Customer Reviews

And the Angel With Television Eyes

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Admittedly this might sound like straining an old blurb cliché, but John Shirley's latest novel really IS a tour de force on the darker side of literature (dark but not without humor). It's one of those rare books so crammed with astonishing images, bizarre scenes and brilliantly written passages (some of them just begging to be read out loud) that it leaves you breathless and absolutely satisfied. On a stylistic level the author has combined the neo-baroque images of his earlier works with the condensed, razor-sharp language of his more recent fiction. Shirley always writes on the edge of reality but with such a controlled and experienced voice that he can make the most weirdest things seem natural and plausible. His menagerie of oddities is described as vivid as if the author has personally met the hybrids of ancient mythology and industrial materials which populate his novel: the vinyl harpies, Thanatos, the angel with television eyes and all the others. And if you think that the Weaver from China Miéville's "Perdido Street Station" was a strange fellow, wait until you meet Vega, the discoball guy who overdoses on e-guitar chords.
"...And the Angel with Television Eyes" has an unbelievably fast-paced plot, some cool narrative gimmicks (just look at the chapter titles) and also profits from its author's insider knowledge of the media business. Definitely some hell of a ride.

John Shirley constructs a concealed world, existing side-by-side with the world visible to the normal human eye. We all know that a similar world must exist within the sub microscopic, quantum realm of which we are all composed. Shirley populates his concealed world with creatures who feed off the souls of mankind. Environmentally, these creatures are vulnerable to the electromagnetic emanations man uses in his radios, cell phones, TVs and radar. Their message to mankind is `clean up your environmental act.'

Max, the main character, begins as a soap opera star whose ennui drives him to quit his TV role playing. He accepts the larger task of unraveling the role concealed within his being. The Angel with TV Eyes changes Max's perspective of his dream like visions describing a concealed world. At an earlier date Lord Greymark had been dissolved into pure information and implanted in the womb of Max's mother. Max's pursuit of a larger than life role triggers his revelation as Lord Greymark, a 12 foot entity concealed within the jaded actor's soul. Lord Greymark possesses great power that he uses to extinguish the fires of Thanatos, a character representing death and vowing destruction of all that is good in man.

Just as the pictures on a TV are converted from unseen waves, the vision of the Angel with TV Eyes flows via holowaves from within the quantum realm. This posits a reality which few can either detect or receive on their vision screen. By personalizing a character with TV eyes John Shirley creates an entity directed from within this hidden reality. A story that begins with a cast of bud-like human characters soon blossoms into a bouquet of revealed Spirits constructed of plastic, metal and electronic switches. As the evolution of man is expressed through DNA, so the Spirits evolve by means of vibratory packets-a non genetic form of evolutionary record keeping. Thus the author posits another method the unseen Spirits are using to throw the evolutionary dice. What the Spirits seek is the same as what man seeks-companionship.

I LOVED this book. The imagery and the mysticism fit together in such a beautiful dissonance, I couldn't put it down. John Shirley is an expert wordsmith. The way he described the sculptures, I felt like I could close my eyes, reach out and touch it in my mind's eye.

There were a few places where it moved a little slowly, but hey, what book doesn't have it's more plodding passages? I have to give this book 5 stars.

Max Whitman is a moderately successful actor in present-day New York City. Cast member on a soap opera, he seems to have acquired a stalker who dresses exactly like his TV character. One day, the stalker is found dead in the middle of the street. Indications are that he was dropped from a great height.

In preparation for a big audition, Max agrees to spend some time in a sensory deprivation tank. His soul is taken to a place of tall buildings made of energy and hears voices talk to him like he is someone named Lord Redmark. Max also meets neon colored snakes in glass tubes, and harpies who look human, except for their wings of blue-black vinyl and mini-TV cameras for eyes. A door seems to have been opened between "here" and "there." Max starts talking like Lord Redmark, and, more than once, he is attacked, in midtown Manhattan, by these vinyl-winged harpies.

Quantum theory speculates about each physical body having an interrelated body made solely of subatomic particles, a "soul." Such bodiless beings do exist on their own, and they are called plasmagnomes. They are divided into two factions, one of which is ready to declare war on mankind. Man's computers, cell phones and other electromagnetic generators are causing real problems in the plasma world. Antoinette, a friend of Max's, does human-looking metal sculptures. More than once, he sees what looks like her sculptures coming to life. Max is taken deep beneath the streets of Manhattan, where he meets people who have turned into various beings. Their true, plasmagnome self has been awakened; Antoinette becomes one of them. To put it simply, reality is being turned upside down and pulled inside out.

John Shirley seems to make a habit of exploring parts of the human psyche that few other writers even wish to visit. In a way, this book is vintage John Shirley; very weird and very, very good.