Serial Killers Incorporated
I never really assign scores to things when I review them. There are a lot of opinions out there, and as far as I can tell there are quite a few that disagree strongly with me, no matter the subject.
So when I say you might not like Andy Remic’s Serial Killers Incorporated, understand that I’m covering all the bases.
Personally, I like it. One of the first books to be released by the author’s own ebook publishing venture, Anarchy Books, SKI is an ice-cold shot of 175-proof hyperbole, that Remic slams down on the bar with a glower. Drink up or get the fuck out is the message.
I think if you sat down and tried to take it seriously, tried to analyse the text, then you’d be setting yourself up for disappointment. From the first few pages, SKI pretty much sets up its stall: Bad men are about their business of doing bad things – Remic doesn’t really play with the form too much once he’s got it duct-taped to a chair. All he does is douse it in bombast and toss lit matches at it until the whole thing goes BOOM.
There are touches of linguistic genius scattered all the way through, simple phrases that sit really nicely in your mind, but for the most part it’s about big, fast images that keep the pages turning. Phrases like “the bike leapt forward, scorpion-stung, and smashed at a million miles an hour towards the line of gangsters who opened fire dark-eye barrels ejaculating blossoms of flame” just erupt out on the page full of energy and pace, and at times I could imagine the actual writing process as being just as energetic – Remic roaring with rage at the limitations of typing, sweeping the keyboard aside and just smashing the words directly into a giant slab of clay* with his fists.
it puts me in mind of Ben Elton’s book Popcorn (which I have previously referenced as the quickest book I have ever read, ever). Naughty people do terrible stuff, and the reader is stuck with an ethically broken but morally stable narrator, delusional and self-aggrandising as fuck, whose POV guides the tale along.
If that’s the sort of poison you think you can handle, then go grab a copy. It’s a fun ride.
*On a side note, the Sumerians have an awesome IP claim against the iPad if they filed their patent for tablet technology.
