Wow Fiction

An amazingly imaginative mix of genres - and a superb mix of reality with fantasy.

(Audio version superbly read by Lenny Henry)

Finally, a bed-time story for grown-ups, 11 May 2006
By George Eliot "irnan" (Zurich, Switzerland) - Amazon review

'Anansi Boys' is really a story about embarrassing parents and other relatives who turn up exactly when you least want and need them to that starts out completely - well, normal - and suddenly drops into a mixture of horror, fantasy, comedy and crime all at once. Fat Charlie Nancy discovers after his father's funeral that Dad wasn't just any emabarrassing parent but Anansi the trickster spider-god. And when voodoo witch Mrs. Higgler tells him he has a brother he can't even remember, Charlie impulsively calls said brother up (magically I mean not on the phone). which gets him ino a great deal of trouble with the police, his fiancé, various ancient gods, his psycho boss, and worst of all, his future mother-in-law...

Gaiman's story is the funniest thing I've read since the last time I bought a Discworld novel a year or so ago; it is also the spookiest. How many times do we all wonder who our parents were before they were parents, and why they have to be so embarrassing once they are? And how many of us have had nightmares about someone else taking over our lives? And above all, how does Gaiman manage to slip in the supernatural (or rather, weird) occurences into normal life with such ease that they seem completely logical, totally normal and so simple that it seems anyone should be able to perform 'miracles'? I guess its just a question of style; and Gaiman has lots of it. He appears to toss this story off without any effort whatsoever, and thus it reads more easily than most fantasy and/or horror stories that seem a lot more forced and constructed. And you simply cannot call it a book: it is a story of the same sort as the original Anansi stories: a fairy-tale.

A great British caper.

When three cabbies attempt to make a killing on the stock market by eavesdropping on the plans of a corporate magnate to engineer a huge take-over, they find they have taken on the sinister might of international banking community. The beleaguered heroes, Len, Terry and Einstein, soon find the sharp suits they are up against have no scruples about using extreme violence to protect their interests--a top financial executive is discovered dead in the back of a cab, and the boys are forced to investigate a monumental cover-up. A further turn of the screw is provided by Len's desperation for the money--on which his daughter's life depends.

Hopping into a cab isnt the same anymore!, 9 Oct 2002
By Gubbu "muskels" (UK) - Amazon review
 
I was simply blown away by the elementary nature of the premise John has used to craft this awesome tale. Since I am an investment banker myself and travel in black cabs often, I was forced to squirm a bit with a flashback to any ocassion when I might have "helped" the cabbie! I generally am averse to reading long novels as my attention span keeps waning if not engrossed very quickly but with Black Cabs I didnt want it to end! I am sure a lot of cabbies will owe John hefty tuition fees for teaching them this new fine art of eavesdropping! Black Cabs is the best airport purchase I have ever made!

A glorious story of how a woman gets her revenge against her sex crazed, greedy husband.

Joey Perrone is a woman with a mission. She's just been pushed overboard from a cruise liner by Chaz, her scumbag husband, and survived to tell the tale. But rather than reporting him to the police, she decides to stay dead and - with a little help from her friends and a few of Chaz's enemies - instead of getting mad, she's going to get even. Filled with a host of endearingly offbeat characters, and a narrative that is hilarious, romantic and thought-provoking by turns, "Skinny Dip" takes us on a journey through the warped politics of Southern Florida and through the madness created by the human heart.

Review by Donald Mitchell "a Practical Optimist" (Boston) - from Amazon.co.uk
 
I strongly encourage you NOT to read either the jacket blurb or most reviews of this book. For some reason, people seem to want to give away most of this story to nonreaders. If you do read the spoilers, you will probably only think this a three or four star book . . . yet it is really a tour de force if you let Mr. Hiaasen work his magic without any preconceptions about the story.
As the book opens, Chaz and Joey Perrone are enjoying their second wedding anniversary by taking a cruise that is about to return them to Port Lauderdale. But there's a problem! Despite experiencing great sexual energy, Joey finds herself unexpectedly not enjoying the bliss that such a trip might suggest. Clearly, something's very wrong with her marriage . . . and she doesn't have a clue!

The rest of the book develops for her the reasons why Chaz married her and why the marriage suddenly soured for him. Once she realizes what's been going on, she also wants revenge. What ensues is one of the funniest and most original turning-of-the-tables you can imagine. In the process, Joey learns a lot about herself and what she really wants from life.

As usual, Mr. Hiaasen draws imaginatively on the themes of how greed and self-interest cause people to lead artificial lives that threaten both the environment . . . and ultimately all of us. There's a brilliant symbol involving a deformed snake that makes this book haunting as well as humorous. Snakes also play symbolic roles in other parts of the story. Remember the garden of Eden whenever you read about a snake in this book.

The book does a superb job of helping many of its characters develop and grow based on their experiences. I thought that the evolution of the character named "Tool" was especially well done. Tool goes from being someone who blindly follows orders to someone who takes responsibility for his choices, and makes better ones than those who have been ordering him around. Joey, Ricca, Corbett, Karl, and Chaz also experience meaningful changes as they come to appreciate what they have done.

For long-time fans of Mr. Hiaasen's writing, you will be pleased to meet two old friends in this book.

A super story with more than a touch of the ridiculous.

The funniest book ever? 11 Dec 1998 By A Customer - Amazon review

This was the first book by Douglas Adams I read, not having read Hitch-hikers and I am too young to have seen the T.V series, therefore I started to read without any real expectation or withot knowledge of what a Douglas Adams book is about. I really got into it and although the text is a little hard to follow and you wonder what is actually going on some of the time, the stories and the themes are linked eith great intelligence and the repetion of things such as Zen navigation are wonderfully funny. The writing style of Adams: his use of description, allegory and comparison lend itself to reading in such a way that you cannot put the book down and you find yourtself laughing out loud. It is comparable to the hitch-hikers but in my opinion it is considerably better - it is the hitch-hikers but cleverer, more succint, more imaginitive and funnier. I would recomend it to anyone who likes to laugh.

*****

Thank goodness he called himself Dirk, 14 Aug 2004 By aceadrian (Cumbria) - Amazon review

Hitch Hiker fans. Weird twisted fiction fans. Fictional literature fans with taste. Buy it one and all!
We follow the life of Richard as he gets helped along his way -through the perils of sofa/staircase interactions, swimming in polluted canals for no reason at all and of course being plagued by a ghost - by Reg (his old director of studies) and Dirk Gently (who thankfully changed his name from something utterly unpronouncable that looks like Adams fell asleep on the keyboard!

It is typically brilliant and well worth the read, some things you see coming - but then what would be the point of books of this sort if you dont have the pleasure in being right sometimes! But others you dont see coming.

I have to admit that I thought the ghost of a Dodo was going to use the main characters to establish its race as the dominant one on earth for a good few pages.

Fortunately I was wrong. For all our sakes - ruled by Dodos???

Buy it!