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The Claus Effect by David Nickle
The Claus Effect is a continuation of "The Toy Mill", the 1993 Aurora-Award-winning story about a malevolent, post-industrial-revolution Santa Claus and Emily, the little girl whose wish to be a Christmas Elf nearly destroys the world. The Claus Effect takes up eights years later, when events propel teen-aged Emily and West Point cadet Neil Nyman on a breakneck journey through suburban shopping malls, Ontario cottage country, and the frigid northern wastes of the former Soviet Union - battling displaced Cossacks, blue-blooded cottagers and homicidal, down-sized elves along the way. Finally, they must face down the terrifying about Christmas, the New World Order - and the Claus Effect.
- GenresFantasy
Paperback
First published November 27, 2002
3 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
David Nickle
62 books172 followersDavid Nickle is the author of several novels and numerous short stories. His latest novel is VOLK: A Novel of Radiant Abomination. His novel Eutopia: A Novel of Terrible Optimism (to which VOLK is a sequel) was a finalist for the Aurora Award, the Sunburst Award and the Compton Crook Award. His story collection Monstrous Affections won the 2009 Black Quill Reader's Choice Award. He's a past winner of the Bram Stoker Award and Aurora Award. He lives and works in Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 15, 2010
This book is very different; dark, absurd, skewed humour, Santa Claus run amok.
December 14, 2018
David Nickle and Karl Schroeder’s The Claus Effect combines a short story called “The Toy Mill” set in 1983, and a book called “The Clause Effect” set in 1991. In “The Toy Mill,” which is a prelude to “The Claus Effect,” eight-year-old Emily corners Santa and wishes to be one of his elves. He turns her into an elf and brings her to the North Pole, where she discovers that the reason she never gets what she wants for Christmas is because no one actually reads the letters sent to Santa. She convinces the Claus to start reading the letters, and in the first letter a boy wishes for his sister to be dead. Claus, who apparently hates children, decides that the best way to handle Christmas this year would be to give children Exactly. What. They. Want. “The Claus Effect” takes place eight years later. Emily is back home and working as a security guard for a store. Meanwhile, Cadet Lieutenant Neil Nyman, who’s stationed in the arctic, accidentally stumbles upon a meeting in which the Pentagon’s Christmas list is delivered to the Claus. Emily and Neil each end up captured by elves, and soon they find that they’re the only things standing between the Claus and the destruction of the world as they know it!
At first the back-and-forth between 1983 and 1991 is a bit confusing, and the narrative starts out a little uneven and rocky. But it quickly turned into one of the more absorbing and hilarious books I’ve read in a while, and I stayed up late to finish it off.
Santa Claus is… I can’t even begin to describe him. He's more than a little deranged, and is seriously dangerous to all of mankind. His elves and reindeer are terrified of him. He’s downright creepy. We eventually get to find out how he came into being, and it’s quite fascinating. It’s due to Mrs. Claus’s intervention that he ever ended up with a good reputation, or made children happy in any way. And thanks to Emily’s unknowing interference, that’s all been squashed.
The elves are fantastic. They’re largely incompetent, in absolutely hilarious ways. They’re also exceedingly well-armed! I was impressed when the Browning 50-cal came out, and that’s nothing next to Claus’s ICBMs. There’s a ton of shootouts in here, and plenty of action scenes. There are spies, military actions, chase scenes with explosives and guns on trains… you name it, it probably happens.
The side characters have a lot of personality, even those who only show up for a handful of pages. One of my favorites was “It’s okay if you don’t laugh at my joke” Heinrich, one of the Germans working with Krampus. (Yes, he shows up too!) Krampus is the one who tells Emily the story of how he and the Claus came to be.
I feel a bit inadequate to the task of explaining just how hilarious and creepy and all-around wonderful this book is. It suffices to say that if you’re looking for a weird holiday read and interested in blowing up the North Pole, this one’s for you!
Consider my rating a 4.5
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2018/12/r...
At first the back-and-forth between 1983 and 1991 is a bit confusing, and the narrative starts out a little uneven and rocky. But it quickly turned into one of the more absorbing and hilarious books I’ve read in a while, and I stayed up late to finish it off.
