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Automatic Assassin
A cyberpunk space opera about Xolo, a man who replaced his conscience with a machine.
A routine assassination on a synthetic planet gets complicated when Xolo stupidly rescues some kids, gets a bomb in his head (that falls in love with him) and then winds up on the world of kings, brainslaves and electric zombies known as ‘Earth,’ where he is mistaken for a cosmic messiah.
The author of the cult hit ‘Tokyo Zero’ returns to science-fiction territory in an outrageously stylish and hilariously satirical journey to the kind of future we are going to end up in if we are not careful.
“Twisted sci-fi and black comedy, like imagine if Douglas Adams were a violent sociopath” — Moxie Mezcal, author of ‘Concrete Underground’
A routine assassination on a synthetic planet gets complicated when Xolo stupidly rescues some kids, gets a bomb in his head (that falls in love with him) and then winds up on the world of kings, brainslaves and electric zombies known as ‘Earth,’ where he is mistaken for a cosmic messiah.
The author of the cult hit ‘Tokyo Zero’ returns to science-fiction territory in an outrageously stylish and hilariously satirical journey to the kind of future we are going to end up in if we are not careful.
“Twisted sci-fi and black comedy, like imagine if Douglas Adams were a violent sociopath” — Moxie Mezcal, author of ‘Concrete Underground’
170 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 22, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 11, 2011
This book is a wildly inventive bed-time story told by a savvy poet to a precocious space-monkey.
It's got fast-plot adventure, whimsy and outright piss-taking shot through with gorgeous observations and fabulous horrordreams of future. It's a cool ride with an unnerving end.
Marc Horne delivers hilariously cheeky sentences, like this:
'The panties of victory started to ride up over the waistband of retreat'
and casually and persistently drops beauties, like this:
'Enormous bloated seconds passed like whales.'
Automatic Assassin is Far Out - ''Outside (the outside of the inside of the underside of the real side) ...''
It's got fast-plot adventure, whimsy and outright piss-taking shot through with gorgeous observations and fabulous horrordreams of future. It's a cool ride with an unnerving end.
Marc Horne delivers hilariously cheeky sentences, like this:
'The panties of victory started to ride up over the waistband of retreat'
and casually and persistently drops beauties, like this:
'Enormous bloated seconds passed like whales.'
Automatic Assassin is Far Out - ''Outside (the outside of the inside of the underside of the real side) ...''
September 10, 2011
An extremely funny and wild and poetic science fiction story. Lots of wit, interesting characters, wild locales, fantastic imagery, using and abusing (in the best way possible) old and tried science fiction clichees, while coming up with a lot of new ones. Like the main character's brain bomb, I couldn't help fall a little in love with the character and the story and the hilariously difficult circumstances he constantly finds himself in, and which he somehow manages to get himself out of. Favorite moments are: the opening with the snobby blue sun and the main character's great yearning for a ship, when he is being tortured in horrible torture gel, when he meets the king and his helpers, when he rides a shark and when he saves the Earth! Favorite species: The Titans and their glowing nebula environment. I want to write a sonnet to them. Favorite romantic connection: The male and female noble knights that finally hook up after the guy has uttered his favorite saying too many times. Lots of poetic descriptions add a nice touch of literary love to this bizarro but beautiful science fiction story.
September 7, 2020
when does it turn into a real paperback with a different cover
having a bomb in your brain
and the bomb feels romantic towards you needs to be on paper
having a bomb in your brain
and the bomb feels romantic towards you needs to be on paper
January 15, 2013
Marc Horne has a touch of the 'Beat' about him, a quality that other reviewers have alluded to in their description of 'Automatic Assassin' as stock sci-fi adventure meets literary fiction. At times, particularly in the opening chapters, this quirkiness is more than apparent: it seems too deliberate, ill-conceived even - or perhaps no more than the simple consequence of clumsy writing. Yet, as the narrative progresses, the switch between brash colloquy and aesthetic metaphor is a highly effective device for delineating the multiple facets of Xolo - our hero, of sorts.
However, it is more in Horne's cunning for weaving social commentary into his plot that we see a contemporary beat writer at work, through brief, stark observations (on the cold logic of the free market, for instance) and broad sweeping story arcs (the beauty and slavery of Earth, the origin of blackwarps and so on) that add depth and intelligence without ruining the sense of fantasy and adventure.
OK, so there's a zombie apocalypse in there too - think along the lines of The Borg crossed with The Matrix, only twice as disgusting, and you're on the right lines. If I'd known this in advance, I possibly wouldn't have considered reading this book and that would have been to my detriment.
'Automatic Assassin' has everything: black humour, death, un-death, resurrection, philosophy, technology - even a tiny hint of sex. It is a voyage of fun and repulsion, egomania and altruism... and so many other contradictions that you will disembark knowing that you love Xolo whilst never really understanding why.
However, it is more in Horne's cunning for weaving social commentary into his plot that we see a contemporary beat writer at work, through brief, stark observations (on the cold logic of the free market, for instance) and broad sweeping story arcs (the beauty and slavery of Earth, the origin of blackwarps and so on) that add depth and intelligence without ruining the sense of fantasy and adventure.
OK, so there's a zombie apocalypse in there too - think along the lines of The Borg crossed with The Matrix, only twice as disgusting, and you're on the right lines. If I'd known this in advance, I possibly wouldn't have considered reading this book and that would have been to my detriment.
'Automatic Assassin' has everything: black humour, death, un-death, resurrection, philosophy, technology - even a tiny hint of sex. It is a voyage of fun and repulsion, egomania and altruism... and so many other contradictions that you will disembark knowing that you love Xolo whilst never really understanding why.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews