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BLOCKPANDA
In this hilarious, nightmarish masterpiece of imaginative excess, amoral characters engage in absurd obscenities, a civilization hurtles off the rails and human kind balks at a turning point. This hallucinatory and fragmentary novel spins and flips through a Bacchanalian dystopia of gang warfare, excessive drug use and total war. Startling different and ultra-modern, BLOCKPANDA succeeds in making the explicit and horrific captivating.
- GenresBizarro Fiction
158 pages, Paperback
First published March 30, 2013
1 person is currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
Drew Gates
7 books18 followersThis quote by Patrick White pretty much sums up my feelings about literature:
“Surely what the writer needs, is orthography, grammar and syntax, which he learns at school; after that he must read and write, read and write, and forgetting all about being a writer, live, to perfect his art.”
“Surely what the writer needs, is orthography, grammar and syntax, which he learns at school; after that he must read and write, read and write, and forgetting all about being a writer, live, to perfect his art.”
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 18, 2014
This one was on my to read list for a while. I was happy to get this for free, and glad that I picked it up. It was funny and had plenty of sex and drugs to keep it entertaining. The use of mind altering substances was rampant. It was bizarro in nature, yet a bit more grounded in a traditional sense. The approaching wall of war and the protagonist as a drugged up PI were my favorite parts of the story. The other characters were also colorful and creatively drawn. I enjoyed this and will be reading the authors' other book soon.
July 17, 2013
This is not the type of book that I would normally read. But seeing as I enjoyed the author’s first book, I thought I would give it a go. I can honestly say I have never read anything like this! It was utterly bizarre and crazy but I couldn’t put it down – and was horrified, amused and disgusted as a result. Despite the overall weirdness, Blockpanda is very well written and the strange tale is captivating. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for something totally different.
September 27, 2013
Bloody weird book at first I thought "this is a hardboiled/noire book" then it takes a very strange turn. was not used to this type of narrative - completely out in left field but I enjoyed the hell out of it.
October 1, 2013
Found this book absolutely hilarious - but that is just me. My girlfriend didn't see the humour in it at all, I know that it is subjective but found it strange that there was such a distinction....the writing is stripped to the bone and flows very well. some parts had me a bit confused - it isn't your average 'boy meets girl' type of fare. but by halfway I was hooked into a bizarre world that somehow made perfect sense. Great use of subculture/drugculture too. great to find this type of writing produced in Aus
January 28, 2014
This book is the best kind of drug for sinful souls. It's hallucinatory in nature. It's strange, erotic, and messed up in the most addicting, dystopian way. If BLOCKPANDA doesn't offend you in some way, you aren't reading it right. Pick it back up and give it another go. If that's not the case, you've numbed out your senses and you're so strung out you probably don't care what you read. So sit back, relax and behold this twisted fragmentary specimen. Ever wonder how the "bizarre" got put in "bizarro fiction"? This is it, guys.
January 23, 2014
BLOCKPANDA is one of those must read bizarro books. It's chock full of seedy characters drugs, and of course sex, but that's not why you should pick this up. It's well written and manages to throw in a variety of genres while staying true to the bizarro genre.
I picked this up for free and can't believe I haven't heard of this book. How did it slip passed me? It really doesn't matter but I am glad I read it. Do yourself a favor and stop reading this review and pick yourself up a copy.
I picked this up for free and can't believe I haven't heard of this book. How did it slip passed me? It really doesn't matter but I am glad I read it. Do yourself a favor and stop reading this review and pick yourself up a copy.
April 16, 2014
Trippy. Burroughs. Beat. Trippy.
Not bizarro, as many are claiming, but Beat.
Only Beat.
Beat.
Not bizarro, as many are claiming, but Beat.
Only Beat.
Beat.
October 31, 2017
Punk, strange, amazing - this is tough book even to describe (but I will have a go). Roughly speaking it is the adventures of Charlie, Dean and Snowy in an apocalyptic war-torn Sydney from a parallel universe. The Chinese military is beseiging the outer suburbs using war machines that seem to date from World War One. Meanwhile the cityfolk are running wild in "the Darklands", where sex and drug parties happen on a farcical scale. If that seems interesting to you then you should probably ignore the rest of this review and jump straight into it (I'm going to rant on for a bit and it may compromise your "what the fuck!" experience).
This novel is evidently inspired by Burroughs and the "Interzone" as well as possibly "a Clockwork Orange". It also made me think of Australian punk films such as "Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em"(88) and "Going Down"(83). Occasionally the novel makes its literary influences far too obvious and starts to feel like a homage (ie the Chinaski stuff). I would have preferred less of the overt references - this book stands alone as a totally unique work.
I still have no idea what is up with the title - Blockpanda. It doesn't seem to have any relevance to the story. But maybe I just don't get it. It's also never explained why there aren't more shells falling into the Darklands. Or what the pink mist is. I'm also skeptical that Ibotenic acid passes unchanged through the human body (I even went to wikipedia with that one). Also note that a lot of the ideas here appear in "Underneath the Stairwell" in a lesser form. I would encourage readers to avoid that entirely before launching into Blockpanda.
I occasionally felt the work was slanted too far on the hetero male side of things. There's not many female characters and there's someone called the "Quacking Faggot" who is the subject of various unflattering annecdotes.
I thought some of the narrative elements didn't coexist too well. For example the twins didn't fit very well alongside Marion. It was no problem for me that a lot of the story was weird vignettes from the Darklands. But maybe some of the overarching elements should be cut in order to properly develop the other overarching elements.
Despite the prose being actually very fluid and even well-edited, the story retains a very raw, punk, imperfect feeling. So I'm reluctant to imply that it could be improved with more work. Honestly this is the most fun Australian novel I've read in years. Absolutely five stars from me.
This novel is evidently inspired by Burroughs and the "Interzone" as well as possibly "a Clockwork Orange". It also made me think of Australian punk films such as "Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em"(88) and "Going Down"(83). Occasionally the novel makes its literary influences far too obvious and starts to feel like a homage (ie the Chinaski stuff). I would have preferred less of the overt references - this book stands alone as a totally unique work.
I still have no idea what is up with the title - Blockpanda. It doesn't seem to have any relevance to the story. But maybe I just don't get it. It's also never explained why there aren't more shells falling into the Darklands. Or what the pink mist is. I'm also skeptical that Ibotenic acid passes unchanged through the human body (I even went to wikipedia with that one). Also note that a lot of the ideas here appear in "Underneath the Stairwell" in a lesser form. I would encourage readers to avoid that entirely before launching into Blockpanda.
I occasionally felt the work was slanted too far on the hetero male side of things. There's not many female characters and there's someone called the "Quacking Faggot" who is the subject of various unflattering annecdotes.
I thought some of the narrative elements didn't coexist too well. For example the twins didn't fit very well alongside Marion. It was no problem for me that a lot of the story was weird vignettes from the Darklands. But maybe some of the overarching elements should be cut in order to properly develop the other overarching elements.
Despite the prose being actually very fluid and even well-edited, the story retains a very raw, punk, imperfect feeling. So I'm reluctant to imply that it could be improved with more work. Honestly this is the most fun Australian novel I've read in years. Absolutely five stars from me.
February 4, 2017
This book offers some great tips about how to advance a plot AND predict what a character will do next based solely on the contents of their bookshelves. Even better, there are some helpful hits on how to get the best quality asshole gape out of a woman using amyl nitrate and a photographer with lightning sharp reflexes. There's even a plot to be found here, but it pales in comparison to the many other wonders waiting to be discovered.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews