Posted by Mordecai Gabriel Bleak, Protagonist: war veteran, bounty hunter, speaker to the dead, flinger of energy bullets, superpowered anti-hero. The Story: A raggle-taggle group of misfits with extraordinary powers are being tracked and captured by a secret military/government agency with historic roots, conspiratorial overtones, and an agenda most nefarious. There's a line in the first third of the novel that I think serves as much of the book's backbone, "I won't ask what authority you have... but what excuse do you have?" It's after this that a cloud of fatalism begins to form over the characters, growing larger and darker as the story unfolds, and it's here that the book gains much of its strength. What started out as somewhat of a lesson, now becomes that most basic of any reader's needs, a page-turner. The power chords that permeate much of Shirley's writing have been replaced in Bleak History by something much more subdued and restained; a singular, perpetual bass riff, ever-growing in volume and nuance. One gets the feeling that there's a very patient man telling this tale, and he'll wait for you when you've lost sight of him, but you better double-time it. All that to say, it's a much more measured and mainstream style that works to the book's advantage. Overall, Bleak History is both an excellent starting point for those unfamiliar with John Shirley's works, and a rewarding adventure down the rabbit-hole and up again for the already initiated.
on 10/15/2009, 12:58 pm
Message modified by user Mordecai 10/16/2009, 9:42 pm
Here's my review of Bleak History...
BLEAK HISTORY, by John Shirley
Responses: