ellen_datlow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellen_datlow) wrote2007-10-11 01:52 pm
ellen_datlow) wrote2007-10-11 01:52 pm
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Three novels, one from 2006
Players by Paul McAuley (Simon & Schuster, UK) is a lively police procedural mixed with serial killer novel opening with the discovery of a dying naked teenage girl in a remote Oregon forest. A rookie detective becomes involved in a cat and mouse game with a psychotic so obsessed with the multi person online game he created that he’s used plastic surgery to have him look like one of the characters. The gamer is convinced that he can get away with anything because of his superiority over mere humans. Plenty of violence and some gore. Although better known for his science fiction McAuley has been moving between genres with books like his crime novel Whole Wide World and his thrillers White Devils and Mind’s Eye. While timely, this one isn't as ambitious as most of McAuley's novels, but it IS entertaining.
The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott (ABC Books) is a nightmarish story about an aimless young Australian who’s warned by a bunch of wayward clowns that his audition is imminent –whoa! Who said he even wanted to be a clown? But it’s down the rabbit hole for him, into a carnival existing in an alternate universe and run by a pair of sadistic brothers who answer to creatures even more monstrous than themselves…and no one –not even the customers, can leave the show intact. I didn't get around to reading it in 2006, when it came out. I'm very pleased that it's made the IHGA ballot. AFAIK it has not yet sold in the US, which is a shame.
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow) is a solid first novel that while not brilliant like Hill’s debut book, the collection Twentieth Century Ghosts, is still very good. A jaded former rock star bids on a ghost being auctioned off on eBay and wins it. The book is smoothly written and expertly lays on the suspense as the protagonist and those he cares about are dragged into the influential sphere of a twisted and dangerous haunt.
The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott (ABC Books) is a nightmarish story about an aimless young Australian who’s warned by a bunch of wayward clowns that his audition is imminent –whoa! Who said he even wanted to be a clown? But it’s down the rabbit hole for him, into a carnival existing in an alternate universe and run by a pair of sadistic brothers who answer to creatures even more monstrous than themselves…and no one –not even the customers, can leave the show intact. I didn't get around to reading it in 2006, when it came out. I'm very pleased that it's made the IHGA ballot. AFAIK it has not yet sold in the US, which is a shame.
Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill (William Morrow) is a solid first novel that while not brilliant like Hill’s debut book, the collection Twentieth Century Ghosts, is still very good. A jaded former rock star bids on a ghost being auctioned off on eBay and wins it. The book is smoothly written and expertly lays on the suspense as the protagonist and those he cares about are dragged into the influential sphere of a twisted and dangerous haunt.
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(Anonymous) 2007-10-13 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)Ellen
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Bren