Lord Soho

by Richard Calder

Richard Calder is one of science fiction's most original writers. In Lord Soho he returns to the universe of Malignos, travelling the lands of Earth and the gates of Time, in a book only he could have conceived and written. It is a tour-de-force of intelligence, imagination and story-telling. 'On my twenty-first birthday I killed a man. It was during my maiden speech in the Lords.' Thus speaks Richard Pike the Third, grandson of the first Pike and his Malignos wife, Gala. Through the centuries, many Pikes bear the marks of that cross-race marriage. Beginning and ending in London's Soho, Richard Calder's latest novel tells the family saga, through stories based on operas, myths and folk tales. Through the winding (and winding down) of Time and the eventual rediscovery of humanity's destiny, a line of Richard Pikes tell their tales - and with them record the drunkard's walk of Man's history over millennia.

Genres: Science Fiction

Paperback

First published June 5, 2002

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cold-eyed Dr. Angela Carter, a lauded Specialist in the disciplines of Sexual Revolt and Revolting Sexuality, author of the revolutionary tract The Diaspora of Gender and Power: A Guide to Breaking the Yoke of Reality Upon the Ever-Turning Wheel of Dream Logic, decided one sultry evening that writing about Sadeian Excess was simply not satisfying enough. She must conjure up the man himself! And so calling upon all of her Dark Powers, she summoned that archaic devil the Marquis de Sade; he appeared, naked and in the prime of his sexual powers: a 14-year-old lad, recently expelled from Jesuit school and now a cadet at an elite military academy preparing for what would turn out to be a brief time as a soldier in Louis XV's armies. The two locked eyes, and then limbs. Several sweaty hours later, a now-bored Dr. Carter banished the headstrong teen back to the past, and to his eventual destiny as a somewhat controversial author and eventual inmate of the Charenton Asylum. Nine months later, a child was born: Dr. Carter's Monster. A moody boy with soulful eyes, a prodigious appetite, and the blackest of hearts. She enlisted her dear friends Kathy Acker, Michael Moorcock, and Tanith Lee to be the precocious child's triple godparents and then named her monstrous offspring: Richard Calder.

He in turn produced a gorgeous child: Malignos, and then its spellbinding sequel: Lord Soho.

Lord Soho and its predecessor exhibited all the brilliance of grandmother Carter: her ferocious sexuality, her cruelty, her explosion and then reconstruction of gender norms, her fascination with all the forms of Power and Submission, her raw vitality, her hallucinogenic dreamscapes, her evil wit, and not least of all, her lusciously baroque way with words. Their grand-père the Marquis' DNA was also quite present: nastily reinforcing the Carter hallmarks of sadism, wit, and transgressive sexuality while adding a patina of filth and romantic perversity atop it all; and most importantly, doubling down on the desire to upend civilization as we know it. Revolutionary monsters, the whole family!

Malignos told the tale of the Black Knight named Richard Pike - ex-soldier, pimp, lover, and cocksman extraordinaire - as he thrusts himself and his trusty sword Espiritu Santo deep into the earth's depths to confront the demons of perversity who have made his world their new home. In contrast, Lord Soho takes place entirely in the equally strange world above. It is in the form of six narratives, each detailing a short period of time in the lives of six Richard Pikes, all descendants of the original, most yearning for a return to London and to their title of Lord Soho, some who are lovers and others who are murderers, some freeing slaves and others who yearn for a return to the old ways of master and thrall, each one a terrible snob and unrepentant asshole, each one a monster of the id, each one a diabolical change agent who shifts the very fabric of reality around them. The Pike lineage shall destroy the world! And then, perhaps, remake it anew.

Highly recommended. But not for everyone...

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

c2002: This was a bargain basement book and I was so excited to see this genre in a sale, I just grabbed it without really reading the synopsis. Not only did I not realise that it was one in a series. (To be honest, during the early 2000s, I was reading any spec-fic that I could not caring that much whether it was a #2 or #4. Turned out to be a mistake but, hey, you live and learn.) I didn't really 'get' everything that was going on. There seemed to be some things that had happened off-page, so to speak, and I just can't say that I enjoyed the book. Again, this is more to do with me than with the writers efforts. I believe that the author went to the University of Brighton so I am sure that, with a squeak, he falls within the description of a local boy. Unfortunately, unable to recommend.

NB: I subsequently found out that some of the chapters had been published in Interzone and the book brought them altogether in chronological order. This would account for a lot of the same infodumps being used in the various chapters. I just thought that the author knew that some of his readers would struggle with intelligent reading.

Gentle Jane was as good of gold,
She always did as she was told;
She never spoke when her mouth was full,
Or caught bluebottles their legs to pull,
Or split plum jam on her nice new frock,
Or put white mice in the eight-day clock,
Or fostered a passion for alcohol,
Or vivisected her new doll Nice!