Shamanspace

by Steve Aylett

What if god were found to exist? What if revenge were possible? Competing groups of assassins race to exterminate the creator, with young gun Alix the favourite. But conflict among the Edgemen sends Alix in pursuit of renegade shaman Quinas and a psychic splinter group. Waging multidimensional war, the edgemen travel through sidespace to confront at last the source of evil and hit back at a toxic universe even at the risk of ending it. This short poetic novella is a dense, corrosive satirical trip. Unlike most Aylett books, there are very few humorous diversions. It's like having a bucket of spiked sherbet dumped into your skull. Grant Morrison, creator of The “Imagine Gnosticism and Existentialism forced to fuck at gunpoint by a leering gang of vicious academics, or THE MATRIX choreographed by Samuel Beckett for MTV. Imagine assassinating the entire universe with just one bullet in the right place. SHAMANSPACE is as short, seductive and deadly as a bad midget in a shiny red coat. Aylett deals prose that belongs on the Class A drugs schedule and cruelly condenses two thousand years of dualist thinking into a fluorescent cocktail of cynical adventure. SHAMANSPACE explains why we're here, what it's all for, and why we shouldtry our best to kill it as soon as possible. If you've been waiting for someone to toss off a Bible for the 21st century, if you've been waiting for the kill order on rave culture and the chemical generation, if you've been waiting for the first great neo-modernist novelist of the new century ...your wait is now over.”Praise for Steve “Distressingly brilliant” – The Guardian“Frenzied and freewheeling” – Washington Post “Aylett’s prose is like poetry” – The Independent“A dizzying psychedelic rush” – The Times

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Cyberpunk, Bizarro Fiction, Novels

128 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2002

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

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently reread this book and loved it. I didn't like it the first time. But I felt like I was missing something and gave it another shot. I'm glad I did.

It seems like I have to be in a particular mood to enjoy an Aylett book, and this one more than the others. It's drastically different from his other work: no jokes on every page, no over the top wackiness. This is a serious book and it reads like a modernized version of an epic poem. I would really like to read another book of this kind from Aylett. The prose is marvelous.

[aden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unless you naturally think in the very odd way this author writes, you have to give this book your undivided attention or else you won't understand what the actual fuck is going on. I didn't for a lot of it. Thankfully this is short book, and thankfully the writing isn't just lyrically dense for the sake of it; it's genuinely poetic once you get the hang of it, if mentally exhausting. The plot is so absurd though that the prose kind of fits. I think the gist is that post-singularity(?) people find God in hyperspace, and they find they are bored enough and indignant enough at god's deterministic cruelty that fuck it, maybe they'll kill god. And hey, god himself probably wants to be killed by his creation anyways, or maybe he's just conflicted and doesn't know what he wants. It's clever and funny, I enjoyed the ride for the most part. Also, that's only the plot on the surface (whatever "plot" means for a book like this), I think the dialogue about what god really is is the main juice of the story. Ended kind of oddly; thinking I'll have to reread parts once my brain can focus properly

[Julien · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the heck?

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of several possible epitomes of alt-SF. The writing is ridiculously dense and poetic.

Also, this isn't a challenge most people are up to or would be interested in meeting. Good read doesn't mean easy read.

Science fiction/theological fiction/prose-poetry.

If you have the attention span and determination to stick with it, this book is very rewarding, funny, good read. However, I had to re-learn how to read a book, or better said I had to learn how to read Aylett's writing.

[Ramón Nogueras Pérez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si Grant Morrison dice que tu libro es bueno, eso es que como mínimo va a ser raro. Y este lo es. También es el excelente ejemplo de una ciencia ficción diferente y alternativa que querría ver más a menudo.

Alyx va a matar a Dios por todo lo que ha hecho. Hay gente en contra, porque creen que eso acabaría el universo. Otros están a favor. Y de eso trata todo. ¿Puede uno asesinarse a sí mismo?

[Bookmarvel]

Well I bought this book to turn into blackout poetry and I didn’t really expect that much from it, but I just did not understand it at all. Like I could understand sentences and sometimes paragraphs, but I don’t know anything about the world or how it works, and like wtf is the magic/dimensional traveling/ethereal shit? And is there a plot? I kinda expected it to be bad but I didn’t expect it to be unfollowable, I feel like I just missed all of the world building and explanation of the physics of the world.
I am very excited to try and make poetry out of it tho, it’s probably not gonna make any sense but it’ll probably make more sense than this book lol.

Ok I read some other reviews and it seems that it’s like prose poetry and it’s not really supposed to have a plot? Which is very valid.

[Steve Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good flow, lots of phonetic beauty, not much story.

[Anton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Написано бодро и виртуозно, но на заявленные в аннотации и цитатах на обложке вопросы книга, разумеется, ответы не даёт.

[Jindae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two factions of psychic assassins race to kill the demiurge, or enact its suicidal urge on its behalf, whatever. An immensely goated schizo-lyrical; you should read it.

[Aphrael · Rating 2 out of 5]

short. story and world are interesting. writing is so poetic that it's nearly unintelligible. I'm not sure if that made it good or just pretentious.

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trying to describe Steve Aylett’s wacky prose and wild adventures are like describing the wind on your face. And the imaginative Shamanspace is no different. God has been proven to exist and opposing groups of occult assassins compete to exterminate the supreme being. And it all gets weird from there. Complete with Aylett’s own illustrations and dynamic prose, Shamanspace is a fine novel from one of the freshest voices in fantastic fiction.

[Steve Lew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing after Slaughtermatic, where the latter is funny and fresh this one is self-consciously stylish, and the philosophical undertones are undercooked. Still, his voice is unique and unusual and his wordplay is expert.

[Nick · Rating 5 out of 5]

God has been proven to exist. the only answer. Kill him. Fantastic book. One of the best. Truly original.

[Colette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is out of print now and that makes it special.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

The man certainly knows how to turn a phrase and the ideas are a mile a minute.

[ZeN · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a second read Shamanspace remains simply just ok. Aylett is an incredible wordsmith, his eventual plot points and story arcs, are not always as brilliant.