Nothing Is Inflammable

Simon Logan (Goodreads Author)

4.25 · Rating details · 12 Ratings · 1 Review

Nothing Is Inflammable is the second collection of industrial fiction, following up on I-O and released alongside Rohypnol Brides by Prime Books. Inside are stories of paranoid pseudo-scientists, guerilla journalists, ghosts that roam the static and punk riots amongst others.

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Published by Prime Books (first published February 28th 2011)

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Sep 17, 2012 Charles rated it liked it

"Nothing Is Inflammable" is Simon Logan's second short story collection. It's a nice follow-up to his first, "I-O." Both show an intense interest in the impact of machine production on a society that turns increasingly to dehumanizing and deadening itself through drugs, vicious entertainment and ultra-violent expressions of rage at where our assembly-line lives are taking us, modifying our bodies and psyches into something "protohuman" and not, from the standpoint of a reader of these stories (o "Nothing Is Inflammable" is Simon Logan's second short story collection. It's a nice follow-up to his first, "I-O." Both show an intense interest in the impact of machine production on a society that turns increasingly to dehumanizing and deadening itself through drugs, vicious entertainment and ultra-violent expressions of rage at where our assembly-line lives are taking us, modifying our bodies and psyches into something "protohuman" and not, from the standpoint of a reader of these stories (or me, anyway), something glamorous or desirable. Not to lump Logan's early industrial noir aesthetic in with the cyberpunk tropes of William Gibson, but the opening line from "Neuromancer" -- "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" -- could be a jumping off point for any of these early stories, from which everything goes to hell in a baroque, factory-ridden, biohazardous way.

"Notes Toward the Design and Production of the Protohuman" kicks off "NII" with a nightmarish, convoluted and pervasively creepy tale of identity trapped recursively within itself as it attempts to reinvent what it is to be human. There are times when I felt like it should have ended, and that it kept dragging, but by the end I realized that like a bad sweaty dream that is central to its effect -- the feeling of endless imprisonment.

"Devastation" was my favorite, about suicide and a static ghost. It is sad, atmospheric, and perfectly constructed in my opinion.

"FuckPunkTown" was also in my top three from this collection, with great use of repetition, strong story construction and a blow-you-away finish.

The remaining five tales are all strong and show a smoothing out of some of the wrinkles of the author's first collection. There are some puzzling tense changes throughout, but the book as a whole is well worth reading. That is, if you enjoy unrelenting narratives of addiction, self-loathing, torture, broken psyches and an inescapable sense of living in a poisoned world.

Personally I would read "I-O" first to see what he is building toward, and then "NII" to see how Logan hits his stride.
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