Genocide on the Infinite Express

by Kevin Sweeney

A man with no name and no memory finds himself on board a train of infinite length, filled with corpses. All of the corpses are clones of himself, dead versions of him, and no two are exactly the same. They have different haircuts, or beards dyed wild colors; some have tattoos, or piercings, or scars, missing or multiple limbs, or weirder still, are a completely other species... there are dwarf versions of him and dinosaur versions of him and even cartoon cereal box mascot versions of him, all gruesomely murdered. Who is he, who are they, who murdered them, and why? What else can he do but walk, and hope to find answers to the ultimate murder mystery somewhere amongst the endless corpses?

Genres: Bizarro Fiction, Horror

118 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2019

About the author

Sweeney is an infamous author of bizarro and extreme horror.

BANNED from sale on Amazon, his now notorious series of novellas known as THE SEVIIN SICK SINS, as well as the splatter-porno-western serial THE WHOREHOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, can be found exclusively over at indie horror platform Godless.com.

Titles available on Amazon include THE GARDEN GNOME (described by one reviewer as being like "Night at the Museum... if the exhibits wanted to rape and kill you"); THE CROP CIRCLE (a story which gave another reviewer the most horrible nightmare of his life); and THE LOLLIPOP MAN, a British slasher with a pitch-black heart of humour.

Forthcoming titles include THE SHOPPING LIST, an apocalyptic tale of generational incest and cannibalism, and FEE FI FO FUM.

Reviews

[Danger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! It's so weird, and interesting, and gory, and kinky, and outside-the-box (even for Bizarro fiction) that I was enamored pretty much from the first page. I literally sat down and read the entire thing in one sitting. I'd give it 6 stars if I could.

[Seb · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a journey it was! We're traveling through an infinite train with err... "Gavin"? filled to the mouth with dead versions of him.

The trip is highly philosophical, the hero searching for meaning and what to do with his life on the infinite express.

The ending is totally crazy 😆

A story that is 100% right up my alley! It goes straight to my fave shelf!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was quite a novella. It is the first bizarro book I have read to win five stars from me. Maybe that's because it's more than just bizarro. It has elements of weird fiction in it--the train full of corpses that are all variations of the protagonist. But this review is not about the book's plot per se. Read other reviews for that please. This review is about the book's best feature, the metafiction, raising this work to postmodernism. And even then, to stay out of spoiler territory, I'm going to write about the concept itself, not this book's specific use of it.

Metafiction can be done poorly, but it's rare. Justice League of America #123-124 is the only example that comes to my mind, and even this bad metafiction was still for me a thoroughly enjoyable read. Scalzi's Redshirts, as poorly written as it is, still has fascinating metafiction in it.

Sweeney mentions Max Beerbohm and Enoch Soames as providing his definitive conception of metafiction, no doubt more intellectual than the examples I just raised. John Gardner (primarily in The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers) is the primary source for my literary understanding of metafiction. I'll have to look Sweeney's up. I really appreciate that Sweeney tried his hand at the concept in this novella because his results were brilliant, absolutely brilliant.

[Matthew Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a morbidly delightful little tale! I liked the ending but also didn’t like the ending but also liked the ending and also the true ending, too.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strange. Very, very, strange. I enjoyed the book and the strange twists and turns it took, but was left wondering at the end (endings). Overall a good read that provided a nice diversion.