'To those who know that the inhabitants of heaven and hell are political prisoners, that the law is as preventative as next year's weather, that the post-human's too predictable, South London has always been a playground.'<br> <br> What if god were found to exist? What if revenge were possible? Competing groups of assassins race to exterminate the creator, with young gun Alix the favourite.<br> <br> But conflict among the Edgemen sends Alix in pursuit of renegade shaman Quinas and a psychic splinter group. Waging multidimensional war, the Edgemen travel through sidespace to confront at last the source of evil and hit back at a toxic universe, even at the risk of ending it. <br> <br> This short poetic novella is a dense, corrosive satirical trip. Unlike most Aylett books, there are very few humorous diversions. It's like having a bucket of spiked sherbet dumped into your skull.
Smithereens gathers 19 stories of misfortune, madness and malady, including ‘The Man Whose Head Expanded’, set in a world where it is ‘undisputed’ that ‘if you tape the average man’s mouth shut he’ll lie through his nose’. Heads are no longer fashionable and are instead encased in ‘headgloves’, which turn out to have undesirable effects, as Brank realises when one day his head expands exponentially … that is, until a train shoots up his nose.Meet ‘Download Syndrome’: ‘Symptoms: 1. Constant talking with aid of cell phones and email; 2. near-zero memory retention; 3. dead-stare; 4. blithely confident attitude.’ Aylett points the finger and asks, ‘when the majority of the world population suffers the same condition, does it become the “new normal”?’‘The Burnished Adventures of Injury Mouse’, the full text of ‘Voyage of the Iguana’, the last ever Beerlight story, ‘Specter’s Way’, ‘Horoscope’ and the closest thing Aylett has ever written to a traditional science-fiction story, ‘Bossanova’ (featuring a robot and two spaceships) are amongst the tales from beyond any existence you can possibly imagine.Smithereens is Aylett’s most recent collection, one in which he outstrips his reputation – ‘He has made a career out of redefining the boundaries of science fiction – and sanity.’ (Barnes & Noble Spotlight Feature).
‘“Here’s one you won’t get – a paradox. ‘A’ states that everything ‘B’ says is a lie. ‘B’ states that everything ‘A’ says is true.” … “Easy. A and B are lying and mistaken, both and simultaneously. Happens all the time.”’About to quit the failed experiment of civilisation, fake detective Taffy Atom is detained by one last case – a boy with a bomb in his mind. But what’s the trigger?Against a backdrop of buildings the colour of dried blood and a formaldehyde sky above streets filled with cars on their side billowing with smoke, Atom is pursued by cops, mobsters, mercenaries and a mechanical swan. He carries the bomb and trigger through Beerlight City, the single holdout of creative mischief in a world overtaken by the trend-led Fadlands.By the relentless principles of gun karma Aylett’s final Beerlight book lands you in the Delayed Reaction Bar and fixes you a glass of antifreeze with everything in it. Listen to your heart. It will not stop slowly.
‘Smithereens are hard to aggregate. Penguins can slide on their bellies but the humour is wasted on those stiff-billed bastards – yet put a paper hat on an owl and it’s you who feels like a fool.’Corpses rain down from the sky as punishment for the massacres of the last century. A teacher solves the behavioural problems of a young girl by installing a nest of black spiders in her brain cavity. A police chief and his trooper unravel the twisted suicide of an ex-mobster by rehydrating a raisin. Criminals in animal masks parade around Beerlight City. A volunteer test subject for experimental hallucinogens experiences the entire history of mankind in a sensory deprivation tank. This collection of early stories displays a variety of ghastly objects removed from the surface of Steve Aylett’s brain, in which he tears down the walls of reality and lets all of the monsters out. Including the 9/11 story ‘Gigantic’ (first published in 1998), a unique take on The Bible Code (‘The Waffle Code’), a shrewd riff on police/press bugging, ‘The Met Are All For This’, and ‘Resenter’, the first of several ‘one particle of honesty destroys an entire city’ stories.
‘“Hundreds of famous brains,” beamed the newsgirl … “What. A. Mess.”’ Even Atom, a detective who harasses anyone who comes near him, wants to get to the bottom of what happened on the night the City Brain Facility blew up. Blince, Benny, mobster Eddie Thermidor and the other denizens of Beerlight wonder what the hell he’s doing. Bugs, brain-stealing and inevitable thermonuclear disaster are all given due consideration in this close-wired novel, where even the president’s penchant for bestiality comes with little surprise.<br><div>There's no such thing as a normal angle – it's just not done that way.
<br><br>‘A jaw-droppingly dark and funny work’ <br>Guardian</div>
Инспектор Эдмонд Палмер всегда был предан своей миссии – сохранению межрасового баланса в Институте магических аномалий имени Мерлиновского. Он искренне считал свою работу по улаживанию конфликтов, возникающих между людьми и демонами, важным и интересным делом. Но появление в кабинете Эдмонда участника очередного конфликта внезапно разрушает все его убеждения. Судьбоносная встреча с самым сильным и обворожительным институтским демоном оборачивается катастрофой. Справится ли инспектор Палмер со страшным вызовом или поддастся очарованию темных сил и погибнет? Читателя ожидает головокружительное погружение в мир чудовищных превращений, запретной любви и захватывающих приключений.
Murder Doesn’t Figure is a story about a wily financial consultant, who goes by the name of Fred Dansk. Dansk gets caught up in a complex murder investigation when he is persuaded by his attorney to meet with a prospective client by the name of Albrecht Von Klamer. Von Klamer is an eccentric elderly German businessman with ties to Nazi Germany and a sinister past. Dansk’s experience tells him to walk away but the money is too tempting. No sooner is the deal struck, than Dansk finds himself with a dead client.
What ensues is a twisted tale including mysterious accidents and deaths, a search for precious gems and gold and dangerous situations for all involved.
Dansk along with the help of his resourceful friend, Tuck, begins the unenviable journey into underworld dealings, attempts on their lives and meeting with questionable people all in the attempt to clear Dansk’s name from a murder rap and find the real killer.
Realistic and rich in detail, Murder Doesn’t Figure introduces the reader to an inviting suspenseful mystery with bigger than life characters of the colorful Jersey Shore.
Прекрасный летний денек в маленьком американском городке, и все идет как всегда, но… Тварь Тьмы, вселившаяся в восьмилетнего мальчика, высасывает из людей силы жизни… Из ниоткуда возникает машина смерти – и воздух взрывается автоматной очередью, выпущенной по детям… В одно мгновение привычный мир рушится и становится реальным все самое страшное – то, что можно представить, и то, что даже невозможно вообразить! © Richard Bachman, 1996 © Перевод. В.А. Вебер, 2011
Встреча с таинственным незнакомцем, злополучная ночевка возле могилы древнего шамана и глоток священного бурятского напитка архи могут легко обернуться путешествием в неведомые параллельные пространства… Ведь в этом мире нет ничего устоявшегося. Любая истина – относительна. Да и то ли мы видим, что есть на самом деле?.. Мистический роман известного сибирского писателя Александра Лаптева продолжает ряд произведений таких мастеров жанра магического реализма, как Ф. Сологуб, М. Булгаков и В. Орлов.
Roger Arthur Smith’s spectacular debut, Echoes, asks, what happens when your fundamental nature is challenged, not by the many evils without, but by an unexpected awakening within?<br><br>It’s 1960 in Hawthorne, Nevada, a desert town so secluded that the U.S. Navy stores munitions nearby. While the Cold war lumbers on, the town’s gossip mills and marriage-eligible bachelors and bachelorettes play a game of cat and mouse, a pastime, that if nothing else, manages to while away the hours. Attorney Will Dubykky keeps a watchful eye over Hawthorne, and it comes as no surprise that his interest is piqued by the sudden appearance of a strange boy. Why is this boy disfigured? Why does he have difficulty speaking? Why can’t some people seem to see him? As one of the initiated, Dubykky has an inkling; the boy is evil, an echo sent to rectify the wrongs of an indulgent murderer. The echo’s mission? Tempt, trap and eliminate the human monster that spawned it. If all goes according to evil’s intent, the echo will die fulfilling its destiny. This fatal sequence has persisted as long as evil itself, but before the dark circle can be closed, riddles must be solved. In a town this small, who is capable of committing a string of heinous crimes undetected? And, when the time comes will this echo, more naïve and innocent than any echo Dubykky has ever encountered, fulfill its gruesome destiny? Echoes, is a wildly entertaining, gloriously absorbing exploration of humanity, evil, and the stark environs in which both exist.