This is like nothing you have ever read before--except, perhaps, the last Steve Aylett novel. Slaughtermatic did cyberpunk in a weird, parodic version; this short, poetic novel brings to mind the work of the early novels of William Burroughs in its innovative linguistic style and its violent form and content. With the occasional refrain of "O my brothers" Aylett also acknowledges a debt to the future-speak of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. Aylett's imagination offers a bleak, nightmare world in a narrative which operates in a dream-logic of random shifts, puzzling conjunctions, sudden islands of clarity, and absurdist word-play. The narrator pours out his story in a sequence of interlinking confessions. He seemingly has an ability to conjure demons through mirrors and this gets him a job in the campaign for Mayor.

The manifesto for the job includes such helpful pledges as: "Wooden skulls don't work for long", "A severed head will become bleak when dropped underwater," and "Bones from polar bears make grand mallets". Such conjuring talents produce the minor problem of invoking the devil himself, John Satan. Lying somewhere between science fiction and avant-garde prose poetry, this is an intriguing read, sometimes funny, sometimes utterly opaque, but always provoking if you relax and enjoy some the surprising juxtapositions and shifts of register Aylett has become increasingly adept at using. --Roger Luckhurst

2008-05-20 What I told the reader

This book will have a different meaning (or lack thereof) for each and every reader. With an absence of either a conventional plot or narrative structure, it might prove too anarchic for some, but it is worth sticking with for several reasons. One is the humour. At times this book is hilarious simply because of the surreal juxtaposition of words and of ideas. I wasn't always sure whether this hilarity was intentional or not, though I think for the most part it Aylett wants us to chuckle. Another reason to read this work is for its sheer chutzpah. The free-flowing nature of the (frequently opaque) prose never loses momentum and remains engaging all the way through. It never shows any lack of conviction and never falters. It's true to say that this book will not appeal to everyone, and it's not the sort of work I could read endlessly, but it has made me interested enough in Aylett's work to read more (I understand that TIV is his most arcane piece, so it should be a doddle after this!). Read on, fearless reader, read on!