What do you think?
Rate this book
Candy Man
Through the night black, rotting girders of the sprawling, multi-level world city wanders the Candy Man, sowing the seeds of revolution amongst the degenerating remnants of humanity. Hunted by the death dealing Teachers, the callous followers of the all-powerful Machine, the Candy Man pursues his lonely struggle for individuality in a brainwashed, machine-run world.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
5 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
November 22, 2020
-Confusión, medio buscada y medio no.-
Género. Ciencia ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Candy Man (publicación original: Candy Man, 1971) nos presenta a Candy Man, que prefiere vivir con su perro en el bosque y solo va a pueblos cuando no tiene otra opción, haciéndose pasar por ciego y vendiendo azúcar hilado a los niños. Su búsqueda de un nombre y de un verdadero propósito lo meterán en aventuras con personajes tan particulares como él.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
Género. Ciencia ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Candy Man (publicación original: Candy Man, 1971) nos presenta a Candy Man, que prefiere vivir con su perro en el bosque y solo va a pueblos cuando no tiene otra opción, haciéndose pasar por ciego y vendiendo azúcar hilado a los niños. Su búsqueda de un nombre y de un verdadero propósito lo meterán en aventuras con personajes tan particulares como él.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
March 27, 2021
"A millennium of peace and comfort and all the time the crushing leisure."
A peculiar book. It fits into the subgenre of dystopias where no one can remember how or why things became as they are.
It has a slight hint of Logan's Run, but stranger, with more surreal imagery.
It took me a while to get into, I think because the main character, Candy Man, is quite unfocused - which is inevitable, as part of the story is him wanting to find his Purpose.
Read it if you like your dystopias a little weird, '60s UK style.
A peculiar book. It fits into the subgenre of dystopias where no one can remember how or why things became as they are.
It has a slight hint of Logan's Run, but stranger, with more surreal imagery.
It took me a while to get into, I think because the main character, Candy Man, is quite unfocused - which is inevitable, as part of the story is him wanting to find his Purpose.
Read it if you like your dystopias a little weird, '60s UK style.
January 7, 2024
I do not know much about Vincent King, but he wrote a handful of 'trippy' science fiction novels in the early 1970s that even today have a cult status. King just drops the reader into the pot in Candy Man and it takes a bit to figure out just what the hell is going on. I was not sure if the novel was set in a massive space ship or a planet until about half way through! Our woefully unreliable narrator, the Candy Man, starts the tale by coming down from the 'lichen forest' wilds into a cantina along side an ubiquitous road; roads seem to be everywhere here!
In any case, he enters and busts out a 'tray' where he spins up some candy floss, using some sugar and some bugs (for color? some type of drug? maybe both?). The patrons are not drinking booze, but simply sucking on a 'nutrient tap', which seems to provide their basic food supply and keep them drugged like Soma. The patrons are also not very normal, looking like they were frozen in mid-adolescence and extremely dull witted. Nonetheless, after they all have some drugged floss, he starts to preach, telling them how evil the 'rites' are and such. Then, he goes to the 'speaker' in the cantina (speakers are everywhere as well, playing soft music when not used to call 'machine central') and reports that there is subversive activity at the cantina, for which he gets rewarded by some 'vials'.
So, is the Candy Man simply some kind of junkie? It sure seems that way at first as we following him blundering around, stoned or something. He does not even know his own name, which fills him with shame. It seems you only get named after going through the 'rites', which turns most people into zombies. The only 'normal' people seem to be the 'corps', who build things and do maintenance and such. Everyone at a certain age goes through the rites, but we only really find out about them much later in the book.
After his call, a 'teacher' soon arrives and starts asking questions to the patrons; teachers are something like cops. The Candy Man gets confronted and when he cannot tell the teacher his name, things get ugly and he kills him with his shotgun. Fleeing the place, he runs into the Boy, who must be with the corps as he seems normal...
I will stop with the plotting here. This novel, while linear, is so surreal at times it makes you feel stoned just reading it. I will say that after about the halfway point, things start to come together and you realize Candy Man's world is a dystopian future Earth, yet one where everyone has a place except the Candy Man. Sometimes profound, sometimes just bizarre, King paces this like a junkie going for a fix, with all kinds of reveals along the way. I guess you could call this early new wave science fiction, at least of the British variety. I almost put this down after 20 pages or so, but I am glad I stuck with it. 4 weird stars!
Also, the cover art by Dean Ellis on my 1971 Ballantine Books edition is spectacular, although it is hard to tell from the pic on GR.
In any case, he enters and busts out a 'tray' where he spins up some candy floss, using some sugar and some bugs (for color? some type of drug? maybe both?). The patrons are not drinking booze, but simply sucking on a 'nutrient tap', which seems to provide their basic food supply and keep them drugged like Soma. The patrons are also not very normal, looking like they were frozen in mid-adolescence and extremely dull witted. Nonetheless, after they all have some drugged floss, he starts to preach, telling them how evil the 'rites' are and such. Then, he goes to the 'speaker' in the cantina (speakers are everywhere as well, playing soft music when not used to call 'machine central') and reports that there is subversive activity at the cantina, for which he gets rewarded by some 'vials'.
So, is the Candy Man simply some kind of junkie? It sure seems that way at first as we following him blundering around, stoned or something. He does not even know his own name, which fills him with shame. It seems you only get named after going through the 'rites', which turns most people into zombies. The only 'normal' people seem to be the 'corps', who build things and do maintenance and such. Everyone at a certain age goes through the rites, but we only really find out about them much later in the book.
After his call, a 'teacher' soon arrives and starts asking questions to the patrons; teachers are something like cops. The Candy Man gets confronted and when he cannot tell the teacher his name, things get ugly and he kills him with his shotgun. Fleeing the place, he runs into the Boy, who must be with the corps as he seems normal...
I will stop with the plotting here. This novel, while linear, is so surreal at times it makes you feel stoned just reading it. I will say that after about the halfway point, things start to come together and you realize Candy Man's world is a dystopian future Earth, yet one where everyone has a place except the Candy Man. Sometimes profound, sometimes just bizarre, King paces this like a junkie going for a fix, with all kinds of reveals along the way. I guess you could call this early new wave science fiction, at least of the British variety. I almost put this down after 20 pages or so, but I am glad I stuck with it. 4 weird stars!
Also, the cover art by Dean Ellis on my 1971 Ballantine Books edition is spectacular, although it is hard to tell from the pic on GR.
December 7, 2013
Apocalyptic future policed by the ‘Teachers of Death’ followers of the ‘Machine'.
This book is like an LSD trip without the actual drug. The reason being that Vincent King has no boundaries or limits to his imagination. The plot tells us about a character ‘Candy Man’ that goes around preaching revolution in a modern, machine, tyrant world with cities ruled by technology and policed by evil enemies known as ‘Teachers’.
There is a peculiar sense of rebellion in ‘Candy Man’ as the story invites you into a world of weirdness and wonder amplified by the echoes of a typical British obscurity. Part of a new wave of British Sci-fi of the late sixties and early seventies, I found this book to be adorable and unique.
For more of my reviews go to:
jorgesousanet.blog.com
This book is like an LSD trip without the actual drug. The reason being that Vincent King has no boundaries or limits to his imagination. The plot tells us about a character ‘Candy Man’ that goes around preaching revolution in a modern, machine, tyrant world with cities ruled by technology and policed by evil enemies known as ‘Teachers’.
There is a peculiar sense of rebellion in ‘Candy Man’ as the story invites you into a world of weirdness and wonder amplified by the echoes of a typical British obscurity. Part of a new wave of British Sci-fi of the late sixties and early seventies, I found this book to be adorable and unique.
For more of my reviews go to:
jorgesousanet.blog.com
December 31, 2011
This 1971 novel has the reputation of a Brit SF cult. The story of Candy Man, moving through a dystopian future of giant ruined structures and a degenerating humanity. A mysterious sect of humans, the Teachers, with access to what remains of technology rule in the wreckage of civilisation, requiring the young to submit to rites which result in the majority having their brains burnt, reducing them to an imbecile state.
