The Tyrant [Paperback]

Michael Cisco (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2004

A new novel from Michael Cisco, the International Horror Writer's Guild Award for Best First Novel of 1999. "Michael Cisco's works immerse the reader in worlds that are not simply dreamlike in the quality of their imagination but somehow manage to capture and convey the power of the dream itself. The Tyrant is his masterpiece." -- Thomas Ligotti

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Prime (March 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894815866
• ISBN-13: 978-1894815864
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,517,420 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Master of Nightmare, April 11, 2004

By 

Jeffrey Thomas (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tyrant (Hardcover)

Michael Cisco is often compared to the brilliant Thomas Ligotti, but to me he clearly has a vision all his own, as demonstrated in his first novel THE DIVINITY STUDENT, in his story "The Genius of Assassins" in the anthology LEVIATHAN 3, and now in his novel THE TYRANT. Indeed, THE TYRANT can not be compared to anything I've read except, perhaps - remotely - to fellow surrealist Alfred Kubin's THE OTHER SIDE, since in both novels a powerful and frightening figure remains tantalizingly but resolutely "off-screen" for much of the book, while still exerting his malignant influence over the proceedings. Cisco's book is a quest story, a road trip, a love story, a keyhole look into heaven and hell, and most of all an eerie, slow-motion train of connected nightmares, conveying bizarre characters through unsettling places. He is a master of strange settings, odd details, uncanny images. His prose style seems almost like automatic writing at times, quirky and poetic. The atmosphere is laid on thick, but this is no misclaculation; the environments and the action and the characters are as one. There are few authors who can rival him for conveying the feeling of dream. His cinematic counterpart might be David Lynch, or the Brothers Quay. Cisco's work isn't for the average reader; it's for the discriminating, the jaded, the daring reader. He is absinthe in a world of Pepsi. So drink deep, and enjoy the hallucinations.