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Changed my mind about what I was going on to next and instead started Michael Marshall Smith's new novel, The Straw Men. Only he's just Michael Marshall now. Maybe he's doing an Ian Banks/Ian M. Banks and saving his full name for SF.
Was slightly apprehensive, what with the change of genre and all (Smith's SF novels, for those who haven't read them, are some of the most imaginative to have come out in recent years), but this is good stuff. It's a serial killer thriller detective thing, but there are hints that he's playing with the concept of reality breaking down again, of people/things living between worlds. The Straw Men themselves are hazy, wraith-like figures in the style of the street lamp men from One of Us. That said, I'm only halfway through the book right now so I could be completely wrong.
Smith's SF always plays with themes and ideas more often experienced in horror and noir, so this isn't such a huge leap into unknown territory as it appears. I've got one issue with the novel, and that's that the protagonist is virtually indistinguishable from those of his other three novels. It's undoubtedly got a lot to do with the fact that he writes in the first-person again. Not a major problem by any stretch and more than made up for by the fact that I got the hardback online for £5. I'm anyone's for a fiver. |
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