Candy Man is a loner amnesiac with a sense that he has a mission to fulfil that will pit him against the Teachers and the Machine which they serve. Events unfold through the agency of the Boy, the Girl, and the Fat Man, who appear to be part of the Corps, a body which represents the part of humanity which in the preceding millennium made it to the stars.
The story unfolds through sequences of desperate action mixed with surrealism with Candy Man gradually learning more about himself. The mark of the 1960s runs all through the book, stirring up memories of 'The Prisoner' and some episodes of 'The Avengers'. A generation of Brit SF writers had to pass before the mood of this genre could reach the current gold standard set by M. Jon Harrison, but you can see the foundations for that sublimity in this tale.
Candy Man is a loner amnesiac with a sense that he has a mission to fulfil that will pit him against the Teachers and the Machine which they serve. Events unfold through the agency of the Boy, the Girl, and the Fat Man, who appear to be part of the Corps, a body which represents the part of humanity which in the preceding millennium made it to the stars.
The story unfolds through sequences of desperate action mixed with surrealism with Candy Man gradually learning more about himself. The mark of the 1960s runs all through the book, stirring up memories of 'The Prisoner' and some episodes of 'The Avengers'. A generation of Brit SF writers had to pass before the mood of this genre could reach the current gold standard set by M. Jon Harrison, but you can see the foundations for that sublimity in this tale.
February 4, 2022
A very strange novel written in a voice unlike anything I've encountered: somewhere between .... hmm. I don't know what. I don't think I can describe this. 10 pages in I almost tossed it in my "sell" pile because I thought the writing was terrible and marveled that such a thing could be published. Then there would be brief spells of professional literacy, and at some point the quality of the writing, the voice, began to make sense to me, or at least I quit being appalled. You get used to it. I also had problems with the "everything-is-illusion-so-anything-can-happen" posture King seemed to be taking, and the settings are so strange I could not begin to picture them in my head. Wacky shit happens, nothing is explained very well, yet I was compelled to read through to the end and actually managed to enjoy myself. A lost gem from science fiction's new wave.
Read
January 24, 2020The first half of this is an unrelenting sprint through a hyper dense but barely elucidated world. Kinda feels like Blame! or the music video to Chino Amobi's Welcome To Paradiso. You pick away at the image like you do with lil b or riff raff lines. It's always ahead of you. It's evocative and erratic and abrasive and undeniably creative. Then there's exposition and characters and it becomes less cool but still alright
August 5, 2015
i saw this book recommended on a list, and had assumed it was what the horror film of the same name was based on, but boy was i wrong (and thankfully!). this is a really well done piece of sci-fi, with just the right balance between explaining its world, showing you, and leaving some a mystery. i'm amazed at how much action is packed into such a short book.
January 24, 2013
Just an amazingly dark dystopian adventure. I read it every chance I got during my breaks at Amazon. Its a wonderful example of 70`s science fiction. This was we written when I was attending first grade but it read as well as something written yesterday.
September 2, 2018
What a strange, wild little book this is.
A far future Earth, with a severely suppressed humanity living in a rotting world-city. Star travellers return to try to restart things by, basically, destroying everything. To do this they have to enlist the unwilling help of the Candy Man, a kind of wandering minstrel fermenting distrust in the authorities in order to later shop his would-be rebels in for drug rewards. From there, it just gets stranger.
The whole thing is delivered in an almost childish, almost camp, and rather jolly style, that lends everything a -probably suitable- air of unreality. The trouble is, I still can't decide whether this is deliberate or the result of lack of discipline on King's part. Whatever the truth, if you're in the mood for some early 70's weird SF, then there's satisfaction to be had with Candy Man. Kind of.
A far future Earth, with a severely suppressed humanity living in a rotting world-city. Star travellers return to try to restart things by, basically, destroying everything. To do this they have to enlist the unwilling help of the Candy Man, a kind of wandering minstrel fermenting distrust in the authorities in order to later shop his would-be rebels in for drug rewards. From there, it just gets stranger.
The whole thing is delivered in an almost childish, almost camp, and rather jolly style, that lends everything a -probably suitable- air of unreality. The trouble is, I still can't decide whether this is deliberate or the result of lack of discipline on King's part. Whatever the truth, if you're in the mood for some early 70's weird SF, then there's satisfaction to be had with Candy Man. Kind of.
April 1, 2023
See Don's review for the first half of the book, at least. Interminable - too long --clambering around underground to show the centuries of time passage. Then . . .
As the Candy Man begins to remember, he realizes that he is the only one who can Save The World. The Boy and the Girl are twins; sex is something out of our 60s, and he is very matter of fact about it. BYTW the Fat Man is their creator; they are robots.
Beginning in Chapter 11, Candy Man begins to learn who he is; a very adaptable robot who can help mankind, the first one in several centuries. Most everyone else is either crazy (like the Boy) or so indoctrinated that they don't think properly. Candy wins in the end, of course, (Pinnochio maybe?) and the simple, hardworking people of Earth can start over. It was a nice touch that Candy Man had Wolf throughout, a robot dog with a handle!
As the Candy Man begins to remember, he realizes that he is the only one who can Save The World. The Boy and the Girl are twins; sex is something out of our 60s, and he is very matter of fact about it. BYTW the Fat Man is their creator; they are robots.
Beginning in Chapter 11, Candy Man begins to learn who he is; a very adaptable robot who can help mankind, the first one in several centuries. Most everyone else is either crazy (like the Boy) or so indoctrinated that they don't think properly. Candy wins in the end, of course, (Pinnochio maybe?) and the simple, hardworking people of Earth can start over. It was a nice touch that Candy Man had Wolf throughout, a robot dog with a handle!
May 11, 2020
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
3.5/5
"The Candy Man wanders from place to place in a crumbling mega-city with his sole companion, a mechanical dog named Wolf who comes with a handy handle. Candy Man instigates the lobotomized, with primal speeches and drugged sugar floss tinted with pulverized beetles, to revolution. His reward for turning in those he encouraged deviate from the will of the Deep Machine and their Teachers? Vials of drugs. Enter the hypnagogic [...]"
3.5/5
"The Candy Man wanders from place to place in a crumbling mega-city with his sole companion, a mechanical dog named Wolf who comes with a handy handle. Candy Man instigates the lobotomized, with primal speeches and drugged sugar floss tinted with pulverized beetles, to revolution. His reward for turning in those he encouraged deviate from the will of the Deep Machine and their Teachers? Vials of drugs. Enter the hypnagogic [...]"
December 18, 2020
This is a British dystopian novel set in a time when ice melt requires the building of cities on top of cities to rise above the water levels. The science is confusing and there is an outdated belief in eugenics in this society. Nothing, though, that the character believes is true; reality and identity keep shifting until the main character has to put a stop to the whole structure of the machine-generated reality.
December 31, 2023
Weird novel, Kafka on acid with a sprinkle of 1984 with a dog. Too many twists towards the end and all the characters are annoying (except Wolf).
Also, I know a lot of writers struggle with naming their characters, but Vincent King took it to the next level by making the entire novel about finding a name and the people who do have names are just called Fat Man, Boy and Girl (aka K).
Also, I know a lot of writers struggle with naming their characters, but Vincent King took it to the next level by making the entire novel about finding a name and the people who do have names are just called Fat Man, Boy and Girl (aka K).
December 15, 2018
Found this book by chance and thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely worth the read.
December 20, 2018
6/10. Única obra leída de este autor con futuro post-apocalítico como trama. No está mal.
June 8, 2024
At first it seems like the author is on LSD, but then he ties it together really beautifully and creates an amazing and unique story.
February 17, 2013
Interesting and good book. Saw parallels to Shelley's "Frankenstein" but far mor bizarre. Not a light read and confusing at times, worth it however.
Read
October 10, 2012EX-LIB. 1ST EDITION.
Gollancz ISBN 0-575-00762-1
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews