One of Us [Mass Market Paperback]

Michael Marshall Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 1999

It's not what you've done that counts—it's what you remember....

If you could sell your conscience, could you get away with murder?

Hap Thompson works the gray area between truth and lies. He works for REMtemp, taking on other people's memories. It's illegal, but usually harmless. Maybe a petty criminal wants to pass a lie detector test. Or an unfaithful spouse wants to enjoy a guiltless affair. All Hap has to do is carry the memories for a couple of hours. It's easy money. Until a beautiful young woman who committed murder leaves her memory with Hap—and won't take it back.

Now Hap is on the run: from the LAPD, from six angels of death in gray suits and sunglasses, and from the best hit man in the business—his ex-wife. Even worse, people all around Hap are disappearing in a strange white light. His only hope is to negotiate with a guy who may be much more than he seems, so he can stay alive long enough to discover who is and who isn't...

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you like the brain-stretching work of William Gibson (author of Neuromancer) and Philip K. Dick (author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?, which was the basis for Blade Runner), you'll feel right at home with this latest futuristic thriller from the author of the well-received Spares (available in paperback). It's 2017, and the first time we meet Hap Thompson he's being hassled in a bar in Ensenada by his alarm clock, which not only talks but walks and has a bad attitude. Hap, a prodigious computer hacker with a pretty bad attitude himself, works for an outfit called REMtemps, which offers a unique service--removing clients' bad dreams by sucking them into the heads of paid professionals. (Could Smith have been influenced at all by the title of one of Dick's best stories, "I Can Dream It for You Wholesale?") Unfortunately, one of the bad dreams Hap is called on to swallow involves a real murder, and the search for the woman who dreamed it in the first place takes him--and us--on a literally mind-bending journey of scientific and philosophic discovery. But there's plenty of action, gadgetry, and snappy noir dialogue to make it all go down easily. --Dick Adler --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Dreams, memories and life as we know it are shown to be forms of virtual reality in this extravagant future noir thriller from the author of Spares. In 2017, America is a landscape of Philip K. Dick surreality that includes appliances with personalities, drugs to enhance coincidence and devices that can convert dreams into electromagnetic energy. Hap Thompson, a loner of awesome hacker skills, makes an illicit living as a "REMtemp," personally absorbing the nightmares of paying customers. When he upgrades to more lucrative?and illegal?memory disposal, he takes on more than he bargained for: the memory of a recent unsolved murder, knowledge of which could send him to prison. Hap's efforts to track down his mysterious client and pass the memory back to her are complicated by his duplicitous employer, traitorous contacts on the Internet and a dedicated cop, all engaged in an apparent conspiracy to frame him. And when enigmatic alien presences from the transferred memory invade his life, Hap senses that even his own grasp of reality is not to be trusted. Smith's ear for the nuances of classic hard-boiled narrative is surpassed only by his skill at exceeding expectations for the conventional mystery/suspense tale. The novel's logic-morphs and exponential complexities of plot culminate in a stunning revelation that ultimately ties Hap's hardware-grounded cyberculture to a metaphysical dimension. The price of this audacious development is a talky denouement that dissipates the climax's energy, but readers will still close this book reeling at the implications of their own dreams and memories. Agent, Ralph Vicinanza; film rights optioned by Warner Bros.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (July 6, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553580698
• ISBN-13: 978-0553580693
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun!, November 20, 2000

By 

mellion108 (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: One of Us (Mass Market Paperback)

I picked this one up on a whim. I had never heard of Mr. Smith, and I certainly hadn't read anything by him prior to this. Talking, walking alarm clocks? Roving bands of coffee makers? Is this book for real????? Luckily I continued reading despite my initial reaction to the story. I am so glad I gave this book a chance. It is bizarre, it is surreal, but somehow it all works.
Hap Thompson narrates this story about how he came to be employed as a dream and memory receiver, and how this line of work quickly puts him in danger. On the sly, Hap decides to accept a memory (which is illegal work) from a client who then refuses to take back the memory; Hap is in danger not only of going to prison for life but of being killed for this memory. He then sets out on a roller-coaster adventure that addresses ethical, philosophical and theological issues....but it's done in such a tongue-in-cheek, film noir style that it avoids being preachy.
The setting is sometime in the future in a world where humans share space with appliances that not only talk but have attitude. Surfing the internet takes on a literal meaning in this story, and computer hacking is central to the plot. This is a quick, funny, suspense story, and I enjoyed it immensely. Sometimes I'm totally surprised by a book....this one surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. I described it to a friend as Mickey Spillane meets Alice in Wonderland meets the X-Files meets Brave Little Toaster.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ensnared, April 26, 2001

By 

John Barry - See all my reviews

This review is from: One of Us (Mass Market Paperback)

I had this book pressed upon me. My friend gave it to me far to early one morning. Every time I met him he asked me if I was reading it yet. Eventually I started it. And was thoroughly confused. The opening is utterly preplexing, but intriguing. It draws you in. Then you get to the premise, and that's it. Forget about stopping, it's not really an option.

Sure, many of the ideas may not be original, but frankly, there's not much originality out there. The genius is in the mix, and Michael Marshall Smith get it just right. He does something that doesn't seem to be widely expected in the days of 5-second attention spans, he makes you think. And wait. The anticipation of an explanation for the various events that shaped Hap's life are what drives the book along. When I finally got to the bank, I was remarkably excited about it (actually, to such an extent that the more detached part of my mind was really worried about me), but it was quite an unusual experience.

Lastly, I have to comment on the humour in the book. I think that's why my friend was so insistent on my reading it. The humour of the book is brilliant. I haven't laughed reading a book so much in quite a while. Jingo, by Terry Pratchett, perhaps. That was 1997. Incedentally, if anybody has read both, and reflecting on the use of other material, did you notice the similarity between Hap's alarm clock and the Disorganiser Lady Sibyl got Vimes?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous book, but you only have to read it once!, December 8, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: One of Us (Hardcover)

One Of Us is a very well crafted novel featuring modern-day humanity in a not-too distant future. I love Smith's knack for twists on technology - the talking appliances (also seen in Spares but less developed) add quite a bit of humor to the reading. Smith also has a fabulous way of describing the ordinary that will make you chuckle.

I found myself drawn in throughout the book in a similar way to the first two. I say one only must read it once as a comparison to Only Forward, and even Spares. With Only Forward, I immediately turned back to the first page and started reading the entire book again, having so many questions. What drew me in was Smith's ability to make you think - and though there are signs of it in One Of Us, it lacks some of the power in Only Forward. Still, it is a complete book and one I would highly recommend!!