Amazon.co.uk Review
Short story collections are often hit-and-miss affairs but not so with Foursight, which features four superlative and riveting novellas by big name writers. James Lovegrove, Graham Joyce Michael Marshall Smith and Kim Newman have, under the skilful reigns of editor Peter Crowther, created a stunning and varied collection of werid but wonderful tales. Such is the nature of short fiction, where a lot happens, or at least seems to happen, in a relatively short space, it would be impossible to convey the plots of all here but it would be fair to say that all stunning examples of how good condensed fiction can be. Graham Joyce kicks off the proceedings with the achingly good "Lenningrad Nights", the story of a young boy facing his own personal battle in his war torn homeland as he becomes the surrogate father to a prostitute's baby. The lyrical prose and sharp characterisation mark this as probably the best of the collection with a denouement that sits comfortably with all that has gone before. "How the Over Half Lives" by James Lovegrove holds its own until the finale, which descends, unfortunately, into a rather too easy "we all learned something today" scenario and the main character reacts in a rather implausible way, given everything he based his life around in the previous pages. That aside, this is also a great tale, with an ingenious rat and some marvellous descriptions. The reader is plunged into the rapidly eroding world of the central character and you feel yourself sweating as he does, panicking when he does and genuinely believing your life is out of control. Michael Marshall Smith's entry is of course, the more off-beat of the four with a wonderful plot and plenty of genuine surprises packed into its tightly woven plot. Almost like
Men in Black but less warm and sentimental, "The Vaccinator" mixes Smith's unique and often darkly comic style with many well worn sci-fi threads and produces something truly special. The collection is topped off with Kim Newman's "Andy Warhol's Dracula", a seriously swinging tale that takes a fond swipe at the decade everyone loves to remember. Like some deranged pop art, it is full of colour and large characters and, also like pop art, you can seemingly spend hours in its company. All in all, a hugely entertaining collection--four dark and twisted journeys that entertain, but more importantly explore what it means to live. Regardless of our country, our race, our age or social status, we can never be anything more than what we are--human.
--Jonathan Weir
Product Description
The excesses of a business man whose power comes from the ritualised abuse of his doppelganger; cannibalism and angelic visitations during the siege of Leningrad; Dracula prowling through Warhol's Factory pursued by Travis Bickle; a man who 'vaccinates' his rich clients against the perils of kidnapping little knowing that he is a middle-man for extra-terrestrials : four stories of the fantastic that throw a new light on our world and our lives. Four varied visions unified by the skill of four of the UK's most internationally successful and critically acclaimed authors.
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