The n-Body Problem by Tony Burgess
My rating: 4/5 cats
you can’t handle this book.
i was going to leave it at that, because it sums up my experience with the book ezzactly, but it’s not really fair to the gods of netgalley or to my beloved czp, so i suppose i can dig deep into my overtaxed brain and find another sentence or two.
the fact remains – you can’t handle this book. and i’m not making a character judgment; you’re fine the way you are, it’s just that tony burgess is… how do i put this politely?? a maniac?? and also what i called him on this review. i’m not proud of it. but he is. three of the four books i have read of his are splattery nightmare fodder, full of people reduced to bloody clumps and bits and pieces with all this chilling psychosexual icing.
this time, he has outdone himself.
the thing is, reading my review, you might already be writing him off as some shock-value kind of hack who writes these disposable books that are just paint-by-numbers-with-blood teen-boy violent cathartic rage-fantasies. but they’re more insidious than that, because burgess, god love him, can write. and he gets into your brain with his little ragged nails and you cannot look away, and you can’t help but be affected by his books.
i’ve read my share of splatter-lit. some of them are pretty bad (which i can’t believe got three stars out of me – i must have been more generous then), but when it’s done right, it stands out, and as much as it might be uncomfortable to admit, it can be wondrously entertaining. and burgess always does it right.
this one just takes it about two steps too far into squeamish-territory. for you, i mean. and nearly for me, too, but there was just something about it that kept me reading, as the situation got worse and weirder and more…diseased. it is not the gentle zombies-orbiting-our-planet story it purports to be. oh, no. that is just to suck you in. what it really is is a stew of every horrific thing you can ever imagine with your little brain: all your fears and most tortured imaginings, posing as a piece of entertainment. ta-DAAA!! and you’re fucked.
and maybe i am underestimating you, and you can, in fact, handle this.
feel free to come back and tell me how wrong i was about you, tough guy.