Santa Claus is… I can’t even begin to describe him. He's more than a little deranged, and is seriously dangerous to all of mankind. His elves and reindeer are terrified of him. He’s downright creepy. We eventually get to find out how he came into being, and it’s quite fascinating. It’s due to Mrs. Claus’s intervention that he ever ended up with a good reputation, or made children happy in any way. And thanks to Emily’s unknowing interference, that’s all been squashed.
The elves are fantastic. They’re largely incompetent, in absolutely hilarious ways. They’re also exceedingly well-armed! I was impressed when the Browning 50-cal came out, and that’s nothing next to Claus’s ICBMs. There’s a ton of shootouts in here, and plenty of action scenes. There are spies, military actions, chase scenes with explosives and guns on trains… you name it, it probably happens.
The side characters have a lot of personality, even those who only show up for a handful of pages. One of my favorites was “It’s okay if you don’t laugh at my joke” Heinrich, one of the Germans working with Krampus. (Yes, he shows up too!) Krampus is the one who tells Emily the story of how he and the Claus came to be.
I feel a bit inadequate to the task of explaining just how hilarious and creepy and all-around wonderful this book is. It suffices to say that if you’re looking for a weird holiday read and interested in blowing up the North Pole, this one’s for you!
Consider my rating a 4.5
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2018/12/r...
February 17, 2009
The Claus Effect started as a short story, "The Toy Mill", which won an Aurora Award in 1993. The award was well deserved. Tightly written and a clever concept, "The Toy Mill" tells the story of Emily, a little girl who wishes to become a Christmas Elf. she meets Santa on Christmas Eve, and he decides to grant her wish, sprinkling magic powder on her and taking her to the North Pole. While she's there, Emily discovers Santa isn't the kind soul from the stories, and the workshop is far from the jolly place she expected.
The novel picks up six years after the events of "The Toy Mill." Emily is sixteen years old, working her job as a security guard at ValueLand, her time at the North Pole a distant memory. But Claus isn't as dead as she thinks he is, and the sadistic man in red is out for revenge, aided by a hoarde of psychotic elfs. Emily's not alone this time, as there are a group of special operatives determined to take Claus down, but it's just after the end of the Cold War, and Santa's gotten his evil mitts on some of the unused nukes.
This sounds absurd enough to be a hilarious story, but if it's meant to be humourous, it's written dry enough that you have to interpret the humour for yourself. Actually, the tone of the book is more akin to that of an action movie than a black comedy, with plenty of drama and explosions.
The pacing was a little frantic, and things felt like they were happening all over the place. There are a lot of auxiliary characters, and they all have their own viewpoint, so while there's a lot going on, most of it feels like filler. The transitions aren't always clear, either, and sometimes I would be several paragraphs into a section with a new narrator before I realized we'd switched over. The whole thing actually felt like Nickle and Schroeder got together to write a second short story, and then figured they might as well stretch it out to be a full novel while they're at it.
I think the biggest issue here is that what worked really well as a short story just became too much for a full book. An evil, vindictive Santa was clever and original in short form, but over the 250 some-odd pages of the novel, it just became weighty and depressing. The characters weren't given any extra depth; instead, there were a bunch of extra ones tacked on, substituting quality for quantity. There were several big action sequences, most of which erupted rather abruptly and ended up going nowhere.
Overall verdict is to read "The Toy Mill" if you can get your paws on it, but skip over the long version. Once I got past the backstory (which basically consisted of the short story), I just felt like I was trudging and not getting anywhere doing it.
The novel picks up six years after the events of "The Toy Mill." Emily is sixteen years old, working her job as a security guard at ValueLand, her time at the North Pole a distant memory. But Claus isn't as dead as she thinks he is, and the sadistic man in red is out for revenge, aided by a hoarde of psychotic elfs. Emily's not alone this time, as there are a group of special operatives determined to take Claus down, but it's just after the end of the Cold War, and Santa's gotten his evil mitts on some of the unused nukes.
This sounds absurd enough to be a hilarious story, but if it's meant to be humourous, it's written dry enough that you have to interpret the humour for yourself. Actually, the tone of the book is more akin to that of an action movie than a black comedy, with plenty of drama and explosions.
The pacing was a little frantic, and things felt like they were happening all over the place. There are a lot of auxiliary characters, and they all have their own viewpoint, so while there's a lot going on, most of it feels like filler. The transitions aren't always clear, either, and sometimes I would be several paragraphs into a section with a new narrator before I realized we'd switched over. The whole thing actually felt like Nickle and Schroeder got together to write a second short story, and then figured they might as well stretch it out to be a full novel while they're at it.
I think the biggest issue here is that what worked really well as a short story just became too much for a full book. An evil, vindictive Santa was clever and original in short form, but over the 250 some-odd pages of the novel, it just became weighty and depressing. The characters weren't given any extra depth; instead, there were a bunch of extra ones tacked on, substituting quality for quantity. There were several big action sequences, most of which erupted rather abruptly and ended up going nowhere.
Overall verdict is to read "The Toy Mill" if you can get your paws on it, but skip over the long version. Once I got past the backstory (which basically consisted of the short story), I just felt like I was trudging and not getting anywhere doing it.
December 9, 2013
Tis the season for action/adventure horror!This very weird take on the Claus etc. seemed to me to be inspired by an Invader Zim and/or a Furama holiday cartoon... but that's OK, because it's done pretty well. What sets this tale apart is the action/adventure aspects, particularly with the garnishes of international intrigue.
The Claus was very creepy indeed, as was his long-time nemesis. The elfs, too, were nasty little pieces of work, and ubiquitous as ants. The heroine and hero were brave and spunky and dedicated.
Some of the details, especially of the plot, just didn't make sense to me, though. Various governments were involved- but how and why? Not explained, even when some seem to be working both sides of the fence. How did a 16-year-old girl get the extensive background in security in what was presumably her very first job, which she had not held for long? Why does the power of the Claus's eyeball work only some of the time, thus inconsistently? Etc. -I will say that this sort of thing is a reason I seldom read horror; it seems to be a genre especially prone to plot and logical lacunae.
I also think the authors missed a bet with the elfs. While nasty and malicious, they were also quite incompetent... and that should have been funny. Indeed, there are several scenes that really ought to have been played for laughs, to offer a contrast to the other moods- but they weren't. Too, the elfs seemed selectively incompetent; that was rather their default, but when the plot called for it, they could be remarkably efficient. And- it's rather the classic case of a Big Bad with incompetent minions, and the Claus did not seem all that fussed about that incompetence. He swore a lot, sure, but it didn't seem to dive him nutty
So, I'll sum up by saying it was a reasonably entertaining read, with some very exciting and some very creepy bits... but as a whole, for me it lacked coherence. Still, it makes a decent change from sappy Christmas movies!
The Claus was very creepy indeed, as was his long-time nemesis. The elfs, too, were nasty little pieces of work, and ubiquitous as ants. The heroine and hero were brave and spunky and dedicated.
Some of the details, especially of the plot, just didn't make sense to me, though. Various governments were involved- but how and why? Not explained, even when some seem to be working both sides of the fence. How did a 16-year-old girl get the extensive background in security in what was presumably her very first job, which she had not held for long? Why does the power of the Claus's eyeball work only some of the time, thus inconsistently? Etc. -I will say that this sort of thing is a reason I seldom read horror; it seems to be a genre especially prone to plot and logical lacunae.
I also think the authors missed a bet with the elfs. While nasty and malicious, they were also quite incompetent... and that should have been funny. Indeed, there are several scenes that really ought to have been played for laughs, to offer a contrast to the other moods- but they weren't. Too, the elfs seemed selectively incompetent; that was rather their default, but when the plot called for it, they could be remarkably efficient. And- it's rather the classic case of a Big Bad with incompetent minions, and the Claus did not seem all that fussed about that incompetence. He swore a lot, sure, but it didn't seem to dive him nutty
So, I'll sum up by saying it was a reasonably entertaining read, with some very exciting and some very creepy bits... but as a whole, for me it lacked coherence. Still, it makes a decent change from sappy Christmas movies!
July 19, 2010
Even though the book is only about 240 pages long, the middle third of it is unnecessary and repetitive action sequences. They are meant to be humorous, but the jokes involving gun battles with Santa's elves are exhausted early on. The writing style of the action was off-putting, I would lose interest and skim over it sometimes. Maybe it was meant to parody pulp writing found in military themed serial novels, but things like always referring to a gun by its brand name irritated me.
December 6, 2013
A brilliantly dark look at the ugly sides of humanity at the holiday. Possibly a little dated by it's early 90s setting but the themes and ideals still ring true. All underscored by a prose voice unafraid of dark humour among some genuine terror.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews