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This Devil's Dice
You can thank a twenty-seven year old heartbroken prodigy for the evolution of crime.
Meet Ethan. Stroke survivor. Scientific student supreme and the first to fabricate genetic identity, a discovery that will change humanity forever. Headhunted and financed by the Baron Vladimir Medvedkov, Ethan is given his chance to shun the scientific community and stun the world with his work. As intellectually wired as young Ethan is, he never suspects that the string of unusual murders rocking the city is linked to his cherished research. Because his only true aspiration is to find her. But is the reason he can't more frightening than losing her in the first place?
This Devil's Dice is a psychological thriller that spins out the consequences of the choices we make within the circumstances we're dealt. Rather than conventional chapters, this novel is divided into six sections. Alternative and unique in look, style and feel, it is delirious with description, subdivided by ink-stained visuals, and self-reflexive as it gets.
Meet Ethan. Stroke survivor. Scientific student supreme and the first to fabricate genetic identity, a discovery that will change humanity forever. Headhunted and financed by the Baron Vladimir Medvedkov, Ethan is given his chance to shun the scientific community and stun the world with his work. As intellectually wired as young Ethan is, he never suspects that the string of unusual murders rocking the city is linked to his cherished research. Because his only true aspiration is to find her. But is the reason he can't more frightening than losing her in the first place?
This Devil's Dice is a psychological thriller that spins out the consequences of the choices we make within the circumstances we're dealt. Rather than conventional chapters, this novel is divided into six sections. Alternative and unique in look, style and feel, it is delirious with description, subdivided by ink-stained visuals, and self-reflexive as it gets.
ebook
First published August 22, 2011
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29 people want to read
About the author
Jackson Spence
1 book15 followersIf you were lead to believe that Jackson Spence* once came from royalty only later to be disowned, you’d be wrong and we apologise for that. That he was a disgraced politician, a debauched circus performer, a disembowelled (m)anorexic or a disgruntled rock star you would unfortunately again be wrong. We prostrate ourselves before thee and humbly ask your forgiveness, for Jackson Spence is not, in fact, one person, but actually two. His familiars come in the form of a boy and a girl who reside in the beautiful city of Cape Town, South Africa. In the shadows of Table Mountain, with pointed pitchforks and sharpened knives, they sit forever ready to feast on the facts of life. One of them is qualified in advertising and the other has a doctorate in neuropsychology. You can decide which belongs to whom; they really don’t seem to care.
*Jackson Spence could not be found for comment
*Jackson Spence could not be found for comment
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 7, 2011
I must first of all say that I was approached by the writer-duo Jackson Spence who offered me a Kindle copy of ‘This Devil’s Dice’ for review.
The novel opens with a rather dramatic event occurring in the first couple of pages, but then goes back in time and officially starts with the introduction of its protagonist, Ethan, his girlfriend Olivia and a Russian magnate referred to as ‘The Baron’ (the latter, for some odd reason, I kept picturing as Gary Oldman in the film ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’). Ethan is a scientist of some sort who is being approached by The Baron - for whom Olivia works as a restaurant hostess - to do some kind of research. We are not told exactly what it entails, but for the first third of the book it doesn’t matter, as the writing is intriguing and inventive; the authors have a real talent for descriptions, so much so that I found myself frequently using the highlight function on the Kindle. The book is peppered with interesting observations which, even taken in isolation, are rather insightful:
Extinction forever beckoned in the form of towering business blocks. They encircled the park as thought it were a wounded environmental activist that clung to its roots. Corporate giants glared down from their glass office barracks. Armed with espressos, laser pointers aimed like sniper scopes, they set their sights on plots, stocks and profit shares.
Society is loaded with the gunpowder of misunderstood psychology. Factoids of misinformation wielded happily by the obnoxious [...]. Limp, watered-down facts have damaged the collective psyche of society. We’re drumming ourselves down.
Possibly as a result of the ‘author’ being in fact a team of two, the style of the two passages quoted above is only one ‘voice’ in the novel, and this is where the problems begin to arise. When the character of Flo, for example, appears on the scene, the dialogue turns into some kind of Ebonics and it becomes very difficult to follow (we are never actually told where the novel is set: it’s a big city, somewhere, but the choice of vocabulary places it somewhere probably North American). Even when done by greater writers, getting street-talk right can be difficult - I’m thinking of the famous - or infamous? - ‘Wardine’ chapter in David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest . Luckily, in the latter, Wardine makes up a very small part of an otherwise monumentally-sized novel. In the case of ‘This Devil’s Dice’, the character of Flo appears again and again, initially as part of Ethan’s background story and later during an important plot development. I said important, because it should be, but by that point I had stopped really following. In fact, it really pains me to admit that, three quarters into ‘This Devil’s Dice’, I started to skim-read and turn pages as fast as I could. I am not a novelist but I imagine there are some rules in narrative writing that need to be adhered to in order to create a balanced plot; surely the enigma needs to be clearly set out, so that a resolution can emerge?
But that clearly isn’t the case with this novel; as another reviewer pointed out here on Amazon, we only learn what Ethan’s scientific discovery actually involves somewhere way past the 50% mark. That’s just too late and it suddenly makes you aware that what you have been reading prior to that is pretty much filler material which doesn’t really serve the plot. Or should I say the plots, as there is a sub-plot to the main Ethan-Baron storyline and which, as once again the other Amazon reviewer pointed out, is very cleverly put together, but has instead been relegated to the tail end of a novel that by that stage is limping to its conclusion and has no chance of redeeming what precedes it.
I had high hopes for ‘This Devil’s Dice’ because of the slick, evocative prose and sharp characterisation of its opening chapters; unfortunately, the balance of what should be the main narrative elements is all over the place and just does not engage. I was very tempted to give it three stars anyway, because of the writers’ obvious potential talent, but I could not bring myself to do so for a novel which eventually had me skim-read as fast as possible just to make it end.
The novel opens with a rather dramatic event occurring in the first couple of pages, but then goes back in time and officially starts with the introduction of its protagonist, Ethan, his girlfriend Olivia and a Russian magnate referred to as ‘The Baron’ (the latter, for some odd reason, I kept picturing as Gary Oldman in the film ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’). Ethan is a scientist of some sort who is being approached by The Baron - for whom Olivia works as a restaurant hostess - to do some kind of research. We are not told exactly what it entails, but for the first third of the book it doesn’t matter, as the writing is intriguing and inventive; the authors have a real talent for descriptions, so much so that I found myself frequently using the highlight function on the Kindle. The book is peppered with interesting observations which, even taken in isolation, are rather insightful:
Extinction forever beckoned in the form of towering business blocks. They encircled the park as thought it were a wounded environmental activist that clung to its roots. Corporate giants glared down from their glass office barracks. Armed with espressos, laser pointers aimed like sniper scopes, they set their sights on plots, stocks and profit shares.
Society is loaded with the gunpowder of misunderstood psychology. Factoids of misinformation wielded happily by the obnoxious [...]. Limp, watered-down facts have damaged the collective psyche of society. We’re drumming ourselves down.
Possibly as a result of the ‘author’ being in fact a team of two, the style of the two passages quoted above is only one ‘voice’ in the novel, and this is where the problems begin to arise. When the character of Flo, for example, appears on the scene, the dialogue turns into some kind of Ebonics and it becomes very difficult to follow (we are never actually told where the novel is set: it’s a big city, somewhere, but the choice of vocabulary places it somewhere probably North American). Even when done by greater writers, getting street-talk right can be difficult - I’m thinking of the famous - or infamous? - ‘Wardine’ chapter in David Foster Wallace Infinite Jest . Luckily, in the latter, Wardine makes up a very small part of an otherwise monumentally-sized novel. In the case of ‘This Devil’s Dice’, the character of Flo appears again and again, initially as part of Ethan’s background story and later during an important plot development. I said important, because it should be, but by that point I had stopped really following. In fact, it really pains me to admit that, three quarters into ‘This Devil’s Dice’, I started to skim-read and turn pages as fast as I could. I am not a novelist but I imagine there are some rules in narrative writing that need to be adhered to in order to create a balanced plot; surely the enigma needs to be clearly set out, so that a resolution can emerge?
But that clearly isn’t the case with this novel; as another reviewer pointed out here on Amazon, we only learn what Ethan’s scientific discovery actually involves somewhere way past the 50% mark. That’s just too late and it suddenly makes you aware that what you have been reading prior to that is pretty much filler material which doesn’t really serve the plot. Or should I say the plots, as there is a sub-plot to the main Ethan-Baron storyline and which, as once again the other Amazon reviewer pointed out, is very cleverly put together, but has instead been relegated to the tail end of a novel that by that stage is limping to its conclusion and has no chance of redeeming what precedes it.
I had high hopes for ‘This Devil’s Dice’ because of the slick, evocative prose and sharp characterisation of its opening chapters; unfortunately, the balance of what should be the main narrative elements is all over the place and just does not engage. I was very tempted to give it three stars anyway, because of the writers’ obvious potential talent, but I could not bring myself to do so for a novel which eventually had me skim-read as fast as possible just to make it end.
February 15, 2012
This was torture. Never have I slogged through so much purple prose or received so little in comparison to the effort and patience I put in.
Ethan is a 27-year old genius working on revolutionary research for his Master’s degree. He’s offered a lucrative proposition by the Baron, a ridiculously wealthy and very shady Russian who owns half the city (we’re not told which city, but it’s clearly first-world). Ethan takes the Baron up on his offer in order to escape the confines of university and the frugal lifestyle he’s been living. He also plans to dump his gorgeous girlfriend Olivia, an “imposter” who he’s only been dating because she looks like his ex-girlfriend, the woman he wants to track down and win back.
Clearly, Ethan is a complete and utter jackass, but not only because of the way he treats Olivia. He is also the narrator who spews forth most of the novel’s very purple prose and for this you will loathe him.
Read the full review on my blog Violin in a Void
Ethan is a 27-year old genius working on revolutionary research for his Master’s degree. He’s offered a lucrative proposition by the Baron, a ridiculously wealthy and very shady Russian who owns half the city (we’re not told which city, but it’s clearly first-world). Ethan takes the Baron up on his offer in order to escape the confines of university and the frugal lifestyle he’s been living. He also plans to dump his gorgeous girlfriend Olivia, an “imposter” who he’s only been dating because she looks like his ex-girlfriend, the woman he wants to track down and win back.
Clearly, Ethan is a complete and utter jackass, but not only because of the way he treats Olivia. He is also the narrator who spews forth most of the novel’s very purple prose and for this you will loathe him.
Read the full review on my blog Violin in a Void
October 22, 2011
I want to thank the author for the ebook. I did a lot of skipping forward but I wasn't to interested. in the beginning I had no idea what was going on. toward the end it gets better readers of psychological thrillers will enjoy. But for me I'm a surrealism reader. Very nice work by author on plot and characters description.
December 7, 2011
I don't really write reviews, but for this one I will since the writer sent it to me. I gave it three stars because I read it sporadically as I only really can handle 2 books at a time. It's an ambitious book, and I did enjoy it. I think it deserves a re-read at a later stage when I can give it my attention where I think the rating will increase. Thanks Jackson!
November 4, 2011
This book is different. Very Different. A plot full of intrigue, knowledge,beautiful word imagery abound as one meets the characters and it all unfolds. An indulgent, intelligent and interesting read with an ending that leaves the reader questioning, could this really happen? This Devil's Dice left me completely spellbound and questioning my own sanity by the end of it.
November 3, 2011
A descriptive chef d'oeuvre. Words, intricately woven, capturing the layers and textures of a nameless city, its vixens and villains, the lost, the lonely, the forgotten. Let the exploits of the protagonist serve as a warning to all who pursue their desires with blind, unadulterated ambition.
January 15, 2012
Olivia works as a hostess at a restaurant owned by Vladimar Medvedkov, a powerful man who craves more. When her boss calls her boyfriend Ethan for a meeting, Olivia is excited. She believes only good things will happen with the Baron involved and wants Ethan to impress him.
Ethan is a scientist who has been working in his lab for years on human genetics. What he believes is possible he cannot prove. He doesn't have the finances to put his theories into practice. However, Vladimar offers him his dream and more.
Olivia is thrilled that her boss and Ethan are working together, even though she isn't sure what it's about. She's confident she will find out though, she and Ethan are very close. When Ethan has a stroke, though, things change between them. She isn't the Olivia he fell in love with and is an imposter - he begins to hate her.
When there are some weird murders in the area, Ethan's life becomes endangered. He just wants to find his one true love, Olivia, but will he find her in time? Ethan has no idea that it is brilliant science that is linked to the murders, and he will be an accessory, along with his Professor and the Baron. But if he can't find Olivia, what will it matter?
The Devil's Dice is a compelling, clever and thrilling novel that will keep you on your toes. There are essentially two main storylines that weave together in and out. The characters are impeccably developed and the dialogue is very sharp and clever. The problem I had with this novel is that I wasn't sure what was going on until I was over a hundred pages in. I kept with it because the writing really caught my attention, but I think I would have liked a bit more character backstory so I knew what I could anticipate. That said, I loved the last half of the novel and at that point, the beginning began to take shape in my mind and the puzzle pieces fell into place. I will definitely be looking for future works from this author team Michelle Jackson & Stuart Spence.
Ethan is a scientist who has been working in his lab for years on human genetics. What he believes is possible he cannot prove. He doesn't have the finances to put his theories into practice. However, Vladimar offers him his dream and more.
Olivia is thrilled that her boss and Ethan are working together, even though she isn't sure what it's about. She's confident she will find out though, she and Ethan are very close. When Ethan has a stroke, though, things change between them. She isn't the Olivia he fell in love with and is an imposter - he begins to hate her.
When there are some weird murders in the area, Ethan's life becomes endangered. He just wants to find his one true love, Olivia, but will he find her in time? Ethan has no idea that it is brilliant science that is linked to the murders, and he will be an accessory, along with his Professor and the Baron. But if he can't find Olivia, what will it matter?
The Devil's Dice is a compelling, clever and thrilling novel that will keep you on your toes. There are essentially two main storylines that weave together in and out. The characters are impeccably developed and the dialogue is very sharp and clever. The problem I had with this novel is that I wasn't sure what was going on until I was over a hundred pages in. I kept with it because the writing really caught my attention, but I think I would have liked a bit more character backstory so I knew what I could anticipate. That said, I loved the last half of the novel and at that point, the beginning began to take shape in my mind and the puzzle pieces fell into place. I will definitely be looking for future works from this author team Michelle Jackson & Stuart Spence.
November 11, 2011
Reading this book, I was reminded of two aspects that make reading such a pleasure.
Firstly, when it comes to reading a good book, the process is as important as the destination. Some people, perhaps due to impatience, are frustrated when books provide details and take time to develop a rich plot. But when reading, it's not so much the destination we are concerned about as the road that takes us there. That;s what I enjoyed about this book - the author(s) take their time to introduce and develop both characters and plot. If you are looking to embark on a literary journey - this is a book that will take you on one.
Secondly, fiction has an ability (if written well) to transport a person to a familiar-yet-different reality. So it was with this book - one enters a world that is simultaneously both familiar and strange. What that does is create a totally unique environment in which the characters and plot take center stage, where the city that forms the backdrop also helps shape the story.
This book is definitely a good read - if you enjoy reading as a process & being transported into another reality, check it out. If you have a lack of literary patience, then congrats for getting to the end of this review (oh, and this book is probably not for you then).
Firstly, when it comes to reading a good book, the process is as important as the destination. Some people, perhaps due to impatience, are frustrated when books provide details and take time to develop a rich plot. But when reading, it's not so much the destination we are concerned about as the road that takes us there. That;s what I enjoyed about this book - the author(s) take their time to introduce and develop both characters and plot. If you are looking to embark on a literary journey - this is a book that will take you on one.
Secondly, fiction has an ability (if written well) to transport a person to a familiar-yet-different reality. So it was with this book - one enters a world that is simultaneously both familiar and strange. What that does is create a totally unique environment in which the characters and plot take center stage, where the city that forms the backdrop also helps shape the story.
This book is definitely a good read - if you enjoy reading as a process & being transported into another reality, check it out. If you have a lack of literary patience, then congrats for getting to the end of this review (oh, and this book is probably not for you then).
October 26, 2011
I tried to read this but I cannot read anymore I just could not get into it. I kept waiting for something to happen and it hasn't. The plot seems very dry to me and its hard to follow. I couldn't tell if the character was talking or the author as a narrator. A lot of big words were used where they didn't need to be and it made it hard to follow. It would be a good book if your into the kind of genre it is.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews