Sunday, June 20, 1999
Title: What You Make It
Author: Michael Marshall Smith
Publisher: Harper Collins
What You Make It is the first collection of Michael Marshall Smith's short story work following on from three successful novels. The collection contains 17 stories, some of which have been printed in anthologies and some of which are available for the first time.
The collection starts with the first piece of work by Michael Marshall Smith that I read. The story is called More Tomorrow and is easily the most chilling story I have ever read. Bringing a sick feeling to my stomach even though I have read it before and know what is going to happen. Many of the factors in this story underline the strength the author shows in all his work. There is some sense of mundanity - the main character is just another computer geek moving from job to job and getting on with his life - normality and something that you can relate to, to a degree. Mostly told in first person the stories exhibit a personal quality - communicating with you. Michael Marshall Smith portrays his characters as witty which evokes a strong sense of humour, so that even with their evident flaws they remain decent people for the most part.
But you have been set up, led in, hoodwinked. Michael Marshall Smith is the master of the slap in the face - with his novels providing several shocks. With a collection like this every story is a set-up to that punch line - that final page that takes you aback. This stems from the strong sense of real horror that he manages to instil into stories like More Tomorrow, More Bitter Than Death, Foreign Bodies or the title story What You Make It
To accompany the stories of real horror are the author's take on some classic themes. There are vampires, zombies, ghosts and killers featured in stories like Later, A Place To Stay and Hell Hath Enlarged Herself. Horror also comes from fear and tension which reality can offer - this idea is offered up in The Fracture and The Owner. Fragmentary head fu/-/cks.
Like his novels which combine horror and humour the other key element of science fiction is evident. From mad scientists to tech gone wrong to nano ware. Or how about time travel in the wonderfully funny Diet Hell? Or the disorientation of the alternate reality of The Darklands ? One of Michael Marshall Smith's favourite devices is the rise of the talking devices with which he has a field day in What You Make It
While I am wary about giving too much away, I'll offer a brief run through of my favourite stories. More Tomorrow - first contact and hard punch. A Place To Stay for the way it dislocates you as much as it does the character. Save As, a reflection of the way things are, with the SF extension and the final irony - cause its always the bloody same. Diet Hell for the sheer unlikeliness of the lead character:
"So I built a time machine.
It wasn't so hard. Just muse on magnetism and tachyons a while and you'll be on the right lines."
Another unlikely tale is When God Lived In Kentish Town, for a change not horrific, more touching. Also touching is the story Always, though how could it not be that little bit odd? Finally, there are some things that are What You Make It, but sometimes that's just a little bit further than you want to go!
RVWR: PTR
June 1999
