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Amazon.co.uk Review
There are those SF readers who resent the authors and publishers who attempt to downplay the genre aspects of their books to grant them more mainstream credibility. This resentment is fair enough, in that no one need be ashamed of creating a top-notch SF novel. But these readers will be doing themselves a great disservice if they do not pick up Michael Marshall Smith's superb collection of short stories What You Make It merely because the jacket has been designed to suggest mainstream fiction without the slightest SF association.
Smith has always been one of the most quirkily inventive and surprising of writers, with novels such as Only Forward and the remarkable Spares demonstrating an imaginative grasp all too rarely encountered these days. But his greatest achievement is his totally individual use of language and dialogue, and this highly diverse collection has 17 brilliant microcosms of his style. From terror in cyberspace to bizarre fusions of man and machine, through twisted manifestations of the artistic impulse to highly disturbing future sex, Smith has the measure of it all. And his gift for the bizarre image remains as acute as ever:
About a week afterwards, I noticed that my back was looking a little hairy. I figured, what the hey, maybe some hormonal thing. Then it started getting harder to hold things. My thumb seemed to be going a little weird, not as opposable as it used to be. There were a couple of days when it looked like there was some kind of tail deal developing.--Barry Forshaw
Review
‘Astonishingly distinctive short stories’
Independent
‘A story telling skill that can only be described as pure genius’
Venue
‘Very funny and decidedly surreal’
Empire
‘No one writes better than Smith about love: how it’s won, how it’s lost. No one writes better about being wasted – by drugs, by drink, by time. Nigh-on unique’
i-D
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This, was very dodgy indeed. Lent to me by a friend and dubiously started, i finished the book in a day. Consdering school that was actually quaite an acomplishment. The book was incredible. Personally, I love the macarbre and the disturbing, and so this fitted me perfectly. The characters were ranging from the normal to the surreal, and the plots from the basic to the gasp out loud horror that makes you quirm in your chair. MMS is a great fan of one liners that sum up the story and leave you hanging, and it was over these that I pored at 3am, afraid to turn off the light. A fantastic book. You may wonder why the title for this review? As soon as I finished this book, I gave it back to the friend, ordered it, and every other book that MMS had written off Amazon. Brilliant. Buy it now.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The first story in this book "More Tomorrow" really made me start to wonder what I'd inadvertently bought - as it was an inadvertent purchase on my part. I was reading it in bed and I just lay there, staring at the last line of the story, images that I didn't need swirling around in my head just before I was about to go to sleep... I decided I didn't like it and I put it down.
The night after (suitably, it's a night book for me!) I was back... onto the second story. "Everybody Goes" was intriguing... on the first pass I will admit that I didn't truly 'get it'... so I read the last page and a half again and it clicked, "Oh yeah, kinda clever!" and I started to like it again.
Each night I've read one, two or three stories and I must say there are larger number of hits in there than there are misses. There's been one or two that I didn't like... but you've, basically, got to almost steel yourself for the last line (more often the last page or last half page) 'cos it's about to turn you on your head and spin you around.
I have bought several other books by the same author - novels as opposed to collections of short stories... so that's the effect an introduction to his writing has had on me... let's see how well he does with longer material.
The night after (suitably, it's a night book for me!) I was back... onto the second story. "Everybody Goes" was intriguing... on the first pass I will admit that I didn't truly 'get it'... so I read the last page and a half again and it clicked, "Oh yeah, kinda clever!" and I started to like it again.
Each night I've read one, two or three stories and I must say there are larger number of hits in there than there are misses. There's been one or two that I didn't like... but you've, basically, got to almost steel yourself for the last line (more often the last page or last half page) 'cos it's about to turn you on your head and spin you around.
I have bought several other books by the same author - novels as opposed to collections of short stories... so that's the effect an introduction to his writing has had on me... let's see how well he does with longer material.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At the start of this collection of short stories, Michael Marshall Smith is careful to alert the reader to the difference between a novel and a short story - and it is a warning that the reader would do well to heed.
One of the strength of MMS's writing is in his honest and very raw dealings with human emotions. His novels often balance out the warmth of his central characters against some of the more brutal things that happen in the course of the story. There's just not enough time to build that warmth here in these stories so they inevitably end up very raw, very bleak and ever so slightly disturbing.
That said, the stories are still expertly written (although his humour is something else that doesn't get much of a look-in in some of the stories) and they give a good idea of MMS's ideas pared down to their simplest forms and maybe a little better idea of what makes him tick. It's interesting, for instance, to speculate how "The Man who drew cats" was influenced by the writing of Stephen King for instance.
All in all a very good book - imaginative, stylish and scary. Just don't read it if you're looking for something to cheer you up on a rainy afternoon. It's likely to make you wonder if the rain is ever going to stop.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Challenging, out of the ordinary and wel written...never a dull...
A book of short stories is something that I believe is incredibly difficult to get right....and by that I mean make each story self contained but self explanatory, engaging and... Read more
Published 1 month ago by D. J. Parkes
Short Stories - I just don't like them.
I love this guy. Well at least I love this guy's sci-fi novels. But this isn't a novel, its a book of short stories and I don't like short stories so I can't really blame the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by James Hodge
Well written, but weird.
A selection of short stories from Michael Marshall Smith. I enjoyed the book, even though there were a number of decidedly average stories. Read more
Published on 17 May 2010 by simon211175
A Glimpse Into The World of Madness
I recently met Michael Marshall Smith at a science fiction convention where he decided to read to us from one of his works. Read more
Published on 11 Mar 2009 by D. Lu
Direct, dark and gripping
Writing (almost?) exclusively in the first person, MMS's style is very direct, immediately drawing you in. Read more
Published on 28 Jan 2007 by Mal Ross
Not what was expected = but wow
This was bought after I had read the other (sci-fi) novels and was expecting more of the same humour/horror. Read the first story and .... Read more
Published on 23 Aug 2004 by r farrow
Very Disturbing
I read this book after reading other titles by Michael Marshall Smith and was slightly perturbed. The style is similar to the other titles by the author, but the content is less... Read more
Published on 27 Aug 2003
Contemporary and fascinating
I've only begun to read short stories and I first read the collection of shorts by Roald Dahl which is another I highly recommend. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2002 by jazmallory@yahoo.co.uk
A word of warning.
I bought this book having read the first three MMS novels, which I loved. Before I had a chance to read it, I leant it to my brother, who brought it back from his holiday saying he... Read more
Published on 14 Sep 2001 by H. R. Mills
Left me sweating!
I read this book on the tube on the way to work and people must of thought I was a loon. I was gasping, shouting, and almost crying such was the mix of emotions stirred up from the... Read more
Published on 15 July 2001
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