DEAD GIRLS [Hardcover]

Richard Calder (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Unknown (January 1, 1995)
• ASIN: B0028QATPU
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Richard Calder was born in 1956, in Whitechapel, London. In the mid seventies he read English Literature at the University of Sussex. After graduating he travelled extensively throughout South-East Asia and Australia and, upon returning to the UK, subsequently worked in bookselling, independent television and the American Embassy's press office. He became a full-time author in 1990 after moving from London to Nongkhai, Thailand, a border town overlooking Laos. In 1998 he moved to the Philippines, where he lived for some years in Baguio City. After returning to London, he currently resides in another 'East' -- his native East End.

His novels include the 'Dead' trilogy (Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things), Cythera, Frenzetta, The Twist, Malignos, Impakto, Lord Soho, and Babylon.

He is currently adapting his novel Dead Girls into a graphic novel, to be illustrated by Filipino artist Leonardo M Giron. The graphic novel will be serialised in the quarterly magazine Murky Depths, beginning with issue #9.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Saga of Ignatz and Primavera, April 9, 2004

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Girls (Paperback)

I was anxious to read this as soon as I bought it but then learned it was part of a trilogy (Dead Boys, Dead Things). Now that I have all three I am reading them. I have to say I was a little disappointed by this first book.

The time is the future. Europe had become the center of luxury goods before the economy collapsed. One of the luxury items were the dolls. Gynoids. Artificial women. But somewhere along the way something happened and a plague struck that could be transmitted between doll and human. The plague created more dolls. Now London is sealed off to try and contain the plague.

Primavera is mostly a doll. Ignatz is in love with her and addicted to her. They have escaped from London (no easy task) and are looking to put their lives together and cure her.

The story follows their quest, jumping between past and present in a manner where you are not always sure where you are. These sudden scene changes added to the new vocabulary and the workings of the future world will make this confusing for many readers.

In the story we find out how they got together, how they escaped, what and who is behind the doll plague, and to what depths some might sink when all is falling apart.

It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't polished either. It reads like something that slipped into the wrong pile in the editor's office. It really could use a little reformatting (not rewriting) to make the story better.

I hope the other two are better set up.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Meh, October 25, 2008

By 

Evan the Dweezil (A Place-Sort Of, Montana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dead Girls (Paperback)

While there may be an interesting story buried beneath the frenetic prose and flip-flopping between past and present, I wasn't willing to find it. I did however, like the concept.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vampiric Barbie Dolls, October 4, 2005

By 

R. A. Allen-jones "rageangel" (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dead Girls (Paperback)

Cute little English Girls transform into Vampiric Barbie Dolls in a world consuming itself with rabid economic competition, disintegrating nation-states and a complete breakdown in "family values". The masochistic Ignatz travels surreal circles to protect his nano-tech "Doll" from shadowy Yakuzas both corporate and governmental. However, it is the world that needs protecting from the singularity that swirls within her plastic womb.

Is this love at first bite or just nothing ever turns out right? Both are true in this psychedelic, sci-fi parable cautioning against so many things that it is clear this world will end, not with a nanotech bang but a post-coital whimper.

The writing is a tour de force and the author's fervid imagination is matched by his powers of description that, while intentionally confusing, are never confused. Propulsive. Vivid. Sexy. Disturbed.

Don't fall in love.