Having to wait a week for the next installment beats four months until the full bundle edition comes out.
Great start to the new Warren Ellis book. It reads a bit like a "what if" the Injection story was all in your head and now it is time to try to get better.
#abyssgaze
It is a twisted world inside the head of Mr Ellis, and reading it isn't for everyone. But if Tarantino's your cup of tea, this might be the pill you need.
Having to wait a week for the next installment beats four months until the full bundle edition comes out.
July 20, 2016
This is more of a fist chapter of a novel or a glimpse into a new world, than a novel (or even short story) in its own right. This is underscored by the whole thing being subtitled "Part One".
The setting is near-future science fiction, the subject a study into the lived lives in a world of universal, pervassive connectivity and ditto surveilance. Already in this first, short introduction sharp points are made. The writing is witty and a pleasure to read.
A really good start.
The setting is near-future science fiction, the subject a study into the lived lives in a world of universal, pervassive connectivity and ditto surveilance. Already in this first, short introduction sharp points are made. The writing is witty and a pleasure to read.
A really good start.
August 17, 2016
After looking into the abyss for too long, Adam Dearden has gone a little funny in the head. This fraction of a story is all set up as the futurist is driven to a mental hospital following his recent breakdown. The setting feels real and the characters are engaging. This chapter ends on a mysterious event.
Warren Ellis' new novella is broken into four parts. It should probably be read as a whole for the best effect.
Warren Ellis' new novella is broken into four parts. It should probably be read as a whole for the best effect.
September 29, 2016
Solid start
Picture an asylum for the over connected. People so overwhelmed by the life of constantly being tethered to your phone and computer that they suffer from dangerous mental breakdowns and have to be sent away from it all to a remote area of the Oregon wilderness to reprogram their brains. This is the setting of Ellis' 'Normal ' and at this point in the narrative, it's making for a fairly interesting read. Looking forward to see what happens next.
Picture an asylum for the over connected. People so overwhelmed by the life of constantly being tethered to your phone and computer that they suffer from dangerous mental breakdowns and have to be sent away from it all to a remote area of the Oregon wilderness to reprogram their brains. This is the setting of Ellis' 'Normal ' and at this point in the narrative, it's making for a fairly interesting read. Looking forward to see what happens next.
September 18, 2016
Strong opening chapter with a great ending.
I'm a bit behind on this but thrilled I finally got to read through it. Now I just need money enough to buy the last three chapters. Check it out if you have a couple bucks and a chunk of time. I can't really rank it as a whole yet, obviously, but I expect it'll be a favorite given what I've read so far.
I'm a bit behind on this but thrilled I finally got to read through it. Now I just need money enough to buy the last three chapters. Check it out if you have a couple bucks and a chunk of time. I can't really rank it as a whole yet, obviously, but I expect it'll be a favorite given what I've read so far.
September 27, 2016
Classic Warren Ellis. The first quarter is basically Ellis describing a vacation he'd like to take where no one lets him use his devices. Then he sets a classic locked-room mystery in that environment. Very good.
August 9, 2016
The first 27 pages of Warren's new book, which is not due to drop until November, unless I want to pay for the remaining chapters, which I might, because this is awesome, reads like Crooked Little Vein -type Warren, and I'm pretty well hooked.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews