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Slaughtermatic
(Beerlight #2)
by
Set in the blood-drenched chaos of Beerlight, "a blown circuit, where to kill a man was less a murder than a mannerism," Dante Cubit and his pill-popping sidekick, the Entropy Kid, waltz into First National Bank with some serious attitude and a couple of snub guns. Murderous, trigger-happy cops, led by the doughnut-chomping redneck police chief, arrive in force, firing ind
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‘The average legislator is driven by the desire to cool his molten ignorance into some lasting obstacle’
I couldn’t resist starting this review with a direct quote as Slaughtermatic contains some of the most intensely stylish and sharp prose I have read in any fiction across any genre. Steve Aylett has a gift for gonzo that makes him one of the most interesting writers I have encountered and while reading this book I regularly read sections aloud, just to hear the twisted and wonderful phrases th ...more
I couldn’t resist starting this review with a direct quote as Slaughtermatic contains some of the most intensely stylish and sharp prose I have read in any fiction across any genre. Steve Aylett has a gift for gonzo that makes him one of the most interesting writers I have encountered and while reading this book I regularly read sections aloud, just to hear the twisted and wonderful phrases th ...more
A quarter of the way into Slaughtermatic I thought it was going to be at least 4 stars. Every sentence seems meticulously hand crafted. The opposite of lazy. There's nothing conversational or smooth about it, and in this case I mean that as a positive. Or at least I did, because while I do find Aylett's writing super interesting and impressive, I also found it to be complete mental masturbation come the 75% mark. With 10 pages left I had been rubbed completely raw, and it was all I could do to s
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Dante Cubit wants a book and he is willing to rob a bank and commit a Time crime to do it. The book is a famously recursive novel in which nobody has survived a reading. The Entropy Kid, Dante's perpetually dyspeptic partner in crime and his KafkaCell Gun (subjecting the one pulling the trigger to a flash of the barrel of his own gun hence his mortality) are in on the heist. Then shit hits the fan and a whole lot of factors converge in search of Dante Cubit and... his double!
Slaughtermatic is a ...more
Slaughtermatic is a ...more
3.5 stars:
This was fun, and far different from what I was expecting. It's exactly what the cover blurb portrays (heavy on the violence, with cyberpunk and time-travel aspects both thrown in), but this book added a couple more dimensions to these already convoluted plot-points. First, it was a satire, big time, and this was great. Aylett has a real talent for telling very clever little side-stories; only when they're done did I really understand that he was really making some very insightful poin ...more
This was fun, and far different from what I was expecting. It's exactly what the cover blurb portrays (heavy on the violence, with cyberpunk and time-travel aspects both thrown in), but this book added a couple more dimensions to these already convoluted plot-points. First, it was a satire, big time, and this was great. Aylett has a real talent for telling very clever little side-stories; only when they're done did I really understand that he was really making some very insightful poin ...more
I usually read at least 6 books at a time and have never really had a problem keeping the storyline of each straight. I found out with this book that Aylett is not an author that u can set down for a couple days and come back to at all. I probably ended up reading the book twice cause i had to reread almost everything due to the fact that i would set it down for a couple days and then come back to it.
Probably the weirdest heist book ever written and in true bizzaro fashion it is almost indescrib ...more
Probably the weirdest heist book ever written and in true bizzaro fashion it is almost indescrib ...more
Not as fun as "The Crime Studio" and at times it felt like Aylett was pulling a Tarantino on me…in other words, he was far more interested inhering himself speak and sound clever than tell a story. Still, there is a wonderful sense of the absurd in its depiction of extreme violence and its tongue-in-cheek depiction of a corrupt law system. A mixed bag for me.
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Incomprehensible to me, the first time I read it.
Maybe I'd like it better if I tried it again. ...more
Maybe I'd like it better if I tried it again. ...more
The second Beerlight mindmauler is even more audacious, stylish and ambitious than the first (though for me, The Crime Studio was somehow more fun).
Once again Aylett tackles the well-trodden genre of hard boiled crime noir, rips it apart and jolts it with ten thousand volts of creative energy, Frankensteining it into something truly original.
Aylett is an alchemist, a master whose writing turns base cliches into golden nuggets of surreal, smart, epigrammatic wackiness laced with hard truth. Each ...more
Once again Aylett tackles the well-trodden genre of hard boiled crime noir, rips it apart and jolts it with ten thousand volts of creative energy, Frankensteining it into something truly original.
Aylett is an alchemist, a master whose writing turns base cliches into golden nuggets of surreal, smart, epigrammatic wackiness laced with hard truth. Each ...more
“The simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd. Anyone who, at least once in his life, has not dreamed of thus putting an end to the petty system of debasement and cretinization in effect has a well-defined place in that crowd with his belly at barrel-level.” - André Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism
This book was like a confused train wreck. I couldn’t look away as the train hit a giant piñata full of guns, energy, and dystopianism. Macabre metaphors and sarcastic similes. Red, white, and purple. I just wish all the candy wasn’t salty.
I was really into this for the first 50 pages and felt like I lost the thread a little bit, which caused it to fizzle for me. It is a frantic weird fiction/sci-fi with a lot of violence and creative weaponry. The writing has a nice pace and there's a lot of clever dark humor.
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A reread. Major points for dialogue & slang. A bit hard to follow at times.
Though I found Slaughtermatic to be far more accessible than Aylett's shamanspace, my brain still ended up cracking in half two or three times while reading the book. Now don't you worry about me and my gray matter; I merely pried open my cranium, glued my brain back together, then resumed reading.
Slaughtermatic is a highly entertaining cyberpunk, bizarro-noir, satirical mindbender, where just about every other sentence is a brilliantly inventive, brain-snapping epigram.
I realize the sentence I ...more
Slaughtermatic is a highly entertaining cyberpunk, bizarro-noir, satirical mindbender, where just about every other sentence is a brilliantly inventive, brain-snapping epigram.
I realize the sentence I ...more
An interesting detective story that knowlingly sacrifices character building and plot, yet somehow comes up with relatable and deep characters and an intriguing, unique plot. Great balance of bizarro and noir. I tend to like my bizarro a bit more explosively violent, and my noir a little more relentless, but a lack of extreme flavor doesn't diminish from the surprising dignity of the plot.
The pacing seemed weird at times, and the introduction of one billion and one characters was difficult to fo ...more
The pacing seemed weird at times, and the introduction of one billion and one characters was difficult to fo ...more
I absolutely loved reading this book. It was a very fast paced read and i felt like if i was not reading it as fast as i possibly could that i was not reading it as Aylett intended. I hate that i have not known about Steve Aylett longer. Hell i still would not know anything about him if while browsing in a used bookstore i wouldn't have seen Grant Morrison's name on the cover of Shamanspace. Really want more of his books as quickly as possible (especially Lint).
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This is a book that's an orgy of bullets, violence, hilarity, defying the authorities, jukeboxes playing melodies of different gunshots, and bank heists gone wrong. The action is at a breakneck pace and never lets up. It gets a bit confusing at times, but I've never had more fun reading any book. I hope to read the rest of the Beerlight novels. Steve Aylett's great at creating hilarious plays on words.
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This book is the exact sort of book you get when you see a sci fi action movie, and you think, "That was good, but there was so much boring shit. I wish it was just awesome action and clever dialogue the whole time!" It is best read in many many sittings, because he writes every line like it is his last. A whole novel written in epigrams.
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An interesting Cyber Futuristic novel challenging reasoning and motives. Set in a time where sociopolitical issues seem to have been replaced with emotionally reactive and responsive weaponry. I found this book a bit challenging, getting my head round the slang and the false leads and twists was quite tough. Nevertheless it's very well written and pacey, just not really my cup of tea.
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Not bad altogether, but not the easiest to folow, has a lovely mix of surreal and downright vicious, but nees full attenton to really follow through and could have done with a couple more concrete narratives, but worth having a read to while away those hours waiting on a train/plane etc
A great book Steve Aylett is one of my favorite authors cant wait to read the rest of his books..
While reading to the end of this book i came across page 118 & 119. They were identical pages same words on each page. Did anyone else come by this same error??
While reading to the end of this book i came across page 118 & 119. They were identical pages same words on each page. Did anyone else come by this same error??
cyberpunk...
really disturbing, altought pretty interesting
constant twists in the story.
story not so well developed, losses the reader from time to time
6/10
really disturbing, altought pretty interesting
constant twists in the story.
story not so well developed, losses the reader from time to time
6/10
I've tried but mostly failed to get into most of Aylett's other fiction. It seems to random and perhaps weird in the wrong direction for me. This totally weird take on cyberpunk somehow hit the spot perfectly though, ever since I read Paul Di Filippo's review in Interzone years and years ago.
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A bit of A clockwork Orange, and a bit of Neuromancer. Beautiful backdrop, but the flow of the story and depth of the characters left something to be desired. Luckily it's short, so you can just kind of sit back and enjoy the clever wit, and violence.
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Crazy, surreal, absurdly violent. Just the right length. Some very hip writing.
Nov 02, 2007
Nick
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
anyone willing to listen
Shelves:
sci-fi
Bloody and entertaining. Lots of stuff explodes. Beyond the realm of most peoples' imaginations.
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fun little book here, its sci fi, its modern warfare firearms, its comedy. got kinda bored thru some of it. felt like tried to be too much of one genre then switched to too much of another.
This is not for everyone, but it was for me - a not-quite-cyberpunk novel set in a city where crime is an artform. A unique book, I enjoyed it.
Indescribably bizar, and very funny.
Jul 23, 2011
Malcolm
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction-contemporary,
alt-worlds
Absurd (and that's a good thing), excessive (also a good thing), dystopian, but ultimately slightly unsatisfying – although saved by some brilliant one-liners.
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Probably the best introduction to Aylett's work.
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Steve Aylett (b. 1967) is a satirical science fiction and slipstream author of several bizarro books. He is renowned for his colorful satire attacking the manipulations of authority, and for having reams of amusing epigrams and non-sequiturs only tangentially related to what little plot the books possess.
Aylett left school at age 17 and worked in a book warehouse, and later in law publishing.
Aylet ...more
Aylett left school at age 17 and worked in a book warehouse, and later in law publishing.
Aylet ...more
Other books in the series
Beerlight
(4 books)
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