Customer Reviews

Spares

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Michael Marshall Smith is a great new writer with a very unique and invividual voice. Coming on the heels of his debut, _Only Forward_, _Spares_ confirms that he is definitely someone to watch!

Some reviewers have faulted Smith for attempting to shoehorn too many diverse ideas into a single book, or for creating such an unlikeable person in his protagonist, Jack Randall. Depending on your point of view, this may be a valid criticism. For me, the mix worked and worked in a magical way I come across all too infrequently in my reading these days.

Jack is a drug-addicted former policeman in the surreal future world of New Richmond, Virginia, a grounded MegaMall which has been taken over as the basis for a city. On the run with a group of spares he's liberated from a Farm, Jack comes up against the same forces which necessitated his escape five years previously. Throw in the Gap, a strange, interdimensional reality, not quite analagous to cyberspace but similar, in which a war was fought 20 years ago, a war Jack and several of the other characters are veterans of, and the book is almost overflowing with ideas, originality, and an amazing level of energy.

If you're a fan of cross-genre mixes, hardboiled/sci-fi, this book is definitely worth your while. Based on his first two novels and a number of his short stories, including "More Tomorrow," an excellent Internet horror tale, Smith has quite a future ahead of him and, for now, a dedicated new fan in this critic.

This book is amazing, really. The hero is sort of an anti-hero. By all normal standards, I should despise him, but he has some hidden inner qualities that far outweigh his vices.
The subject, which centers on cloning, is becoming almost too real for comfort (especially after reading this book!). The reasons for cloning in the book are horrifying, but not at all unrealistic.
Read it. Be disturbed. Watch the news.

Spares is not something massively profound and life-changing but it is a great book just the same. Spares manages to mold tragedy, comedy, and some awesome sci-fi into one great story. The comedy aspect will have you laughing hysterically at times and the first time one reads this book it distracts from the other elements. The second time through it becomes apparent that the comedy is really just Jack's way of masking his despair and depression. This is the tale of a desperate man who is in the process of having everything and everyone that he cares about taken away from him. Spares is a complete book in every sense of the word. I would highly recommend that you read it. Now where is the movie thats supposedly in the works?

After "Only Forward" I have expected another brilliant book. However, "Only Forward" was so good, that "Spares" took from it a lot elements: it seems very similar ideas of Neighborhoods and Floors in MegaMall, The Gap and JeamLand. I don't know was it necesary to fill up "Spares" with so many violence and blood. Sometimes seems even action-line forgotten because of description of the violence. In other words, you can feel that "Spares" has been written in more cheap-pop manner than "Only Forward" (well.. American debut). This is dissapointing. But not so much.

The only reason this book doesn't get more stars is because his other two books are so goddamn perfect. The main problem with this book is it seems to be his first novel, "Only Forward", watered done so a film could be made. This doesn't make any difference if you have not read "Only Forward" but if you have it makes you slightly dissapointed about this book. Overall this a rocking rollercoaster of a book that doesn't stop for anything.

Once again, a bizarre and twisted mix of fantasy, horror, SF, comedy and thriller. The plot lurches from mood to mood like a manic depressive; I laughed, I shivered and I almost cried in the space of a single page. The most horrifying parts of the novel were also the most plausible.

Stylistically, it's not quite up to the standards of "Only Forward" -- but then, I doubt anyone's going to surprise me again the way *that* novel did. The sub-plot about the gap is perhaps a little too similar to elements of the first book, but I was prepared to overlook it given how amazing the rest of the story is. And I had no trouble identifying with the protagonist.

If you're a fan of Philip K Dick, Stanislaw Lem, William Gibson, Rudy Rucker or Harlan Ellison, then you really ought to read this novel. Don't wait for the movie, there's no way any Hollywood studio will have the guts to do it justice.

SPARES was an inept attempt to explain some alternate cyberzone that has somehow interfaced with our reality. Too unbelievable, even moer so than Barker's Lovecraftian dimensions (even if Clive claims not to be copying H.P. Lovecraft's stuff). Perhaps Smith intended The Gap to be a multidimensional alternative universe (like State College courses) that doubles as those teenage clothing chain stores that go by the same name? And as evidenced by his dreary character, Jack, chasing some animated clothing after entering The Gap... Jack was also a huge problem for me, especially when he was instrumental in getting his wife and daughter killed. Couple that with the fact that ex-Leutenant Jack's a drug addict (a fact which the author uses to cover up for his lack of descriptive powers when describing The Gap), and you get another bad version of THE BAD LEUTENANT, a really rotten flick that had been made a few years back. Still, Smith manges to inject some fairly good humor, and some keen insights into the human condition. Which is the sole reason for raising my initial rating from a 5 to an 8. But then after I found out the end.....I knew then that Smith blew it in terms of writing a good story...that makes this novel another dreary book with another dreary antihero, a dull leftover 60s era thought process that seems to still have some hold in Smith's head, much to our chagrin.

I dont often read a lot of sci-fi, but Spares was recommended to me, and I gave it a go. Im glad I did. Its a story thats not totally unbelievable really - clones being produced for spare body parts for the rich. But its more than just that. Its a story of one mans self turmoil over whats right and wrong, in a world thats gone slightly weird as he struggles with his own existence. Michael Marshall-Smith writes with thought, and not a small amount of humour which ultimately makes this book a though provoking but enjoyable tale. It makes you stop to wonder what exactly is aroung the corner for us. Clones? Not an un real proposition. Clones for spare parts? Who knows - lets hope not. An origional and entertaining story this one. Well worth picking up if sci fi doesnt normally rock your boat.

Michael Marshall Smith effortlessly blends the worlds of Douglas Adams, William Gibson, Will Self and Raymond Chandler in this illuminating Sophomore novel. "Spares" is a humane, cleverly written rumination on the nature of humanity, and how far we'll go to convince ourselves that we've lost it, masquerading as a cyber-punk detective-thriller/comedy/fantasy/horror novel. Taking, as it does, our worst fears about the misuse of cloning technology and accelarating them to the Nth degree, Michael Marshall Smith plunges us into the world of Jack Cardigan, a disgraced former policeman/war veteran/drug addict running from a past he can't escape into a future he can't control. On the way he'll revisit another plain of reality, be accosted by a talking Fridge and explain to you where cats really do "go" when you let them out. Yes, it is as off the wall as it sounds and several times more ingenious than you suspect. If you're a would-be writer, you'll put down your pen and not want to bother after reading this. It really is that good.

The only reason I'm giving Spares any credit is for the premise. Unfortunately Smith hardly deals with the Spares, but rather dwells on Randall who is neither engaging nor sympathetic. The spares are just superfluous characters dressing the endless and useless philosophical ramblings and drug sessions of a cop who wasted his life away. The alter universe of "The Gap" could have been cool, but it takes the reader far too long to get there. Not to mention it is so trite to need a drug to enable your mind to comprehend it. Flying malls that house cities is certainly original, but Smith does not do enough to build his future world. If you eliminate most of the drug trips, and life lessons, you are left with a rather hollow story.