Painkillers by Simon Ings

by Simon Ings

In Painkillers, Simon Ings deftly teases out his knotted story that, with its many conventional elements, could have run a risk of overfamiliarity: sinister Oriental Triad gangsters, their even more sinister wives, a speedy Hong Kong with its ruthless Brit yuppies and its nightlife ridden with drugs, strange sex and violence. Shooting back and forth between a glamorous Hong Kong, in 1990, and a straitened London, in 1998, Ings sustains suspense by dropping hints but never telling enough.

Adam Wyatt and his wife Eva run a small café near Southwark Market. They bicker a lot, Adam drinks and visits to their autistic son Justin tend to go awry. But underneath Adam's drinking are secrets from their previous life in Hong Kong, when he worked for the Independent Commission Against Corruption and got in with some very dubious local society types; one of whom includes "Call me Jimmy" Yao Sau-Lan, "a big nasty man, in a big nasty suit", whose father just happened to kill Eva's grandfather. When Jimmy's widow and sons come calling, Adam knows he's in trouble.

The book's success lies in its handling of Adam's anguished love for his son, and the horribly convincing evocation of pain--both physical and mental--that tortures its hero and will leave some readers squirming. Oh, and make sure you lock up your dog tonight. -- Alan Stewart

Genres: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk

Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

About the author

I began by writing science fiction stories, novels and films, before disappearing down various rabbit-holes: perception (The Eye: A Natural History), 20th-century radical politics (The Weight of Numbers), the shipping system (Dead Water) and augmented reality (Wolves). I co-founded and edited Arc magazine, a digital publication about the future, before joining New Scientist magazine as its arts editor. Now I eke out a freelance living in possibly the coldest flat in London, writing arts reviews for the newspapers. My latest non-fiction is Stalin and the Scientists, a history of Soviet science. My latest novel is The Smoke.

Reviews

[meandermind · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm between a two and a three star rating. On the one hand, I love cyberpunk, and ings writes it with just enough confusion to keep it interesting, but on the other hand I just never connected with any of the characters. It reminded me very heavily of Bret Easton Ellis ' Glamorama, with the paranoia and the conspiracy, and the tone, but since the PoV is this unsympathetic, alcoholic guy who still keeps his wits about him, he's just too reliable a narrator.
And the pedo vibes. Ugh. I know it's practically obligatory in 90's cyberpunk to have the superskinny, super young woman sidekick, but in every passage about Zoe she is described or compared to a child. I get it, Adam is an asshole, stop trying to turn this into Lolita!

With that said, the autism story line was very interesting, and again, kind of cutting edge for 90's sci fi. Adam is also "accused" of Aspergers at one point and if Ings could have explored neuropsychiatric theme a little more thoroughly and left the lolita-ism behind, it could have worked better. As it stands, it's a blast from the past but I have read other books that ages better.

[Cara Warner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hats off to the author for attempting an unsympathetic protagonist. Unfortunately, doing it in first person means readers never get a break from the protag's toxic POV. I gave up on page 109.

The protag is insufferable not because he's an alcoholic who hates his wife's dog–there are sympathetic humans who struggle with alcohol addiction and don't much care for dogs–but because he repeatedly reaches for violent metaphors to describe the sex appeal of women:

"God had slapped and beaten her into shape, puffing up her lips in bee-stings, bruising her eyes into bed-roomy slits."

Metaphors this viscerally offensive are like the word f*ck: one is enough to make the point.

[Paul Grimsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote elsewhere of there not being many people that were writing the kind of near future science fiction that William Gibson is now concentrating on but this is one example of someone doing just that. This centres around the idea of a machine built to aid people suffering from autism and the places that Ing takes it, for being in a place that doesn;t seem too far from the present day, seem all the more scary.

[The Final Song ❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It starts really really slow, almost to the point that i was not sure why was labeled as scifi.
however it picks up in the middle and get more interesting and engaging, all way until the end.

[Ben Thurley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bleak, gritty, sci-fi (ish) novel populated by a deeply unlikeable main character, striving to overcome, or at least utilise, indebtedness and addiction to some positive purpose.

[Tim_mk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simon Ings writes captivatingly. I finished this novel in two days (which is fast for me), even though I didn't really like it that much. wouldn't recommend this one but will certainly try another work of Ings. I have high hopes for Wolves.

[Drizztl · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was pretty good, except the ending which was a bit confusing and felt a little rushed..a good story which did not live up to its potential. 6,5/10

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written but sordid and depressing.

[Alex Rogers · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've loved a number of his books, but struggled with this one - didn't like or identify with any of the characters