The Twist

by Richard Calder

Book by Calder, Richard

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surreal western evoking Henry Darger, Angela Carter, and Lucius Shepard(especially the Nazi fantasia of “The Spanish Lesson” and “Bound for Glory”(a chapter bears this title.). A mix of western, 50’s sci fi b-movies, dark fantasy, and an exploration of death. This is a mix of ridiculous and the sublime like all Calder. A 14 year old girl narrates the proceedings like a jaded post grad, people quote Schopenhauer during gunfights, but the hallucinatory imagery and beautiful prose makes this so weird you can’t help but love it a little bit.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just don't think this quite ended up being my thing. The world seemed at times richly imagined, but then at others simply confused and I couldn't get a handle on which imagined "where" and "when" it was supposed to be, and also kind of "why." The protagonist was kind of the same, perhaps a bit of how she came across being more important than how she was. It just ended up seeming more of an interesting idea without the proper execution, at least for me. It wasn't bad, but I just couldn't care quire enough and kept finding myself waiting for it to be over.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is really bizarre. I appreciated the creative ideas, but I just don't get how everything is supposed to fit together. I mean a book on death might make sense, but a 9 year old alcoholic? Who has always skipped school and never reads, but is somehow always quoting literature and translates into multiple languages? It also feels quite dated with a lot of Nazi and communist stuff.

[Aricia Gavriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book my any means, but though it kept me reading and entertained, I didn't lose myself in it -- which I always do with a book that strikes a chord. Calder writes well, but there are just so many diverging threads in this book, I *think* that to make it truly coherent it needed to be about twice as long. Which would also mean it needed twice as much plot. Hmm. As I said, not a bad book by any means, but at the end I closed the back cover on it thinking, "That was all right," rather than "OMG that was incredible." I like Calder's "voice" enough to read him again, if I come across him.

[Zwahk Muchoney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another story from Richard Calder about a regular guy and his magical girlfriend with superpowers. It's kind of a theme in his books, this story kind of has a Westworld vibe, the dialogue is fancy and British which is a little odd considering the setting is in America oh, I know what Americans talk like and they never talked this fancy unless they're in a Renaissance fair or trying to get your money. It's a clever book although I wouldn't recommend it to anyone under the age of 16 as there's some sexual content, granted I would say that about everything by the offer so there you go, worth checking out if you enjoy science fiction Westerns

[Patrick Schreiber · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’d describe the genre as gothic romance fantasy sci-fi western dystopia.

Honestly maybe I just didn’t get it. The protagonist is an overly mature, hard drinking, nine year old girl (not fourteen) with a love and fascination of death. The language used is overly verbose and complex, at times I thought the author was trying to get as much use out of his thesaurus as possible.

The characters aren’t even two dimensional, they are one beat. As soon as a character is introduced you pretty much know everything you need to know about them. With one exception for a character that is introduced only so that there is someone to betray the group.

The plot was mediocre and mostly centred around this nine year old girl saving hardened gunslingers and literal all powerful aliens from situations they couldn’t think their way out of. Extremely predictable at all times. The ending is essentially explained not even two thirds into the book and takes more than the last hundred pages to unfold.

Still, I read it to the end because I was waiting for “The Twist” but other than that being the name of possibly the fourth most important character there was none.

Also it’s a little creepy that all the female characters except for the massively fat, despised mother of the nine year old, a crone housekeeper, and a withered crone “big bad” that is in the book for all of two pages before she takes full possession of a younger host are sexy tweens.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book paints a very novel picture of the future, with a wild-west edge thrown in. While the characters seem amoral, they are still relatable.