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Aztechs

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Lucius Shepard, AZTECHS (Subterranean Press, 2003)

For the whole of his career, Lucius Shepard has been one of America's most criminally underrated authors. He managed to write some of the twentieth century's best science fiction, fantasy, horror, and war fiction without, really, much of anyone noticing. Thus, most of his old stuff is out of print regularly, and his new stuff is being put out by companies that take novellas and release them for exorbitant amounts of money in hardcover collectors' editions. For example, AZTECHS.

AZTECHS is another entry in the subgenre Shepard seems to write to most natively, sci-fi-war. This one's much lighter on the war and heavier on the science fiction. In a future version of the border between America and Mexico, a company called AZTECHS has mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, supplying the world with cheap technology. There are certain factions who are not thrilled with such a thing, and would like to see AZTECHS disappear so they can go back to controlling society. The protagonist, a small-time drug dealer and roustabout who is for all intents and purposes the kept man of a reality TV show host, hires a cadre of genetically altered bodyguards for an AZTECHS rep who's going to talk to one of the leaders of the factions who aren't happy with AZTECHS' dominance. The talks do not go well, to put it mildly, and things get weirder from there; within the space of a few pages, neither the protagonist (nor his girlfriend and camerman, whom AZTECHS have allowed to film the talks) nor the reader is at all sure of whose side anyone's on.

Those who are already aware of the incredible prowess Lucius Shepard has with words can rest easy that despite the book's rather embarrassing title, this is very good stuff. Shepard newbies will likely be put off by the price tag (and rightly so, for a book that sits right on the line between novella and novel), and those who aren't big science fiction readers might be better off going for one of his more down-to-earth pieces (Life During Wartime, his second novel, is a great jump-off point), or better yet some of his short fiction (The Jaguar Hunter and Beast of the Heartland are both highly recommended, but better yet find a couple of his seemingly as-yet-uncollected stories, "Delta Sly Honey" and "The All-Consuming"; the former was in an anthology called In the Field of Fire which is well worth reading, and the latter appeared in a late-eighties issue of Playboy). Once you've fallen in love with Shepard, though, this one's a must. *** ½

I loved this book. I can't explain it. I just loved it. I drank up every word. The images weren't beautiful, the view of the future was dismal, but after the first chapter it turned into a series of stunning metaphors that spoke to my soul.

I was totally unable to follow the plot. The ending was devoid of meaning for me. The relationship between the hero and his girlfriend made no sense. The characters seemed to shift in and out of personalities paragraph by paragraph.

But I totally loved this book and highly recommend it. No clue why...