Slaughtermatic

Self-consciously clever, crazy original, and exploding with style, Slaughtermatic is an intense read that kept me grinning throughout; at least, when I wasn't rubbing my poor dumb head - I'm not ashamed to admit that I would have enjoyed this book even more if I had been smarter and/or more educated. It's filled with rapid-fire metaphors and concepts that can get to be pretty overwhelming if you're not blessed with a high IQ and a decent attention span, but the struggle is worth it because it's a damn good read. The ideas are presented with such copious style that it's a joy to read each page. Aylett seems to put as much thought into most sentences as a lesser author would put into an entire novel. The characters, although barely necessary in a book so brimming with style as this, are interesting, and the dialog is always a treat to read - just don't expect anything resembling real-life exchanges. The plot, also only semi-crucial, is occasionally meandering but ultimately satisfying. But again, the real star here is the writing itself, and if you can enjoy writing for writing, you'll love this book.

This book is one of my favorites. It's absolutely hilarious and not nearly as confusing or hard to read as some people seem to paint it as. It's fast paced and brisk with no down time. My only complaint is that the American edition seems to be too stuffy, trying to make it more serious than it is (as well as having a printing gaffe). It's an excellently written book, but it's a joke. It's for wiseass punks who stay up late at night watching gangster flicks and '80's cyberpunk movies, then unscrew the top of the salt shaker right before their best friend uses it at breakfast. Great stuff.

It's not for everyone...but I loved Slaughtermatic. I couldn't put it down, and convinced all of my friends to buy it, and most of them read it in one sitting also. It's like revenge of the Evil Toons in Toonland. It is almost impossible to describe Aylett's prose yet his imagination is something else. The weapons alone are worth the price of the book.Having said that don't succumb to buying his other books. I found them insanely disappointing after having read this, the cream of the crop. Especially irritating is his non-linear plot in "The Inflatable Volunteer". Steve, you are capable of so much, why do you do this to us?Read it, love it.

Buñuel meets Tarantino meets Gibson in this ultraviolent, surreal mess of cyberpunk cliches. Coherency here is traded off for significant amounts of imagination and entertainment value, as well as a few sharp notions here and there; the result reads more like verse than prose, and your enjoyment of the material will vary directly with how much a psychotic, book-length, knee-deep-in-blood-and-shells poem appeals to you. It's not quite as deep as it thinks it is - or at least, it lacks the clarity to prove it - and the plot burbles into the background, but the energy and the verbal imagination never lets up. Recommended highly, but with reservations.

I hadn't read a novel in at least 5 years. I was browsing in a book store in San Francisco with some friends when I happened across Slaughtermatic. Before I returned to the streets I had read the entire thing- cover to cover. "How could someone write in such a fashion?" I thought to myself, "How could someone simultaneously fill me with joy, sorrow, fear, hope, laughter, tears, the urge to urinate, the need to become an elevator mechanic, the will to abandon my current belief system, the know-how to intelligently use the word 'and' in 5 or more idiomatically correct sentences, the love of bread, the loathing of hate, the dislike of bags, altruism, veneration, magnanimousness, the ability to occlude, hunger, thirst, lethargy, pain, free high quality hair cuts, bombastic speech patterns, the knowledge of my own name, the realization that I am not dead and don't want to be, exhaustion, dehydration, deadliness and skill?" I still haven't found the answer. It's been about a year since that fateful trip to the bookstore and I'm not the same. I see color now. Before I read Slaughtermatic I was confined to a wheelchair, now I walk. I recommend this book to any and all who are willing to undertake an adventure, to challenge their beliefs and to exhibit the courage to change themselves, no matter where they are in life. This donkey of a review is over.