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Skullcrack City
"A nightmarish yet hilarious journey that begins in the ugly world of toxic mortgages and progresses to the slightly uglier world of brain-eating monsters lurking in dark alleys. You're in for an entirely unpredictable ride, the tale spinning ludicrously out of control as the hero uncovers layer after grotesque layer of a vast macabre conspiracy. Skullcrack City is original, utterly insane, and a shitload of fun."-- DAVID WONG , author of John Dies at the End
You weren't always an agent of the apocalypse. You used to be a banker. Who knew that too much coffee and a few bad decisions would lead to the end of the world?
Life as a corporate drone was killing S.P. Doyle, so he decided to bring down the whole corrupt system from the inside. But after discovering something monstrous in the bank's files, he was framed for murder and trapped inside a conspiracy beyond reason.
Now Doyle's doing his best to survive against a nightmare cabal of crooked conglomerates, DNA-doped mutants, drug-addled freak show celebs, experimental surgeons, depraved doomsday cults, and the ultra-bad mojo of a full-blown Hexadrine habit. Joined by his pet turtle Deckard, and Dara, a beautiful missionary with a murderous past, Doyle must find a way to save humankind and fight the terrible truth at the heart of...
SKULLCRACK CITY
You weren't always an agent of the apocalypse. You used to be a banker. Who knew that too much coffee and a few bad decisions would lead to the end of the world?
Life as a corporate drone was killing S.P. Doyle, so he decided to bring down the whole corrupt system from the inside. But after discovering something monstrous in the bank's files, he was framed for murder and trapped inside a conspiracy beyond reason.
Now Doyle's doing his best to survive against a nightmare cabal of crooked conglomerates, DNA-doped mutants, drug-addled freak show celebs, experimental surgeons, depraved doomsday cults, and the ultra-bad mojo of a full-blown Hexadrine habit. Joined by his pet turtle Deckard, and Dara, a beautiful missionary with a murderous past, Doyle must find a way to save humankind and fight the terrible truth at the heart of...
SKULLCRACK CITY
227 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2015
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4546 people want to read
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August 18, 2015
Corporate slave S.P. Doyle, whose best friends are his pet turtle and his Hex addiction, sees conspiracies everywhere linking his bank to some unspeakable evil. When he's framed for murder, his conspiracies don't seem so far fetched anymore...
First off, I really hate elevator pitches but this is Office Space meets Breaking Bad meets Cthulhu.
I've lost some of my bizarro sensitivity over the years but this one was pretty strange. Doyle takes the mind-warping drug Hex and soon finds himself involved with a sinster corporation and the extra-dimensional evil it's linked to. Jeremy Robert Johnson takes some urban fantasy tropes and burns them into a fine ash before snorting them.
The writing is several notches above most bizarro fare and it has a lot of momentum once it's revealed Doyle is actually on to something and not just a burned out addict. Doyle reads like a drug-addled version of Arthur Dent, kind of a clueless guy in way over his head. There was some insta-love I didn't care for but the supporting cast was interesting when they weren't dying in horrible ways.
Aside from the previously-mentioned insta-love, the only part I didn't really care for was the end. All things considered, Skullcrack City was a cracking good read. Four out of five stars.
First off, I really hate elevator pitches but this is Office Space meets Breaking Bad meets Cthulhu.
I've lost some of my bizarro sensitivity over the years but this one was pretty strange. Doyle takes the mind-warping drug Hex and soon finds himself involved with a sinster corporation and the extra-dimensional evil it's linked to. Jeremy Robert Johnson takes some urban fantasy tropes and burns them into a fine ash before snorting them.
The writing is several notches above most bizarro fare and it has a lot of momentum once it's revealed Doyle is actually on to something and not just a burned out addict. Doyle reads like a drug-addled version of Arthur Dent, kind of a clueless guy in way over his head. There was some insta-love I didn't care for but the supporting cast was interesting when they weren't dying in horrible ways.
Aside from the previously-mentioned insta-love, the only part I didn't really care for was the end. All things considered, Skullcrack City was a cracking good read. Four out of five stars.
September 7, 2018
This morning I was in bed staring at the ceiling until I felt my eyes glaze over; my brain a flurry of activity: How in the hell do you write a review for a book like this?
I buddy read this with my best friend, Mindi (which means we just acknowledge we'll read a specific book around the same time. Haha! She devoured this one & I went meticulous with it). Mindi offered to write her review first so I could see where she went with it and now that I've read her review and a few others from some people I trust, I have what I want to say, sorted.
*cracking my knuckles and taking a deep breath* Let's do this.
I think the tendency here would be to make a lot of comparisons--Skullcrack City reminded me of *this* or this is a mash-up of this & that but Skullcrack City isn't really like anything else and Jeremy R Johnson has his own, peculiar voice so I'm going to try to avoid comparisons.
This book cannot be pigeonholed into any one genre or even three. If I was forced to shelve it under anything, I'd put it under "Bizzaro Fiction"/"Cyberpunk"/"Horror".
The first part of the book is unputdownable-I was immediately sucked into the protagonist's insane lifestyle. For several chapters Johnson demonstrates what he does best: Character-driven world building with decorative, hilarious, mind-blowing language. Line by line this is technicolor brilliance, I almost wanted to whip out my journal and write quotes down so I could use them to impress my friends with my fancy expletives (but I didn't because I was busy reading and I didn't want to kill the vibe).
After an event in the story, we enter into an entirely different narrative style and that same protagonist had suddenly grown on me in a way that wasn't there before. It was a complete shift in gears that was so jarring, at first I couldn't hang with it, what's different about Doyle? Why do I suddenly like him and I'm accepting this love interest thing with this newly introduced character, Dara? But then I remembered I met Doyle in extreme duress and in a drug-induced state of paranoia--this is Doyle, sober. There was a come-down here in the middle of the book and then just as things feel a little 'roomy' and 'normal' Johnson shifts gears and I'm off to the races-again. It's bananas and I loved it. It required a total abandonment of all my presumptions and anticipation--this is a ride and it was best if I just let go of the safety bar, put my hands in the air and enjoyed it.
Just because this book sounds fucked up and weird shouldn't turn you off--I can recommend this to literally anyone because I can easily build bridges from this story to anyone's pet-favorite genre (except maybe YA Fantasy-I got none of that showing up here). I think it would help to read his collection, Entropy in Bloom, first. Just to dip your toe in Johnson's unique brand of weird and you'd get an introduction to the League of Zeroes, which goes deeper in Skullcrack City-I enjoyed that immensely and I was glad I already knew about 'Body Mods".
Finally, This is your brain *shows egg* this is your brain on drugs *cracks egg into a hot pan* this is your brain on Jeremy R Johnson *slides egg into a VitaMix blender on level 10*
Drinks it.
I buddy read this with my best friend, Mindi (which means we just acknowledge we'll read a specific book around the same time. Haha! She devoured this one & I went meticulous with it). Mindi offered to write her review first so I could see where she went with it and now that I've read her review and a few others from some people I trust, I have what I want to say, sorted.
*cracking my knuckles and taking a deep breath* Let's do this.
I think the tendency here would be to make a lot of comparisons--Skullcrack City reminded me of *this* or this is a mash-up of this & that but Skullcrack City isn't really like anything else and Jeremy R Johnson has his own, peculiar voice so I'm going to try to avoid comparisons.
This book cannot be pigeonholed into any one genre or even three. If I was forced to shelve it under anything, I'd put it under "Bizzaro Fiction"/"Cyberpunk"/"Horror".
The first part of the book is unputdownable-I was immediately sucked into the protagonist's insane lifestyle. For several chapters Johnson demonstrates what he does best: Character-driven world building with decorative, hilarious, mind-blowing language. Line by line this is technicolor brilliance, I almost wanted to whip out my journal and write quotes down so I could use them to impress my friends with my fancy expletives (but I didn't because I was busy reading and I didn't want to kill the vibe).
After an event in the story, we enter into an entirely different narrative style and that same protagonist had suddenly grown on me in a way that wasn't there before. It was a complete shift in gears that was so jarring, at first I couldn't hang with it, what's different about Doyle? Why do I suddenly like him and I'm accepting this love interest thing with this newly introduced character, Dara? But then I remembered I met Doyle in extreme duress and in a drug-induced state of paranoia--this is Doyle, sober. There was a come-down here in the middle of the book and then just as things feel a little 'roomy' and 'normal' Johnson shifts gears and I'm off to the races-again. It's bananas and I loved it. It required a total abandonment of all my presumptions and anticipation--this is a ride and it was best if I just let go of the safety bar, put my hands in the air and enjoyed it.
Just because this book sounds fucked up and weird shouldn't turn you off--I can recommend this to literally anyone because I can easily build bridges from this story to anyone's pet-favorite genre (except maybe YA Fantasy-I got none of that showing up here). I think it would help to read his collection, Entropy in Bloom, first. Just to dip your toe in Johnson's unique brand of weird and you'd get an introduction to the League of Zeroes, which goes deeper in Skullcrack City-I enjoyed that immensely and I was glad I already knew about 'Body Mods".
Finally, This is your brain *shows egg* this is your brain on drugs *cracks egg into a hot pan* this is your brain on Jeremy R Johnson *slides egg into a VitaMix blender on level 10*
Drinks it.
September 6, 2018
Earlier this year my friend Sadie read Entropy in Bloom due to a recommendation from our other friend Emily, but also because the cover spoke to her. Sadie has taught me to really appreciate covers, and that one is fantastic. Once she finished she told me I absolutely needed to read it, and of course she was right. Thus, a new favorite author was added to our lists. Suddenly, we needed all of his published works, like yesterday. So we both bought Skullcrack City and planned a buddy read.
I'm absolutely terrible at buddy reads unless you read fast. Sadie likes to savor. She likes to take her time, and I'm one of those people who starts a book, and then looks up at the clock, only to notice that 4 hours have gone by and I'm halfway done. I'm sure she probably expected that for this buddy read as well, and if so she would have been right. I devoured this one.
This book is so out there and hilarious, I hesitate to mention any of the plot. I don't even know if I could properly sum up the plot in a succinct manner. There is so much going on in this book, and all of it is bananas crazy. I'll just say this: S.P. Doyle is a banker who has had it with the BS of corporate life. The only pleasures he has is his turtle Deckard, and a drug called Hexadrine. Suddenly Doyle is convinced there is something shady going on with the bank, so while blasted out of his mind on Hex he decides to take the company down from the inside. Eventually he ends up finding out way more than his Hex addled brain could ever have imagined.
This book is laugh out loud funny. It's so bizarre, and ridiculous, and utterly engrossing. I was so invested in Doyle's story and the insane level of conspiracies that he uncovers. This book is like a rollercoaster that you just want to keep riding. I had so much fun with this book, and now I'm anxiously awaiting something new from Johnson. His mind goes to those messed up places that I love to lurk around in. I'm ready to get back on the rollercoaster.
I'm absolutely terrible at buddy reads unless you read fast. Sadie likes to savor. She likes to take her time, and I'm one of those people who starts a book, and then looks up at the clock, only to notice that 4 hours have gone by and I'm halfway done. I'm sure she probably expected that for this buddy read as well, and if so she would have been right. I devoured this one.
This book is so out there and hilarious, I hesitate to mention any of the plot. I don't even know if I could properly sum up the plot in a succinct manner. There is so much going on in this book, and all of it is bananas crazy. I'll just say this: S.P. Doyle is a banker who has had it with the BS of corporate life. The only pleasures he has is his turtle Deckard, and a drug called Hexadrine. Suddenly Doyle is convinced there is something shady going on with the bank, so while blasted out of his mind on Hex he decides to take the company down from the inside. Eventually he ends up finding out way more than his Hex addled brain could ever have imagined.
This book is laugh out loud funny. It's so bizarre, and ridiculous, and utterly engrossing. I was so invested in Doyle's story and the insane level of conspiracies that he uncovers. This book is like a rollercoaster that you just want to keep riding. I had so much fun with this book, and now I'm anxiously awaiting something new from Johnson. His mind goes to those messed up places that I love to lurk around in. I'm ready to get back on the rollercoaster.
May 20, 2016
Skullcrack City is a four-course meal of a novel. Rife with humor, horror, action, and an imagination so unrivaled, I’m surprised my brain didn’t turn to liquid and leak out my ears.
Seamlessly stitched together from a bunch of disparate genres, this is a Frankenstein’s monster of a book that doesn’t hesitate to attack the villagers from every angle. Bizarro, crime, horror, humor: the writing employs several different genre-narrative techniques at once that somehow gel into a cohesive whole.
Now there was a moment, in the middle, where I thought the book started to drag its feet. I’m a reader who likes IDEAS, and not just ideas, but BIG IDEAS that play out in BIG SCENES. And as we move through the rising action that lie at the center of this book, it almost felt a little too noir-ish for me. This, after we spent the beginning of the book playing out what is essentially a drug-addled techno-heist that smoothly segues into weird monster/cosmic horror. I said to myself, “Oh boy, we’re losing steam here.” And it really bummed me out because I liked the opening chapters so much. But HOLY SHIT was I wrong in thinking this novel was just coasting on fumes, because the upswing from the middle into the ending is FULL-ON bonkers. It was exactly what I wanted. And more.
I tried to not discuss the plot in this review at all. The blinder you go in, the more shocking it will all play out.
This is the kind of book you want to tell your friends about. Johnson nailed it.
Seamlessly stitched together from a bunch of disparate genres, this is a Frankenstein’s monster of a book that doesn’t hesitate to attack the villagers from every angle. Bizarro, crime, horror, humor: the writing employs several different genre-narrative techniques at once that somehow gel into a cohesive whole.
Now there was a moment, in the middle, where I thought the book started to drag its feet. I’m a reader who likes IDEAS, and not just ideas, but BIG IDEAS that play out in BIG SCENES. And as we move through the rising action that lie at the center of this book, it almost felt a little too noir-ish for me. This, after we spent the beginning of the book playing out what is essentially a drug-addled techno-heist that smoothly segues into weird monster/cosmic horror. I said to myself, “Oh boy, we’re losing steam here.” And it really bummed me out because I liked the opening chapters so much. But HOLY SHIT was I wrong in thinking this novel was just coasting on fumes, because the upswing from the middle into the ending is FULL-ON bonkers. It was exactly what I wanted. And more.
I tried to not discuss the plot in this review at all. The blinder you go in, the more shocking it will all play out.
This is the kind of book you want to tell your friends about. Johnson nailed it.
July 12, 2019
A fun futuristic action romp that takes you through one outrageous set piece after another. A sort of Island Of Dr Moreau meets The Matrix as written by William Gibson, only much much cooler! I could not possibly begin to explain all the different elements that make up this novel-so many gonzo ideas that should never come together and work as a whole, yet Johnson somehow make it all work, and work brilliantly. So many genres represented here, from science fiction to horror, to cyberpunk. There’s also humor aplenty in the middle of all the death and destruction, and a great love story to boot. Jeremy Robert Johnson is the real deal! If you loved Entropy In Bloom, a brilliant genre mashing cornucopia of ideas and one of my favorite books of the year, you’re sure to love this.
April 8, 2020
-Dos partes con mismo fondo e intención, pero con distintas decisiones narrativas y estilísticas.-
Género. Narrativa fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Ciudad revientacráneos (publicación original: Skullcrack City, 2015), con introducción de Francisco Jota-Pérez, nos presenta a Shenanigans Patrick Doyle quien, en un futuro cercano, es empleado de banca con nueve entidades distintas a sus espaldas después de trece años de profesión. Su banco actual le ofrece un ascenso para ocuparse del cumplimiento normativo de la entidad, un eufemismo para que se encargue de tapar todos los desmanes antes de sean descubiertos, y S. P. Doyle acepta. Pero su ritmo de vida, su extraña visión del mundo y su adicción a la hexadrina harán que descubra una delirante pero letal conspiración sobrenatural.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
Género. Narrativa fantástica.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Ciudad revientacráneos (publicación original: Skullcrack City, 2015), con introducción de Francisco Jota-Pérez, nos presenta a Shenanigans Patrick Doyle quien, en un futuro cercano, es empleado de banca con nueve entidades distintas a sus espaldas después de trece años de profesión. Su banco actual le ofrece un ascenso para ocuparse del cumplimiento normativo de la entidad, un eufemismo para que se encargue de tapar todos los desmanes antes de sean descubiertos, y S. P. Doyle acepta. Pero su ritmo de vida, su extraña visión del mundo y su adicción a la hexadrina harán que descubra una delirante pero letal conspiración sobrenatural.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
February 22, 2024
Doyle trabaja en un Banco, y sí, borra sus rastros fraudulentos y malas prácticas. Harto pero que muy harto, decide erigirse como el Robin Hood de la honestidad y diseña un plan para eliminar las corruptelas propias de dicha Entidad. Que se tenga que ayudar de la hexadrina, esa droga que consigue que esté despierto y se enfoque en sus loables metas, es lo de menos ¿o no?
Pero ¡ay! Lo que acaba de descubrir es algo demasiado grande, algo que amenaza con destruir la vida del planeta 🌎.
Calles vigiladas por drones, cámaras de seguridad y de revientacráneos, sí has leído bien, revientacráneos, extraños monstruos que disfrutan comiéndose el cerebro 🧠 de la ciudadanía ¿pero por qué? Doyle solo tiene una oportunidad para derrocarles ¿lo conseguirá?.
Una novela del género bizarro, que yo dividiría en dos partes: una primera muy dinámica con un lenguaje directo lleno de palabras malsonantes y humor muy negro que conseguirá que no quieras soltar el libro. La segunda parte es más compleja y requerirá mayor nivel de implicación y esfuerzo por parte del lector: prototipos, ciencia, quirófanos…Que nos llevarán a un final de esos que te dejan pensando en lo que acabas de leer y te explotará la cabeza.
Prepárate para un viaje lleno de almas rotas con sus propias voces en un mismo recipiente, mutilaciones, muertes…en definitiva un viaje contra reloj para salvar a la humanidad.
Una novela fuera de lo común, un soplo de aire fresco en el Mundillo Literario. Un autor con una imaginación desbordante y que nunca deja de sorprenderme con sus propuestas.
Pero ¡ay! Lo que acaba de descubrir es algo demasiado grande, algo que amenaza con destruir la vida del planeta 🌎.
Calles vigiladas por drones, cámaras de seguridad y de revientacráneos, sí has leído bien, revientacráneos, extraños monstruos que disfrutan comiéndose el cerebro 🧠 de la ciudadanía ¿pero por qué? Doyle solo tiene una oportunidad para derrocarles ¿lo conseguirá?.
Una novela del género bizarro, que yo dividiría en dos partes: una primera muy dinámica con un lenguaje directo lleno de palabras malsonantes y humor muy negro que conseguirá que no quieras soltar el libro. La segunda parte es más compleja y requerirá mayor nivel de implicación y esfuerzo por parte del lector: prototipos, ciencia, quirófanos…Que nos llevarán a un final de esos que te dejan pensando en lo que acabas de leer y te explotará la cabeza.
Prepárate para un viaje lleno de almas rotas con sus propias voces en un mismo recipiente, mutilaciones, muertes…en definitiva un viaje contra reloj para salvar a la humanidad.
Una novela fuera de lo común, un soplo de aire fresco en el Mundillo Literario. Un autor con una imaginación desbordante y que nunca deja de sorprenderme con sus propuestas.
May 4, 2015
This was loaned to me with really high praise, and unlike usual when a book is loaned to me with really high praise, I was freakin' pumped and ready to ride the ride. The opening did not disappoint -- Johnson's prose is spare for the most part, and lets loose with sci-fi ferocity as needed.
Plot-wise, this feels like three separate books, and I had different levels of engagement with each part. (I won't get spoiler-y here, but if that already feels like more than you want to know, feel free to bail now.)
The first part of the book is sort of like the opening of A Scanner Darkly, or maybe the Matrix or Wanted or Fight Club or, jesus, I dunno -- any book where some small sad nameless numberhead man feels like life is meaningless and he needs to fuck some shit up. In the case of Skullcrack City, our protagonist reacts to the Horror Of It All by doing lots and lots of drugs, which inspires him to try and take down the bank he works for, From the Inside. The drug stuff is gross and made grosser through explicit detail -- probably the heebie-jeebiest part of the book.
At this point, I was already sort of surprised by how conventionally SC handled itself -- the back copy sold me on some gonzo weirdness, dammit, and while the book was well written, the weirdness was kind of not-so. Kinda felt like I'd been here before.
In the second chunk of the book (and this is already intimated by the back copy, so don't freak out), our sort-of hero discovers that The Conspiracy is Real --that is, the bank really is Up to Something And He's At the Center Of It. Again, you can kind of plug in whatever conspiracy theorist sci fi you want to here --personally, I felt like Grant Morrison's The Invisibles was feeding into the mix quite a bit, but I think a lot of things would suit. And it gets extremely weird, a real left turn, and well written, a page turner -- but I still couldn't help feeling like I'd seen this before, like there was a joke I wasn't getting, or an undercurrent I'd missed that would have ramped the experience up a notch. I was kinda worried, actually, that this was all being done ironically which made me most ashamed.
BUT.
The third chapter of this book is a goddamn trip. A FUCKING GODDAMN TRIP.
I just can't stress this enough. A FUCK. ING. TRIP.
And I'm breaking this down for you, getting specific and near-spoilery in my review, because waiting til page 250 of a 330 page book for things to go from mildly weird to genuinely interesting is not really anything I would have the patience for under normal circumstances. Probably not unless the book had come to me as highly praised as it did.
And I dunno, I'm definitely not gonna say that this is my new favorite thing, or that the first 250 pages was really all that necessary. I could have dealt with the first 250 being like, 70 pages, and maybe the last 80 pages being twice as long. Seems like when you hit the good stuff you should revel, not cue the end credits.
But. BUT.
If you like sci fi that warps your brain, I guarantee -- GUARANTEE -- that this is, page for page, a better-written book than most anything you're gonna pick up this year. Dude knows how to write fucking prose. Content-wise, if it's not all gold, it's still absolutely a page-turning read, and it's never a total letdown. The weirdness ramps up by degrees, and when the book suddenly EXPLODES by the end I guarantee -- GUARANTEE -- you'll have some serious shit to think about, bro.
And I ain't gonna lie to you.
Plot-wise, this feels like three separate books, and I had different levels of engagement with each part. (I won't get spoiler-y here, but if that already feels like more than you want to know, feel free to bail now.)
The first part of the book is sort of like the opening of A Scanner Darkly, or maybe the Matrix or Wanted or Fight Club or, jesus, I dunno -- any book where some small sad nameless numberhead man feels like life is meaningless and he needs to fuck some shit up. In the case of Skullcrack City, our protagonist reacts to the Horror Of It All by doing lots and lots of drugs, which inspires him to try and take down the bank he works for, From the Inside. The drug stuff is gross and made grosser through explicit detail -- probably the heebie-jeebiest part of the book.
At this point, I was already sort of surprised by how conventionally SC handled itself -- the back copy sold me on some gonzo weirdness, dammit, and while the book was well written, the weirdness was kind of not-so. Kinda felt like I'd been here before.
In the second chunk of the book (and this is already intimated by the back copy, so don't freak out), our sort-of hero discovers that The Conspiracy is Real --that is, the bank really is Up to Something And He's At the Center Of It. Again, you can kind of plug in whatever conspiracy theorist sci fi you want to here --personally, I felt like Grant Morrison's The Invisibles was feeding into the mix quite a bit, but I think a lot of things would suit. And it gets extremely weird, a real left turn, and well written, a page turner -- but I still couldn't help feeling like I'd seen this before, like there was a joke I wasn't getting, or an undercurrent I'd missed that would have ramped the experience up a notch. I was kinda worried, actually, that this was all being done ironically which made me most ashamed.
BUT.
The third chapter of this book is a goddamn trip. A FUCKING GODDAMN TRIP.
I just can't stress this enough. A FUCK. ING. TRIP.
And I'm breaking this down for you, getting specific and near-spoilery in my review, because waiting til page 250 of a 330 page book for things to go from mildly weird to genuinely interesting is not really anything I would have the patience for under normal circumstances. Probably not unless the book had come to me as highly praised as it did.
And I dunno, I'm definitely not gonna say that this is my new favorite thing, or that the first 250 pages was really all that necessary. I could have dealt with the first 250 being like, 70 pages, and maybe the last 80 pages being twice as long. Seems like when you hit the good stuff you should revel, not cue the end credits.
But. BUT.
If you like sci fi that warps your brain, I guarantee -- GUARANTEE -- that this is, page for page, a better-written book than most anything you're gonna pick up this year. Dude knows how to write fucking prose. Content-wise, if it's not all gold, it's still absolutely a page-turning read, and it's never a total letdown. The weirdness ramps up by degrees, and when the book suddenly EXPLODES by the end I guarantee -- GUARANTEE -- you'll have some serious shit to think about, bro.
And I ain't gonna lie to you.
December 26, 2015
Easily Johnson's best work yet. Beautiful, sly prose and a story that transcends genre labels (science-fiction, bizarro, crime, etc). Loved it!
April 18, 2025
Una peculiar novela de ciencia ficción bizarra. Así es como definiría este libro de Jeremy Robert Johnson. Un libro donde la acción, los mostruos mutantes, el gore, las drogas y el humor se mezclan en un batiburrillo imparable.
S. P Doyle es un aburrido burócrata que trabaja en un banco y decide de un día para otro enviarlo todo a la mierda y hundir la empresa que seguro, supone él, se dedica a estafar y engañar al consumidor para financiar todo tipo de ilegalidades. Mientras lo hace cae en una espiral consumiendo una droga llamada HEX, una substancia que amplia los sentidos pero también desarrolla un apetito sexual que hace que te dejes tus órganos machacados de tanta acción. En el primer tramo de la novela asistimos a su catastrófica vida y conocemos a su tortuga Deckard.
En la segunda parte, hay un cambio de tercio y se revela la conspiración del Vhantang, una sociedad secreta regida por aliens que quiere conquistar la tierra y que mediante un mad doctor ha creado seres mutantes comecerebros. Todo parece una delirante película de serie B o de la troma.
Si biene s cierto que el autor me gusta más en formato relato, esta novela tiene cosillas interesantes y te hace reir y pasar un buen rato.
S. P Doyle es un aburrido burócrata que trabaja en un banco y decide de un día para otro enviarlo todo a la mierda y hundir la empresa que seguro, supone él, se dedica a estafar y engañar al consumidor para financiar todo tipo de ilegalidades. Mientras lo hace cae en una espiral consumiendo una droga llamada HEX, una substancia que amplia los sentidos pero también desarrolla un apetito sexual que hace que te dejes tus órganos machacados de tanta acción. En el primer tramo de la novela asistimos a su catastrófica vida y conocemos a su tortuga Deckard.
En la segunda parte, hay un cambio de tercio y se revela la conspiración del Vhantang, una sociedad secreta regida por aliens que quiere conquistar la tierra y que mediante un mad doctor ha creado seres mutantes comecerebros. Todo parece una delirante película de serie B o de la troma.
Si biene s cierto que el autor me gusta más en formato relato, esta novela tiene cosillas interesantes y te hace reir y pasar un buen rato.
August 22, 2017
Debería haber leído este libro cuando fue publicado (octubre de 2016), pero después de comprarlo fue a parar a la pila de pendientes y no ha sido hasta este verano que he podido ponerme con él. Un gran error (ya lo sabía), del que acabo de desquitarme.
Ha sido un viaje alucinante el poder acompañar al señor Doyle en su transformación, el tipo de alucinación que provoca la Hexadrina (el ácido del mundo Bizarro). No he conseguido salir indemne del todo de este viaje y, estoy seguro de que, si no hubiera sido por la presencia del viejo Deckard, no lo habría conseguido.
A mí entender el foco central sobre el que orbita la novela es el proceso de transformación (mental y físico del señor Doyle). Un proceso que le llevará a los infiernos más oscuros y en el que tendrá que buscar su redención, con el “amor de madre” por bandera y tatuado en el pecho con la sangre de sus manos manchadas por la culpa. Una redención muy loca por cierto (como tiene que ser).
Es difícil comentar “Ciudad Revientacráneos” sin desvelar la gracia de su contenido (así que puedes dejar de leer esta entrada inmediatamente e ir a por el libro ya).
Creo que Robert Johnson nos ofrece la clave de cómo hay que encarar esta lectura en el capítulo de agradecimientos, cito: “… gracias por inspirarme y convencerme de que los géneros no existen…” esa amplitud de miras sin complejos del autor permite que en la novela haya sitio para una trama hard boiled, para conspiranoias a nivel mundial tejidas por poderosas corporaciones que tienen por aliados a mad doctors con un currículo de crímenes de guerra a sus espaldas que produce escalofríos, hackers, sicarios y camellos que rinden pleitesía a cultos de dioses devoradores de mundos, monstruos revientacráneos con personalidades desasociadas, bateristas que deberían lucir en sus CD’s algo más que la etiqueta de “parental advisory” y un montón de cacharros místicos y tecnología pasada de vueltas. Un goce continuo para una trama que se retuerce y enreda con cada capítulo hasta que nos deja desarmados ante la lógica de un final devastador y eugenésico.
Para acabar: ha sido un placer poder asistir al origen de La Liga de los Céroes y toparme con el Camarada Cerebro.
Resumen de opinión: lectura que desengrasa, oxigena, estimula y lo es todo menos aburrida, repetitiva o pretenciosa.
Ha sido un viaje alucinante el poder acompañar al señor Doyle en su transformación, el tipo de alucinación que provoca la Hexadrina (el ácido del mundo Bizarro). No he conseguido salir indemne del todo de este viaje y, estoy seguro de que, si no hubiera sido por la presencia del viejo Deckard, no lo habría conseguido.
A mí entender el foco central sobre el que orbita la novela es el proceso de transformación (mental y físico del señor Doyle). Un proceso que le llevará a los infiernos más oscuros y en el que tendrá que buscar su redención, con el “amor de madre” por bandera y tatuado en el pecho con la sangre de sus manos manchadas por la culpa. Una redención muy loca por cierto (como tiene que ser).
Es difícil comentar “Ciudad Revientacráneos” sin desvelar la gracia de su contenido (así que puedes dejar de leer esta entrada inmediatamente e ir a por el libro ya).
Creo que Robert Johnson nos ofrece la clave de cómo hay que encarar esta lectura en el capítulo de agradecimientos, cito: “… gracias por inspirarme y convencerme de que los géneros no existen…” esa amplitud de miras sin complejos del autor permite que en la novela haya sitio para una trama hard boiled, para conspiranoias a nivel mundial tejidas por poderosas corporaciones que tienen por aliados a mad doctors con un currículo de crímenes de guerra a sus espaldas que produce escalofríos, hackers, sicarios y camellos que rinden pleitesía a cultos de dioses devoradores de mundos, monstruos revientacráneos con personalidades desasociadas, bateristas que deberían lucir en sus CD’s algo más que la etiqueta de “parental advisory” y un montón de cacharros místicos y tecnología pasada de vueltas. Un goce continuo para una trama que se retuerce y enreda con cada capítulo hasta que nos deja desarmados ante la lógica de un final devastador y eugenésico.
Para acabar: ha sido un placer poder asistir al origen de La Liga de los Céroes y toparme con el Camarada Cerebro.
Resumen de opinión: lectura que desengrasa, oxigena, estimula y lo es todo menos aburrida, repetitiva o pretenciosa.
May 30, 2016
Outstanding gonzo science-fiction/horror novel which dances to an apocalypse-o number of brain eating mutants, drug enthusiasts taking it all the way to the maximum utmost edge of oblivion and beyond.
I was amazed by the author’s ability to juggle elements right out of Edward Abbey’s THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG, Robert Shea + Robert Anton Wilson’s THE ILLUMINATUS trilogy, elements of William S. Burroughs’ THE SOFT MACHINE and NAKED LUNCH and “your favorite Philip K. Dick story or novel here”.
It’s at times a very funny and almost always thrill-packed read.
Quite the heart-in-your-throat page turner.
Haven’t had as much fun with a novel since I first discovered the dark thrillers of Jim Nisbet.
Highest possible recommendation!
September 29, 2016
Jeremy Robert Johnson puts together one crazy mo-fo in this sci-fi/bizarro/fuck-knows-what-else mash-up. A drug fueled psycho-delic dick breaking dream world of corporate espionage. Killer jacked-up mutant-mouthed Popeye-jawed gorilla-armed man-things. Reality teetering on the precipice of an endless void and a turtle named Deckard that silently scorns while Shenanigans jerks it raw in a Hex addled fugue. Solid 4+ Stars!
This is some serious cosmic serendipity manifested consciousness shit.
Indeed.
This is some serious cosmic serendipity manifested consciousness shit.
Indeed.
March 1, 2022
No sé porque todavía me sorprendo con la calidad de estas novelas bizarras que publica esta editorial. La cara que he puesto en algunos momentos mientras escuchaba el audiolibro debía ser para grabarla.
July 27, 2020
Let me get this out of the way. I am bias as hell about this book. When I first moved to Portland I lived a few blocks away from Jeremy. Even when I moved to a different neighborhood it was along the same Powell ave. and I often saw Jeremy out for run. So I root for the guy. Look we are close to the same age and got into horror and punk rock in similar ways in different small towns in different states. I consider watching Prince of Darkness on the big screen at the Lovecraft fest with him to be a bonding experience.
All that said I think he is an amazing writer with far too few releases to his name. That makes each one from his two short story collections (We Live Inside you & Angeldust Apocalypse) and his amazing Bram Stoker nominated Siren Promised (A novel he co-wrote with the artist Alan Clark) So special. In all the time I have known JRJ he had hinted at the novel in progress Skullcrack city. The plot he explained was so weird and spit out in motor mouth fashion that I asked about every time I saw him from bizarrocon to running into him at supercuts where the hell is it?
It was worth the wait. I am biased sure but I take my role as critic seriously. I have given a one-star review to a friend before. So believe me when I say this is a hybrid dark bizarro science fiction horror freak out a masterpiece. I do not say this lightly, and I mean it. JRJ has really crafted something special here. It is weird, really weird but not in the Dildo joke way a lot of bizarro stuff tends to do. Jeremy is a great writer with precise prose that doesn’t make for a quick read because you don’t want to miss anything.
This book is like nothing else you have ever read but everyone loves a comparison, right? JRJ wears his influences on his sleeve but not to the crutch level. If you forced me to I would say it felt like a way weirder take on Carpenter’s They Live if William Burroughs and Clive Barker worked on the script and Cronenberg directed.
The story of SP Doyle a weirdo turn corporate who accidentally develops a career working at a bank. He is overseeing loans and getting a behind the scenes look at the corporate world. The corruption is one thing, but Doyle is corrupted himself. He has a habit that involves an experimental drug called Hex. It makes him feel powerful and at the same time opens another reality. Once there that is when the DNA-doped mutants, drug-addled freak show celebs, experimental surgeons, depraved doomsday cults, and drug freak-outs get going.
Chapter 20 is the best chapter in the novel, and for whatever reason, everything from that point was like a spinal tap amp turned to 11. Skullcrack City started to make my ears bleed and I loved it. This book is political but not like a leaflet. It is funny but doesn’t descend into a parody of itself. It is well written and well told. I would be super surprised if it was not top of my list of reads for the year when 2015 is over.
Now Jeremy…Skullcrack City is all that and a bag of chocolate chips. I am here-by telling all fans of weird, horror and Science Fiction to read it. Don’t make us wait this long for the next one.
All that said I think he is an amazing writer with far too few releases to his name. That makes each one from his two short story collections (We Live Inside you & Angeldust Apocalypse) and his amazing Bram Stoker nominated Siren Promised (A novel he co-wrote with the artist Alan Clark) So special. In all the time I have known JRJ he had hinted at the novel in progress Skullcrack city. The plot he explained was so weird and spit out in motor mouth fashion that I asked about every time I saw him from bizarrocon to running into him at supercuts where the hell is it?
It was worth the wait. I am biased sure but I take my role as critic seriously. I have given a one-star review to a friend before. So believe me when I say this is a hybrid dark bizarro science fiction horror freak out a masterpiece. I do not say this lightly, and I mean it. JRJ has really crafted something special here. It is weird, really weird but not in the Dildo joke way a lot of bizarro stuff tends to do. Jeremy is a great writer with precise prose that doesn’t make for a quick read because you don’t want to miss anything.
This book is like nothing else you have ever read but everyone loves a comparison, right? JRJ wears his influences on his sleeve but not to the crutch level. If you forced me to I would say it felt like a way weirder take on Carpenter’s They Live if William Burroughs and Clive Barker worked on the script and Cronenberg directed.
The story of SP Doyle a weirdo turn corporate who accidentally develops a career working at a bank. He is overseeing loans and getting a behind the scenes look at the corporate world. The corruption is one thing, but Doyle is corrupted himself. He has a habit that involves an experimental drug called Hex. It makes him feel powerful and at the same time opens another reality. Once there that is when the DNA-doped mutants, drug-addled freak show celebs, experimental surgeons, depraved doomsday cults, and drug freak-outs get going.
Chapter 20 is the best chapter in the novel, and for whatever reason, everything from that point was like a spinal tap amp turned to 11. Skullcrack City started to make my ears bleed and I loved it. This book is political but not like a leaflet. It is funny but doesn’t descend into a parody of itself. It is well written and well told. I would be super surprised if it was not top of my list of reads for the year when 2015 is over.
Now Jeremy…Skullcrack City is all that and a bag of chocolate chips. I am here-by telling all fans of weird, horror and Science Fiction to read it. Don’t make us wait this long for the next one.
February 5, 2017
I picked up Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson because it had stead buzz for over a year and also wound up winning the Wonderland Book of the Year award (The top honor in the Bizarro fiction genre.) I understand why this book is so highly regarded. It is a thriller, a noir, a medical drama, a cyberpunk junkie crime story and more. It is all masterfully orchestrated into a single book by the authors gifted hands.
Skullcrack City is not the type of book I would normally seek out. As I stated earlier, this was the talk of the town and I had to see what all the fuss was about. I like the opening volley, I was very interested in the character development and the presentation of the conspiracy that is the backbone of the entire story. However, when things took a weird turn and 'the monster' was introduced, I started to get lost. The story transformed from one thing to another. I didn't feel as vested in that story and found it somewhat cumbersome to even follow. In the last third, when the story shifts yet again into its final mode, the hive mind, I was back on board again.
There is no doubt that this is a spectacularly written story. Is is almost breath-taking they way the books switches modes between acts. Still, there was the middle ground that I struggled to latch on to. The bookends were intense and interesting to read. In the end, Skullcrack City isn't totally my cup of tea but I can really appreciate it for its artistic and technical merits. It's a fine story and there are those who are into noir/crime type stuff that would have a greater appreciation for the story than I did. I teeter on going four stars. I wish I could rate in half star increments. This is worthy of a 3.5 but I'll hold it at three for now and see how this sits on my psyche over time.
Skullcrack City is not the type of book I would normally seek out. As I stated earlier, this was the talk of the town and I had to see what all the fuss was about. I like the opening volley, I was very interested in the character development and the presentation of the conspiracy that is the backbone of the entire story. However, when things took a weird turn and 'the monster' was introduced, I started to get lost. The story transformed from one thing to another. I didn't feel as vested in that story and found it somewhat cumbersome to even follow. In the last third, when the story shifts yet again into its final mode, the hive mind, I was back on board again.
There is no doubt that this is a spectacularly written story. Is is almost breath-taking they way the books switches modes between acts. Still, there was the middle ground that I struggled to latch on to. The bookends were intense and interesting to read. In the end, Skullcrack City isn't totally my cup of tea but I can really appreciate it for its artistic and technical merits. It's a fine story and there are those who are into noir/crime type stuff that would have a greater appreciation for the story than I did. I teeter on going four stars. I wish I could rate in half star increments. This is worthy of a 3.5 but I'll hold it at three for now and see how this sits on my psyche over time.
April 15, 2015
I'm very aware that SKULLCRACK CITY was written (in part) to challenge the notion of description, but I'll do my best: It's like a proto-cyberpunk, full-blown paranoid Philip K. Dick was inspired by conspiracy theories discussed on The Joe Roan Experience if Joe, Brian and CoCo Diaz were stoned out of their mind on mushrooms. Does that give you a good idea of what SKULLCRACK CITY is? No? I tried my best.
The facts that this novel 1) exists 2) has been published and 3) is actually good, are very soothing to me. Sure, it's crazy and hilarious, but it's actually born from a dark place: corporate america, shitty mortgages and the helplessness of normal citizens. Where it goes from there more surprising and fun than most cyberpunk novels I've ever read, but be ready and have your mind open. SKULLCRACK CITY is going to leave your comfort zone in the rearview mirror.
The facts that this novel 1) exists 2) has been published and 3) is actually good, are very soothing to me. Sure, it's crazy and hilarious, but it's actually born from a dark place: corporate america, shitty mortgages and the helplessness of normal citizens. Where it goes from there more surprising and fun than most cyberpunk novels I've ever read, but be ready and have your mind open. SKULLCRACK CITY is going to leave your comfort zone in the rearview mirror.
February 8, 2025
Update 25: I'm supposed to group read another one of his. The point is I'm not sure I liked this one, after thinking about it. And that's what puzzles me. I'm not sure I want to read JRJ again so I think I misjudged this book altogether. Drop to two stars.
----------------------------------------
What a ride! I've been through all stages in my reading, from thrill to some draw backs, from bewilderment to aweness, from questioning to enlightenment, etc.
I've cared more for the first and last acts than the middle one. They have a fast pace that I like, plus the weirdness and philosophy I'm looking for when reading Bizarro but the second act is utterly important to build the story.
All along the novel, I had no idea of what was coming next and it gave me the will not to stop reading. The end is unexpected and is a perfect match to the story.
----------------------------------------
What a ride! I've been through all stages in my reading, from thrill to some draw backs, from bewilderment to aweness, from questioning to enlightenment, etc.
I've cared more for the first and last acts than the middle one. They have a fast pace that I like, plus the weirdness and philosophy I'm looking for when reading Bizarro but the second act is utterly important to build the story.
All along the novel, I had no idea of what was coming next and it gave me the will not to stop reading. The end is unexpected and is a perfect match to the story.
March 6, 2017
Fantasía urbana bizarra, a lo Kraken de China Miéville pero llevada al extremo, teniendo en cuenta que este autor tampoco es de quedarse corto creo que ya podéis pillar por dónde van los tiros. Entretenida y más adictiva que la hexa. Abstenerse estómagos sensibles.
November 10, 2015
Since I lack the cognitive ability to adequately review this book, I will say this: I wish I was as cool as this book...I wish everyone I know would read this book.
Enough wishes, I have made my point, I hope.
Enough wishes, I have made my point, I hope.
November 27, 2015
I still have PTSD from the day I drank three pots of coffee and read this in one sitting.
February 24, 2015
Jeremy Robert Johnson is a Disinfo agent. He wants us all to accept that the world of the Vakhtang, Face-rec masks, the mission, primates with expanding jaws, super-stimulant Hex, scarab beetles that pierce chests in order to remove GPS trackers in the afterlife, Buddy with his brain in a box is just a work of fiction. So I will write a review about this work of fiction and proceed as if it's something other than the stone cold, hard won truth of our shambling Frankenstein's Monster we call Reality.
At one time asleep, S.P. Doyle is snapped to the waking trance of a powerful street drug known as 'Hex', named such because it ruins everything. This black market cabinet of curiosities creates ghoulish side effects for users, including tardive dyskinesia, xerostomia, severe genital engorgement, double chronic masturbation (chronic chronic), tachycardia, arrhythmia, hypertension, hyperreflexia, more masturbation, eidetic imagery and hallucination of canis lupus (i.e. 'There's a giant fucking wolf behind me, isn't there? Bullshit, I just heard him growl! Is he still behind me!?') In the event that too much is ingested at once, the eyes liquefy.
Disenfranchised at work, Doyle decides to expose the crooked, unethical practices of his employers and finds the stakes in his drug fueled crusade continuously raised. FUCK IT! WHY NOT? becomes his mantra as he ventures farther out on the cusp of absolute existential ruin. He meets his match with super-primates with ever expanding mandibles and is rescued in the nick of time from becoming the conduit of a clandestine endgame courtesy of the Vakhtang. After he is purged by 'debugging' scarabs, he learns to navigate an entire new chessboard as the Vakhtang put Doyle's own mother into play to lure him out of hiding. He is befriended by covert paragons of virtue Ms. A and Dara, who have their own mantra that outweighs Doyle's 'FUCK IT, WHY NOT': They ruin everything. And after coming to know Dara, after having his mother and pet turtle threatened, he cannot let them ruin any more.
Jeremy Robert Johnson juggles a panoply of characters here from the nihilistic-but-hopeful Superfriend team of Doyle, Dara and Ms. A to a conspiracy theorist who actually has the forethought to make a 3-D printer using a 3-D printer when they are outlawed in this bleak future and a Nazi war criminal who has sidestepped punishment due to his standing with the Vakhtang and his agreement with our government as part of Operation Paperclip. We even see shout outs to characters from Johnson's previous works through the mainline of Eraserhead Press with Buddy from League of Zeroes, whose actions late in the book actually gave me that 'fuck yeah' feeling where I had to throw my hands in the air and high five someone who wasn't there.
I used to loathe five year cycles of anticipation for new projects from my favorites, be they musicians such as Tool or NIN or authors such as Johnson or Clive Barker. Now, I realize the wait is a fair trade off in order for us to enjoy such masterpieces as Skullcrack City, Everville, 10,000 Days and The Fragile. Yes, Bizarro has indeed found its Everville while refreshingly devoid of Lix. Also, Johnson's favorite word must be ovipositor along with anything else that falls between the squiggly lines of parasitology and pharmacology. Skullcrack City is an excursion that begins with cryptopolitical maneuvering and ends up a Body Horror Beowulf scribbled in rolling papers recycled from a love letter to Fatalism.
Jeremy Robert Johnson always knows just when to bounce, be it dialogue, narrative or symbolism. You will not be disappointed, unless it's just over your head.
If you would like to hear him answer for his uncanny child in interview format, feel free to peruse the one I conducted with him here: http://jeremy-maddux-9.podomatic.com/...
At one time asleep, S.P. Doyle is snapped to the waking trance of a powerful street drug known as 'Hex', named such because it ruins everything. This black market cabinet of curiosities creates ghoulish side effects for users, including tardive dyskinesia, xerostomia, severe genital engorgement, double chronic masturbation (chronic chronic), tachycardia, arrhythmia, hypertension, hyperreflexia, more masturbation, eidetic imagery and hallucination of canis lupus (i.e. 'There's a giant fucking wolf behind me, isn't there? Bullshit, I just heard him growl! Is he still behind me!?') In the event that too much is ingested at once, the eyes liquefy.
Disenfranchised at work, Doyle decides to expose the crooked, unethical practices of his employers and finds the stakes in his drug fueled crusade continuously raised. FUCK IT! WHY NOT? becomes his mantra as he ventures farther out on the cusp of absolute existential ruin. He meets his match with super-primates with ever expanding mandibles and is rescued in the nick of time from becoming the conduit of a clandestine endgame courtesy of the Vakhtang. After he is purged by 'debugging' scarabs, he learns to navigate an entire new chessboard as the Vakhtang put Doyle's own mother into play to lure him out of hiding. He is befriended by covert paragons of virtue Ms. A and Dara, who have their own mantra that outweighs Doyle's 'FUCK IT, WHY NOT': They ruin everything. And after coming to know Dara, after having his mother and pet turtle threatened, he cannot let them ruin any more.
Jeremy Robert Johnson juggles a panoply of characters here from the nihilistic-but-hopeful Superfriend team of Doyle, Dara and Ms. A to a conspiracy theorist who actually has the forethought to make a 3-D printer using a 3-D printer when they are outlawed in this bleak future and a Nazi war criminal who has sidestepped punishment due to his standing with the Vakhtang and his agreement with our government as part of Operation Paperclip. We even see shout outs to characters from Johnson's previous works through the mainline of Eraserhead Press with Buddy from League of Zeroes, whose actions late in the book actually gave me that 'fuck yeah' feeling where I had to throw my hands in the air and high five someone who wasn't there.
I used to loathe five year cycles of anticipation for new projects from my favorites, be they musicians such as Tool or NIN or authors such as Johnson or Clive Barker. Now, I realize the wait is a fair trade off in order for us to enjoy such masterpieces as Skullcrack City, Everville, 10,000 Days and The Fragile. Yes, Bizarro has indeed found its Everville while refreshingly devoid of Lix. Also, Johnson's favorite word must be ovipositor along with anything else that falls between the squiggly lines of parasitology and pharmacology. Skullcrack City is an excursion that begins with cryptopolitical maneuvering and ends up a Body Horror Beowulf scribbled in rolling papers recycled from a love letter to Fatalism.
Jeremy Robert Johnson always knows just when to bounce, be it dialogue, narrative or symbolism. You will not be disappointed, unless it's just over your head.
If you would like to hear him answer for his uncanny child in interview format, feel free to peruse the one I conducted with him here: http://jeremy-maddux-9.podomatic.com/...
February 22, 2017
4.5 Stars
Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson is an awesome example of how Damn good and how really fun the bizzaro fiction genre can be. It is rare that one book wins me as an instant fan, but Skullcrack City did that for me. I will seek out the rest of Johnson's works in the near future.
This is a drug addled action fest filled with insane science fiction, horror, and fantasy elements. This book will definitely appeal to those like me that worship John Dies at the End. Hex is the drug in this book and it is one bad ass substance. Doyle made for a great protagonist in this type of book as he really was in over his head as we are in the craziness.
The writing is crafty, well done, witty, and simply fun....
"I’d been on the job three weeks. I spent hours in my office chair just wiggling and worrying and mapping conspiracy. I was easily as effective in the position as, say, a barely sentient Jell-O sculpture of me. I made a wall of files around myself and peeked over suspiciously. I only came out of my hole on Free Pizza Fridays (which is what banks do with their Fridays when they’re not liquidating staff)."
......
"But I knew his situation was even worse. Deckard was full. The half-worm flopping himself to a slow death was the night’s prime time entertainment in turtle town. I know it’s irrational to anthropomorphize a feeder worm, but it was an ugly way to end. My heart went out to that worm chunk like he was an elderly woman who had to stop for walker oxygen every third step. I reached in to crush the guy with my fingers. Deckard hissed. I snapped back to the now. I drained my stout, threw on my pea coat and left my beautiful brute of a turtle to revel in his homemade snuff show."
Without spoilers, Skullcrack City is a bizzaro crime fiction that should be read by going fans of the genre. I am an instant Jeremy Robert Johnson fan.
Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson is an awesome example of how Damn good and how really fun the bizzaro fiction genre can be. It is rare that one book wins me as an instant fan, but Skullcrack City did that for me. I will seek out the rest of Johnson's works in the near future.
This is a drug addled action fest filled with insane science fiction, horror, and fantasy elements. This book will definitely appeal to those like me that worship John Dies at the End. Hex is the drug in this book and it is one bad ass substance. Doyle made for a great protagonist in this type of book as he really was in over his head as we are in the craziness.
The writing is crafty, well done, witty, and simply fun....
"I’d been on the job three weeks. I spent hours in my office chair just wiggling and worrying and mapping conspiracy. I was easily as effective in the position as, say, a barely sentient Jell-O sculpture of me. I made a wall of files around myself and peeked over suspiciously. I only came out of my hole on Free Pizza Fridays (which is what banks do with their Fridays when they’re not liquidating staff)."
......
"But I knew his situation was even worse. Deckard was full. The half-worm flopping himself to a slow death was the night’s prime time entertainment in turtle town. I know it’s irrational to anthropomorphize a feeder worm, but it was an ugly way to end. My heart went out to that worm chunk like he was an elderly woman who had to stop for walker oxygen every third step. I reached in to crush the guy with my fingers. Deckard hissed. I snapped back to the now. I drained my stout, threw on my pea coat and left my beautiful brute of a turtle to revel in his homemade snuff show."
Without spoilers, Skullcrack City is a bizzaro crime fiction that should be read by going fans of the genre. I am an instant Jeremy Robert Johnson fan.
October 17, 2015
In many ways, Skullcrack City reminds me of this.
"Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where? Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Eleven. Exactly. One louder."
- Nigel Tufnel (This is Spinal Tap)
This is how I feel about this book. Having read and adored Angel Dust Apocalypse and We Live Inside You, I knew that Jeremy Robert Johnson had what it takes to produce a full-lenth stunner.
Not only did he nail it, but he outdid himself in a way that makes me feel very admirative. JRJ went all the way up to 11.
Skullcrack City is hard to describe. It is so much more than the story of a man trying to unveil a conspiracy, a lot more than strange, deadly encounters. It is a cosmically enjoyable, funny, engrossing, petrifying, well thought-out novel that us on a bumpy, jaw-dropping journey into the world of characters we grow to adore.
I rediscovered JRJ's highly successful formula from his previous books, adding horror and Bizarro to an ingredient list that again includes a healthy dose of science-fiction-influenced adventure and even comedy - a drug-, monster-laden trek that keeps us engaged and wondering what will happen next. The characters, good or evil, are sublime, with a special mention to Doyle and Dr. T, two of the most fascinating characters I have ever read about.
What appears to be a chaotic plot at first ends up making sense, in a way you would have never expected. Oh and that ending... pure class.
Definitely the best book I've read this year.
"Well, it's one louder, isn't it? It's not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where? Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Eleven. Exactly. One louder."
- Nigel Tufnel (This is Spinal Tap)
This is how I feel about this book. Having read and adored Angel Dust Apocalypse and We Live Inside You, I knew that Jeremy Robert Johnson had what it takes to produce a full-lenth stunner.
Not only did he nail it, but he outdid himself in a way that makes me feel very admirative. JRJ went all the way up to 11.
Skullcrack City is hard to describe. It is so much more than the story of a man trying to unveil a conspiracy, a lot more than strange, deadly encounters. It is a cosmically enjoyable, funny, engrossing, petrifying, well thought-out novel that us on a bumpy, jaw-dropping journey into the world of characters we grow to adore.
I rediscovered JRJ's highly successful formula from his previous books, adding horror and Bizarro to an ingredient list that again includes a healthy dose of science-fiction-influenced adventure and even comedy - a drug-, monster-laden trek that keeps us engaged and wondering what will happen next. The characters, good or evil, are sublime, with a special mention to Doyle and Dr. T, two of the most fascinating characters I have ever read about.
What appears to be a chaotic plot at first ends up making sense, in a way you would have never expected. Oh and that ending... pure class.
Definitely the best book I've read this year.
November 28, 2016
Ciudad revientacráneos, del autor de culto Jeremy Robert Johnson, es la tercera aproximación de la pequeña editorial Orciny Press al género bizarro, a través de su colección Midian, que tan buenos resultados ha recogido hasta ahora. La novela es indiscutiblemente uno de los libros del mes con respecto al género fantástico en lengua castellana e, incluso me atrevería a decir, que del año. Y es que en poco tiempo se ha ido creando una auténtica legión en España de fieles seguidores del bizarro. Esta Ciudad revientacráneos viene avalada por la contrastada trayectoria literaria de su autor y por una excelente crítica en Estados Unidos, donde acaba de ganar el Premio Wonderland. Esto, junto con una portada demoledora de Branca Studio (como es habitual) que hace justicia al título del libro, invitan a dejarse seducir nuevamente por este género.
La reseña completa en español en http://elbiblionauta.com/es/2016/11/2...
La ressenya completa en català a http://elbiblionauta.com/ca/2016/11/2...
La reseña completa en español en http://elbiblionauta.com/es/2016/11/2...
La ressenya completa en català a http://elbiblionauta.com/ca/2016/11/2...
September 11, 2018
4.5 stars!!Loved it!
Every Goodreads update I show had a 😲 or a 😂 in it. I leave you with my favorite thought since saying anything about the book is a spoiler and you can't describe it anyway. Biiiitch read it and you'll see what I mean 😜
This shit is bananas! If you take Fight Club's edge and social commentary and mix that with the mind bending "what the shit?" of The Matrix, and then mix that with Game of Thrones and shit, theeeeen you might have an idea of what the fuck is going on right now. I mention this shit is crazy?! JRJ is an evil genius.
Every Goodreads update I show had a 😲 or a 😂 in it. I leave you with my favorite thought since saying anything about the book is a spoiler and you can't describe it anyway. Biiiitch read it and you'll see what I mean 😜
This shit is bananas! If you take Fight Club's edge and social commentary and mix that with the mind bending "what the shit?" of The Matrix, and then mix that with Game of Thrones and shit, theeeeen you might have an idea of what the fuck is going on right now. I mention this shit is crazy?! JRJ is an evil genius.
August 24, 2015
Skullcrack City by Jeremy Robert Johnson is one of the wildest books I have read in a while and if it tends to run away from itself occasionally due to the wildly fantastic and manic ideas, it is still a lot of fun for your brain. The influences in this novel are many; I saw a little Hunter S. Thompson having lunch with William S. Burroughs due to the beginning with the obsession on drug-induced paranoia, lots of Phillip K. Dick, some clear body horror a la David Cronenberg...I think I even saw David Wong peeking to see who died at the end. But as any quality writing it is not so much who are the influences as what was done with all of it.
The strength in the novel is how everything comes together in a plot with many turns and perhaps too many characters. S. P Doyle (S. P Somtow and T. C. Boyle's illegitimate son? Just kidding.)is a banker who thinks he has a way to get wealthy and screw with the banking industry at the same time. Fueled by a rather vicious drug called Hex, he unwittingly uncovers something so big that he and others may be killed over it. His drug fueled hallucinations are suddenly unveiled as being very real and propels him into a battle between extra-dimensional creatures, very mad scientists, and a technology that only exists in your worst nightmares.
The fun is in not knowing where all this leads. But before it is over Doyle is questioning reality, his purpose in life, and falling madly in love. Doyle is sort of a stupid selfish person and it is to the author's credit that we stick with him through all his greedy idiocy. We end up wanting to see what he is really made out of in more ways than one. But the fun in Skullcrack City lies in the writing. Experimental at times, pulpish in a Phillip K. Dick sort of way at other times and always going at the speed of light. it is always fun to read. As mentioned at the beginning, it becomes a little too wild at points and runs into the risk of losing the reader. Yet most will enjoy the craziness provided you are not too squeamish. Body horror is a major factor here.
Skullcrack City spans a few genres. It is science fiction, transgressive psychedelica. horror, and always Bizarro. It will appeal to the more adventurous fans of all those genres. It will definitely be one of your strangest reads in 2015. An unique experience, It deserves to be read, enjoyed, and admired.
The strength in the novel is how everything comes together in a plot with many turns and perhaps too many characters. S. P Doyle (S. P Somtow and T. C. Boyle's illegitimate son? Just kidding.)is a banker who thinks he has a way to get wealthy and screw with the banking industry at the same time. Fueled by a rather vicious drug called Hex, he unwittingly uncovers something so big that he and others may be killed over it. His drug fueled hallucinations are suddenly unveiled as being very real and propels him into a battle between extra-dimensional creatures, very mad scientists, and a technology that only exists in your worst nightmares.
The fun is in not knowing where all this leads. But before it is over Doyle is questioning reality, his purpose in life, and falling madly in love. Doyle is sort of a stupid selfish person and it is to the author's credit that we stick with him through all his greedy idiocy. We end up wanting to see what he is really made out of in more ways than one. But the fun in Skullcrack City lies in the writing. Experimental at times, pulpish in a Phillip K. Dick sort of way at other times and always going at the speed of light. it is always fun to read. As mentioned at the beginning, it becomes a little too wild at points and runs into the risk of losing the reader. Yet most will enjoy the craziness provided you are not too squeamish. Body horror is a major factor here.
Skullcrack City spans a few genres. It is science fiction, transgressive psychedelica. horror, and always Bizarro. It will appeal to the more adventurous fans of all those genres. It will definitely be one of your strangest reads in 2015. An unique experience, It deserves to be read, enjoyed, and admired.
August 22, 2021
Vamos un poco al argumento de esta novela, S.P. Doyle es un empleado de banca que un día decide que ya está bien, que si se lo propone puede cargarse al banco y de paso, mandarlo todo a la mierda. Empieza pues a recopilar toneladas de información aunque para su gestión, decide meterse hexa, una droga que le agudiza los sentidos y le hace focalizar en su misión. Esta tiene, como todas las drogas, consecuencias adversas, una de ellas es una elevada necesidad sexual, hasta el punto de que su miembro acaba torcido a causa de tanta.. atención. Todas las vivencias de Doyle son compartidas por su tortuga, Deckard.
Después, a medida que avanzamos el libro va encaminándose más y más hacia el bizarro, resultando más complejo y caótico.
El libro podemos dividirlo en dos partes, la primera es más fácil de seguir, es una parte cargada de acción y a medida que leía me venían a la mente películas rollo Trainspotting o El club de la lucha. Hay mucha acción, motivada también por el incremento del consumo de drogas.
La segunda parte ya es más caótica, empieza lo bizarro, baja algo el ritmo y dejamos de comprender lo que ocurre pero empezamos a entender porque el libro se llama así. Esta ya nos recuerda otro estilo de películas, la que más quizá: Matrix, con su oráculo, la conexión/desconexión...
El libro en algunos momentos puede parecer un despropósito, no sabemos si toda forma parte del delirio del prota o hay algo detrás. Los límites entre la realidad y la ficción se van difuminando hasta confundirnos.
Novela bizarra donde las haya, seguro que no es apta para todos los públicos y en mi caso, fui incapaz de leerla rápido porque realmente necesitaba descansar un poco de la temática y de todo lo que me contaba el autor, sino se corre el peligro de no sobrevivir a la lectura.
Por mi parte, recomiendo la lectura pero, elegid bien el momento y sin duda, recomendaría que se intercalara con otras o incluso, con relatos. Si le damos mucho a este libro, puede que acabemos saturados, o almenos, así lo sentía yo
Podéis leer mi reseña completa en el blog: https://www.resibooks.com/2021/07/jer...
Después, a medida que avanzamos el libro va encaminándose más y más hacia el bizarro, resultando más complejo y caótico.
El libro podemos dividirlo en dos partes, la primera es más fácil de seguir, es una parte cargada de acción y a medida que leía me venían a la mente películas rollo Trainspotting o El club de la lucha. Hay mucha acción, motivada también por el incremento del consumo de drogas.
La segunda parte ya es más caótica, empieza lo bizarro, baja algo el ritmo y dejamos de comprender lo que ocurre pero empezamos a entender porque el libro se llama así. Esta ya nos recuerda otro estilo de películas, la que más quizá: Matrix, con su oráculo, la conexión/desconexión...
El libro en algunos momentos puede parecer un despropósito, no sabemos si toda forma parte del delirio del prota o hay algo detrás. Los límites entre la realidad y la ficción se van difuminando hasta confundirnos.
Novela bizarra donde las haya, seguro que no es apta para todos los públicos y en mi caso, fui incapaz de leerla rápido porque realmente necesitaba descansar un poco de la temática y de todo lo que me contaba el autor, sino se corre el peligro de no sobrevivir a la lectura.
Por mi parte, recomiendo la lectura pero, elegid bien el momento y sin duda, recomendaría que se intercalara con otras o incluso, con relatos. Si le damos mucho a este libro, puede que acabemos saturados, o almenos, así lo sentía yo
Podéis leer mi reseña completa en el blog: https://www.resibooks.com/2021/07/jer...
April 13, 2017
Killer voice. Infectious energy. Subversive humor. Anger slash bemusement. Dozens of lines are unforgettable. All this and a bag of chips. The freaky dead-end banker stuff reads like if The Pale King was actually exciting. Essentially a crash-course in contemporary genre-smashing, as the elements of traditional storytelling, character, conflict, dialogue, plot, and mood - with an extra dose of weird and a hard-R Phil Dick sensibility - are also effective enough to push it into instant classic territory. Masquerading as "futuristic" like all the slipperiest satirists, Jeremy Robert Johnson manipulates so many diverse elements to skewer this particularly ridiculous moment in our history, riding currents of frustration in contemporary American culture right to the fucking grave.
February 14, 2015
Holy shit. I can't talk about most of the book without feeling I've ruined some portion of the ride.
S.P. Doyle is a bank employee, using a powerful drug called Hex to hopefully aid a current investigation. In many ways, it seems the drugs have the upper hand. Shortly after his descent back into the darkness of Hex, Doyle makes a ballsy move at work, and then things get really weird.
Jeremy Robert Johnson has created a story that takes off at an insane speed, and in directions you couldn't believe existed. It's also perfectly seasoned with humor. If that sounds like your type of book, or, if this description makes no sense, I'm saying you should probably still fucking read it.
S.P. Doyle is a bank employee, using a powerful drug called Hex to hopefully aid a current investigation. In many ways, it seems the drugs have the upper hand. Shortly after his descent back into the darkness of Hex, Doyle makes a ballsy move at work, and then things get really weird.
Jeremy Robert Johnson has created a story that takes off at an insane speed, and in directions you couldn't believe existed. It's also perfectly seasoned with humor. If that sounds like your type of book, or, if this description makes no sense, I'm saying you should probably still fucking read it.
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