Friday, August 21, 1998
Title: Slaughtermatic
Author: Steve Aylett
Publisher: Phoenix House
Steve Aylett was last reviewed in these pages as author of the story Gigantic which appeared in the collection Disco 2000. This is Aylett's third novel, following The Crime Studio and Bigot Hall, and returning to the city of Beerlight. Additionally, characters like Blince, Parker and Panacea are featured, though are not the central characters. Those roles are taken by Dante Cubit, The Entropy Kid and Rosa Control. As I say, this book is set in a city called Beerlight, a city which Aylett describes:
"Where to kill a man is less a murder than a mannerism.
Where integrity is no more than a fierce dream.
Where crime is the new and only art form."
With the central characters being proponents of the style - hence the book kicks in with a crime. Dante and The Entropy Kid are robbing a bank - but this isn't merely about money, it's about artistic statement, and as such their target is something special. While The Entropy Kid covers the staff/customers, Dante goes for the vault, which has security designed to send him 20 minutes into the future and the waiting arms of the police. But knowing this, Dante has obtained a hack and goes back in time by 20 minutes and cuts the security cameras so that when they arrive to rob the bank there will be no record. From the vault he takes a book - an interactive object created by a cult figure that is incredibly mind consuming. Then he goes and shoots himself coming into the bank - with his body at the crime scene he can't be accused of the crime, and his mother will get insurance money. But things start to go wrong - the layout of the building is not as expected, Dante Two does not die, and Rosa (backup and escape route) is not there to collect them. From there it is a downward spiral of cryptic dialogue -absurdist crime and random killings - puntuated by the hope that the two Dantes do not meet, because if they do they will implode taking the city with them.
Aylett's style is like being slapped with a stick - each line a thrown away gag or pun or something that manages to go beyond your understanding of what is actually going on. Which can become confusing, but given his undoubtable style and ability, confusion is acceptable, and most likely intentional. I guess one could call something of the content cyber - but it is certainly more punk than that label suggests - plugging guitars into the back of people's necks instead of computers with lethal results. The police and authorities are brutal and ugly - the rest of the characters are flippant (on drugs and heavily armed). The general attitude of the characters hinted at by the following, when a character has been told:
" 'God can see you when you pick your nose'. This guarantee had led him to create a snot graffiti which said 'YOU FUCKED UP BIG TIME'. But in adulthood it occured to him that maybe God couldn't read ... So now he stood on stage ... And picked his nose, baked by a fast-cutting projection of starvation, death, and disease."
But despite the flipancy and the constant floe of trick weapons and drugs, Aylett manages to have a plot which he sticks to. A plot more complex and engaging than his tone may suggest, in fact he even manages to throw in a few twists. This is an enjoyable read - good dialogue and good humour propelling the reader through its pages from start to end.
RVWR: PTR
August 1998
