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Beerlight #2

by Steve Aylett

Роман - футуристический палп-триллер, в своем роде Дэшилл Хэмметт в киберпространстве. Действие происходит в "дивном новом мире" будущего, под названием "Светлопив", где преступление стало новой и единственной формой искусства. Главный герой, гангстер и непревзойденный стрелок Данте Локоть, устраняет все препятствия, возникающие у него на пути, чтобы завладеть последней книгой Эдди Гамета, кибер-шедевром, обладающим таинственной силой.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Bizarro Fiction, Humor, Speculative Fiction, Horror

185 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 1998

About the author

Steve Aylett is a satirical science fiction and weird slipstream author of books such as LINT, The Book Lovers and Slaughtermatic, and comics including Hyperthick. He is known for his colourful satire attacking the manipulations of authority. Aylett is synaesthetic. He lives in Scotland.

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘The average legislator is driven by the desire to cool his molten ignorance into some lasting obstacle’

I couldn’t resist starting this review with a direct quote as Slaughtermatic contains some of the most intensely stylish and sharp prose I have read in any fiction across any genre. Steve Aylett has a gift for gonzo that makes him one of the most interesting writers I have encountered and while reading this book I regularly read sections aloud, just to hear the twisted and wonderful phrases that Aylett uses.

Characters don't just fall to the floor in Slaughtermatic. They slump down walls 'like a scandal-wracked mayor'. Hotdogs aren't big, they’re 'the size of a barrage balloon'. Lovestruck hearts 'Swell like a cancer'. Aylett is the antidote to cliche, never taking the easy similie or metaphor, always going for something more apt, something more original.

Slaughtermatic is set in Beerlight, a world of extreme carnage and killing, where contract killers hold public conferences, ‘murder is a mannerism’, and crime is the last real artform. Dante Cubit, along with his perpetually depressed accomplice The Entropy Kid, raids a bank, seeking a book so mind-wracking that no-one has survived a full reading of it. To do so he subverts a time distorting lock on the bank vault holding the book and generates a second version of himself, planning to execute his doppleganger at the conclusion of the heist. Naturally, Dante #2 isn’t keen on this solution and escapes, leading Dante #1 along with a host of murderers and cops (which is effectively the same thing in Beerlight) on a bullet-holed, acid-trip of a chase through Aylett’s crazed city of criminal artistes.

Aylett's ideas surge through Slaughtermatic in near overwhelming torrents. The Entropy Kid uses a Kafkacell cannon, a weapon that shows the victims perspective of their last moments to its wielder. A police tank turret has a a built in randomiser to ensure that only the appropriate number of random bystanders are mown down when it fires. Jukeboxes in rough bars play soundtracks composed entirely of firing weapons, some of which is considered ‘elevator gunfire’ and offensive to serious aficianados. ‘Zero Approach’ weapons ‘only shoot people who are asking for it’ and have driven the homicide rate through the roof. A cop uses a ‘Colt Demograph’ a gun that can be set for age, weight, income, racial background, etc. to help select targets.

There’s a great idea on almost every page, and Aylett tells a scintillating story of extreme violence and mayhem, leavened with weirdness and genuine wit. His characters regularly muse on the most outlandish of subjects, and declaim their odd, violent and often poetic philosophies aloud - imagine Quentin Tarantino with an unlimited budget, no constraints, and more than a touch of madness.

Aylett's book isn't perfect. It's a little hard to follow. Occasionally the style seems to come before the substance of the story, as though the author had a great idea and just couldn't resist shoe-horning it in. However, to my reader's eye this hail of ideas is worth it.

Slaughtermatic is a crazed, random, sometimes exhausting but overall invigorating meteor storm of a novel that will mercilessly pound the language centres of your brain until you either convulse with a mixture of laughter and awe or pitch the book out the nearest window. My windows remain unbroken, and this (slightly) flawed novel is one of my all-time favorites.

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-De pistolas de Aproximación Cero, Colts Dermograph, Cortacalles Mag 10, Impactores de 9 mm, XL73E2 de Apoyo Ligero y mucha mala leche.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. En la ciudad de Beerlight, Dante Cubit y Kid Entropía, con el apoyo técnico de Rosa Control y Download Jones, ejecutan un atraco a un banco mediante el método de permutación del que son pioneros. Pero las cosas se complican. Segundo libro de la serie Beerlight, pero que se puede leer de forma totalmente independiente.

¿Quiere saber más del libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Jeremy Eaton · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quarter of the way into Slaughtermatic I thought it was going to be at least 4 stars. Every sentence seems meticulously hand crafted. The opposite of lazy. There's nothing conversational or smooth about it, and in this case I mean that as a positive. Or at least I did, because while I do find Aylett's writing super interesting and impressive, I also found it to be complete mental masturbation come the 75% mark. With 10 pages left I had been rubbed completely raw, and it was all I could do to skim a few words per page and finish this book to completion.

As someone who aspires to one day be published, I look at Aylett's writing and am wowed. It's incredible, intimidating, and inspiring. I would have given it 5 stars if it wasn't so damn exhausting to read. I can only imagine, and dread, how exhausting it was to write.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually read at least 6 books at a time and have never really had a problem keeping the storyline of each straight. I found out with this book that Aylett is not an author that u can set down for a couple days and come back to at all. I probably ended up reading the book twice cause i had to reread almost everything due to the fact that i would set it down for a couple days and then come back to it.

Probably the weirdest heist book ever written and in true bizzaro fashion it is almost indescribable (at least by my limited writing abilities). When i first began it i didn't really like it and felt it was way overdone. By around page 20 I ended up totally enthralled with this story and amidst all the satire it really did have some profound statements. He did not sacrifice message for weirdness imo. I will absolutely read another Steve Aylett book

[David Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been looking for this book - or a book like it - for ages. I often wondered what might happen if you turned the juice up to eleven and an half. Now I know.
This text is so densely packed, it’s a zip file of word play and abstract violence; a comic book without pictures. It's fractal in depth - just about every sentence is worth a second read. More like a very long poem, or at least a chaos engine connected to a typewriter. The work!
One star removed for being a smart arse.

[Stewart Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this but I don’t think I was in the right mood for it. Something about how chaotic the writing is just made my head spin and I struggled to follow the plot at times, probably because I was distracted with other stuff as I read. It was really funny though, I laughed out loud at a few sentences.

[zxvasdf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dante Cubit wants a book and he is willing to rob a bank and commit a Time crime to do it. The book is a famously recursive novel in which nobody has survived a reading. The Entropy Kid, Dante's perpetually dyspeptic partner in crime and his KafkaCell Gun (subjecting the one pulling the trigger to a flash of the barrel of his own gun hence his mortality) are in on the heist. Then shit hits the fan and a whole lot of factors converge in search of Dante Cubit and... his double!

Slaughtermatic is a Burroughs pastiche. The attention of detail to weapons, invented and otherwise. The surreal situations revealed with a nice sounding cut up of plain words. The heavily philosophical bent exuding from the mouth of bent characters. I hate to compare writers because this confers a lack of originality on the second party. This is not the case with Steve Aylett. Almost every sentence is a literary tour de force. This novel is actually a patchwork of nano-fiction stitched together to form a comprehensive, albeit mind-bending whole. His characters are one-dimensional, yet contain hidden dimensions, like looking at a piece of paper from the thin side.

This novel is labeled Bizarro, but I have a problem with this. I like Bbizarro, but not many Bizarro novels are as well written.

[Traummachine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars:
This was fun, and far different from what I was expecting. It's exactly what the cover blurb portrays (heavy on the violence, with cyberpunk and time-travel aspects both thrown in), but this book added a couple more dimensions to these already convoluted plot-points. First, it was a satire, big time, and this was great. Aylett has a real talent for telling very clever little side-stories; only when they're done did I really understand that he was really making some very insightful points.

It's pretty dense reading -- Aylett jumps all over the place in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. I took me quite a while to catch how the plot threads were interwoven, how this seemingly unrelated chapter ties directly into the main plot 3 chapters later. It's a bit chaotic, but once I gave in and just rode it I was impressed.

In addition to everything I said above, this book was just plain fun. A bit of the ultraviolence, lots of pithy quotes, and twists that made me laugh out loud. Oh, and the lead's sex life is...oh, you'll have to read about it.

I'll have to be in the right frame of mind when it happens, but I'll definitely pick up more Aylett. Thanks yet again, Wonka!

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as fun as "The Crime Studio" and at times it felt like Aylett was pulling a Tarantino on me…in other words, he was far more interested inhering himself speak and sound clever than tell a story. Still, there is a wonderful sense of the absurd in its depiction of extreme violence and its tongue-in-cheek depiction of a corrupt law system. A mixed bag for me.

[Scout Who · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incomprehensible to me, the first time I read it.
Maybe I'd like it better if I tried it again.

[Harry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second Beerlight mindmauler is even more audacious, stylish and ambitious than the first (though for me, The Crime Studio was somehow more fun).

Once again Aylett tackles the well-trodden genre of hard boiled crime noir, rips it apart and jolts it with ten thousand volts of creative energy, Frankensteining it into something truly original.

Aylett is an alchemist, a master whose writing turns base cliches into golden nuggets of surreal, smart, epigrammatic wackiness laced with hard truth. Each page is littered with never-before-heard sentences, neologisms and portmanteaus ('fascismo' as a descriptor for a particular kind of brutal meathead? Genius).

As with all his books, I'd suggest giving yourself the time and space to really concentrate on this; it's not the kind of book you can lazily leaf through on a sun lounger whilst your brain mulls over what to have for dinner. It demands 100% focus, for which it will reward you.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The simplest Surrealist act consists of dashing down the street, pistol in hand, and firing blindly, as fast as you can pull the trigger, into the crowd. Anyone who, at least once in his life, has not dreamed of thus putting an end to the petty system of debasement and cretinization in effect has a well-defined place in that crowd with his belly at barrel-level.” - André Breton, Manifestoes of Surrealism

[Theo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was like a confused train wreck. I couldn’t look away as the train hit a giant piñata full of guns, energy, and dystopianism. Macabre metaphors and sarcastic similes. Red, white, and purple. I just wish all the candy wasn’t salty.

[Stephen Toman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thomas Pynchon + Robert Rankin = Steve Aylett

[Anthony Faber · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reread. Major points for dialogue & slang. A bit hard to follow at times.

[Sam M · Rating 4 out of 5]

hood classic

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not exactly sure what I just read, but it was amazing. Somewhere between a lobotomy and orgasm.

[Douglas Hackle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I found Slaughtermatic to be far more accessible than Aylett's shamanspace, my brain still ended up cracking in half two or three times while reading the book. Now don't you worry about me and my gray matter; I merely pried open my cranium, glued my brain back together, then resumed reading.

Slaughtermatic is a highly entertaining cyberpunk, bizarro-noir, satirical mindbender, where just about every other sentence is a brilliantly inventive, brain-snapping epigram.

I realize the sentence I just wrote is sort of vacuous, facile, and clichéd. I apologize for that, really. But cut me a break. That brain-glue is still drying.

I'm also aware that the humor in this review isn't all that funny. Again, cut me a break while that brain-glue hardens and synaptic connections are reestablished.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting detective story that knowlingly sacrifices character building and plot, yet somehow comes up with relatable and deep characters and an intriguing, unique plot. Great balance of bizarro and noir. I tend to like my bizarro a bit more explosively violent, and my noir a little more relentless, but a lack of extreme flavor doesn't diminish from the surprising dignity of the plot.

The pacing seemed weird at times, and the introduction of one billion and one characters was difficult to follow - especially when the narrative swung so rapidly amongst them - but I blame that more on the timing I had to read this book; instead of the usual one or two long periods, I had several quicker pickups thanks to work, and it was a bit too jarring for me. Best if inhaled over one weekend.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved reading this book. It was a very fast paced read and i felt like if i was not reading it as fast as i possibly could that i was not reading it as Aylett intended. I hate that i have not known about Steve Aylett longer. Hell i still would not know anything about him if while browsing in a used bookstore i wouldn't have seen Grant Morrison's name on the cover of Shamanspace. Really want more of his books as quickly as possible (especially Lint).

[Frank Deschain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that's an orgy of bullets, violence, hilarity, defying the authorities, jukeboxes playing melodies of different gunshots, and bank heists gone wrong. The action is at a breakneck pace and never lets up. It gets a bit confusing at times, but I've never had more fun reading any book. I hope to read the rest of the Beerlight novels. Steve Aylett's great at creating hilarious plays on words.

[Joey Comeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the exact sort of book you get when you see a sci fi action movie, and you think, "That was good, but there was so much boring shit. I wish it was just awesome action and clever dialogue the whole time!" It is best read in many many sittings, because he writes every line like it is his last. A whole novel written in epigrams.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting Cyber Futuristic novel challenging reasoning and motives. Set in a time where sociopolitical issues seem to have been replaced with emotionally reactive and responsive weaponry. I found this book a bit challenging, getting my head round the slang and the false leads and twists was quite tough. Nevertheless it's very well written and pacey, just not really my cup of tea.

[Mik Sabiers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad altogether, but not the easiest to folow, has a lovely mix of surreal and downright vicious, but nees full attenton to really follow through and could have done with a couple more concrete narratives, but worth having a read to while away those hours waiting on a train/plane etc

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book Steve Aylett is one of my favorite authors cant wait to read the rest of his books..

While reading to the end of this book i came across page 118 & 119. They were identical pages same words on each page. Did anyone else come by this same error??

[Esteban]

cyberpunk...

really disturbing, altought pretty interesting

constant twists in the story.

story not so well developed, losses the reader from time to time

6/10

[Peter Hollo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've tried but mostly failed to get into most of Aylett's other fiction. It seems to random and perhaps weird in the wrong direction for me. This totally weird take on cyberpunk somehow hit the spot perfectly though, ever since I read Paul Di Filippo's review in Interzone years and years ago.

[Grant Frazier · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of A clockwork Orange, and a bit of Neuromancer. Beautiful backdrop, but the flow of the story and depth of the characters left something to be desired. Luckily it's short, so you can just kind of sit back and enjoy the clever wit, and violence.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crazy, surreal, absurdly violent. Just the right length. Some very hip writing.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloody and entertaining. Lots of stuff explodes. Beyond the realm of most peoples' imaginations.