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The Dark Manual
Susie Sakamoto, an Irishwoman in Japan, spends her days drinking heavily and cursing the home robot that takes care of all her domestic needs. She despises the thing her dead husband designed and is under the impression that it is about to do her harm.
To escape the overwhelming grief of her missing family, she takes to the nighttime and the lawless section of the city, loitering in seedy bars with her wild, drug-fuelled, hypersexual friend, Mixxy.
Are Susie’s persecutions merely a result of her own paranoia? Can the parliament of owls gathering eerily in the trees outside be of any significance, any assistance? Or will she have to search for the mythic Dark Manual, to find a way to finally switch off the homebot and end her litany of woes?
…it might already be too late…the machines are on the rise.
Japan-based Irish writer Colin O’Sullivan couples his usual lyrical flourishes with tense and often terrifying noirish scenes, to present before us an unsettling vision of an anxious woman teetering in an anxious time. Fans of "Black Mirror", the dark humour of early Haruki Murakami, and even Asimov or Aldiss, will be keen to sample another frantic foray into a near and nervy future.
Colin O’Sullivan’s first novel, "Killarney Blues", captivated critics and readers alike and won the prestigious Prix Mystère de la critique in France. His second novel, "The Starved Lover Sings", comes out in Russian translation in 2019. O'Sullivan's short fiction and poetry have been published in various print and online anthologies and magazines.
Editorial
“The Dark Manual defies easy categorisation; it’s a literary novel, a very desperate tale of love and loss, a noir thriller, of real and imaginary threats and a sci-fi speculation (which could be read as prescient future gazing). […] The Dark Manual is a mature rounded work, assured and confident, at times lyrical and beautiful but also punchy and sharp. […] engaging, inventive and thought provoking.” –Book Noir / Nudge-Book.com
“The author, Winner of the Prix Mystère de la critique 2018, just gets better with each book, and with this, his third, he is becoming one of the finest storytellers out there. His prose keeps one glued to the page, with delightful concentration. Colin O’Sullivan does not write a bad line. […] Colin O’Sullivan’s writing style reminds me so of jazz, with its one-word, then two-word, then three-word sentences. Bop, bop, bop-bop, until you realize you have read a paragraph, then onto a new riff. Lyrical, powerful, humorous, poetic, emotional. He is a lyrical master of the written word. There are sections of the book that are heartbreaking, in their emotional and physical sense of loss, and moments of humor, surprise, suspense, pure sudden horror, and stark naked joy.” –Marvin Minkler, Modern First Editions
To escape the overwhelming grief of her missing family, she takes to the nighttime and the lawless section of the city, loitering in seedy bars with her wild, drug-fuelled, hypersexual friend, Mixxy.
Are Susie’s persecutions merely a result of her own paranoia? Can the parliament of owls gathering eerily in the trees outside be of any significance, any assistance? Or will she have to search for the mythic Dark Manual, to find a way to finally switch off the homebot and end her litany of woes?
…it might already be too late…the machines are on the rise.
Japan-based Irish writer Colin O’Sullivan couples his usual lyrical flourishes with tense and often terrifying noirish scenes, to present before us an unsettling vision of an anxious woman teetering in an anxious time. Fans of "Black Mirror", the dark humour of early Haruki Murakami, and even Asimov or Aldiss, will be keen to sample another frantic foray into a near and nervy future.
Colin O’Sullivan’s first novel, "Killarney Blues", captivated critics and readers alike and won the prestigious Prix Mystère de la critique in France. His second novel, "The Starved Lover Sings", comes out in Russian translation in 2019. O'Sullivan's short fiction and poetry have been published in various print and online anthologies and magazines.
Editorial
“The Dark Manual defies easy categorisation; it’s a literary novel, a very desperate tale of love and loss, a noir thriller, of real and imaginary threats and a sci-fi speculation (which could be read as prescient future gazing). […] The Dark Manual is a mature rounded work, assured and confident, at times lyrical and beautiful but also punchy and sharp. […] engaging, inventive and thought provoking.” –Book Noir / Nudge-Book.com
“The author, Winner of the Prix Mystère de la critique 2018, just gets better with each book, and with this, his third, he is becoming one of the finest storytellers out there. His prose keeps one glued to the page, with delightful concentration. Colin O’Sullivan does not write a bad line. […] Colin O’Sullivan’s writing style reminds me so of jazz, with its one-word, then two-word, then three-word sentences. Bop, bop, bop-bop, until you realize you have read a paragraph, then onto a new riff. Lyrical, powerful, humorous, poetic, emotional. He is a lyrical master of the written word. There are sections of the book that are heartbreaking, in their emotional and physical sense of loss, and moments of humor, surprise, suspense, pure sudden horror, and stark naked joy.” –Marvin Minkler, Modern First Editions
- GenresScience Fiction
284 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 15, 2018
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 6, 2024
If you're coming to this novel, after watching the AppleTV adaptation, "Sunny," expecting an equally whimsical and colorful story of grief and conspiracy, you're probably going to be disappointed.
This is a darker and more somber tale that feels like an alternate version of the streaming series.
Also, lots of talk of owls.
This is a darker and more somber tale that feels like an alternate version of the streaming series.
Also, lots of talk of owls.
May 1, 2022
A very quick read. I felt the book didn’t start until about half way through. The first half was mood setting, the second was quick moving but perhaps too short…long enough to get an idea across, not long enough to build a canonical story with fully drawn characters.
February 17, 2022
Enjoyable enough and often well written when the overused alliteration took a back seat, but it ultimately felt like a short story padded out to novel length.
August 16, 2024
what happens when grief is all youre left with in the world
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews