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Richard Calder
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Malignos Paperback – 3 April 2000

by Richard Calder (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
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It is the 53rd century. After an unknown catalysm the ability to invent or maintain technology vanished. Humanity has separated into those who live on the surface and those who live underground - the "Malignos". Captain Pike must venture underground to find an antidote for the poison fed to Gala.
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  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Earthlight
  4. Publication date
    3 April 2000
  5. ISBN-10
    067103720X
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0671037208
  7. See all details
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Product description

Amazon Review

Richard Calder's offbeat blend of SF, sexuality and surrealism began with his debut novel Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things. Malignos introduces a 53rd-century Earth where technology has lapsed thanks to invading, transforming "perversion" from outside our universe. New races have spun off from humanity, malignos in the traditional shapes of demons--horned, scaled, sometimes bat-winged, and mostly exiled to a vast, artificial underworld.

Antihero Richard Pike is a professional killer and insufferable snob who finds female malignos sexually irresistible, and has shacked up with Gala, one of the few who lives above ground. He loves her so much that he rents out her body and lives on the earnings. Then Gala's past catches up, and to rescue her from drug-induced mindlessness Pike faces a literal journey to the centre of the earth. The path descends through exotic wonders: a freak show of caged humans, flying swarms of hungry child malignos, awesome cities and seas, shadow-beings and chimeras, a descent through the maelstrom to a tropical Torrid Zone, semi-magical tricks with space and gravity whose secret is long lost--and at the core the city or world of Pandemonium, where all answers await.

Pike suffers considerably, usually through his own folly: pursuing sexily demonic girls leads him into traps, and he's repeatedly told (often comically, and sometimes by himself) what a bastard he is. He betters himself a little, though, and carries his underworld quest to an unexpected end. Calder's darkly poetic imagination and rich landscape-building make for enjoyable reading. --David Langford

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Earthlight (3 April 2000)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 067103720X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0671037208
  • Customer reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

About the author

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Richard Calder

Richard Calder

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Richard Calder was born in 1956, in Whitechapel, London. In the mid-seventies he read English Literature at the University of Sussex. After graduating he travelled extensively throughout South-East Asia and Australia and, upon returning to the UK, subsequently worked in bookselling, independent television and the American Embassy's press office. He became a full-time author in 1990 after moving from London to Nongkhai, Thailand, a border town overlooking Laos. Following a decade-long sojourn in Thailand, and later, the Philippines, he returned to the UK and currently lives in East London.

His novels include the 'Dead' trilogy (Dead Girls, Dead Boys, Dead Things), Cythera, Frenzetta, The Twist, Malignos, Impakto, Lord Soho, and Babylon. He has also written numerous short stories, comic-book scripts, reviews, essays, and screenplays.

Dead Girls the Graphic Novel was published in 2014. ‘A fiendish futuristic fairytale full of style and invention. A thrilling tale told at breakneck pace with beautiful manga-inspired artwork. Highly recommended.’ SFX

His official website is: www.richardcalder.info

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5 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from United Kingdom

  • Julian P Killingley
    5.0 out of 5 stars Picaresque Orpheus
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2002
    I guess this book falls into the category of science fantasy - a strange halfway house between more familiar genres. I stumbled on it by chance as on of Amazon's "Others buying this book bought..." and I'm glad that I did - I really enjoyed it.
    Malignos is unusual in that it is a picaresque novel - all the central character's numerous flaws are clearly laid before us but still we like him. It's a genre that was favourite of Russian literature but not so common here. I hope Richard Calder repeats the experience for us.
    Calder synthesises something different from an intriguing blend of styles and conventions. There are nods and winks at Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, not least in the protagonist's name which clearly hints at Peake's Steerpike. The tale as a whole loosely alludes to the classical Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Calder conjures up an interesting world that has a number of intriguing ambiguities to it and he exploits these to the full. The story moves along at a good pace and I found plenty to sustain my interest.
    The central character, Pike, is revealed to us in a variety of cunning ways. There are the casual throwaway shockers, like his adjusting his mascara and lip gloss before going into battle. However, his vanity and fastidiousness is delightfully portrayed by the extraordinarily rich vocabulary that Calder puts into his mouth. Obscure words come so thick and fast that some readers may find they get between them and the story - but I loved them and felt this language aspect gave Pike a credible roundness.
    I consider this book a happy discovery and look forward to reading more by the same author.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Mark Molnar
    5.0 out of 5 stars dense and hallucinogenic
    Reviewed in the United States on 5 December 2012
    Verified Purchase
    far, far in the future, Richard Pike is a disreputable pimp in the Pilipinas Archipelago, a former war hero and expat from the Darkling Island, whoring out the love of his life - the demonic malignos Gala, a devout catholic born in the deep underworld, and a turncoat on her people during the great war between the Earth Above and the Netherworld. trouble comes our lovers' way, and the brave Gala is poisoned and simplified. Pike must journey to the heart of the Netherworld, to the mind-bending city of Pandemonium, to find her cure. a dark and surreal science fantasy quest ensues.

    do you have a secret inner hipster, a snobby elitist who loves your little finds - ones that no one else seems to know about? i sure do. i get a thrill from liking things that few people will ever come across. but it's a sad feeling too. why haven't i heard about Richard Calder before now? why isn't his excellent Malignos better known? it seems unfair.

    this is a pretty amazing novel. its dense & hallucinogenic imagery, casual sadism, and intense focus on perverse & not-so-perverse spirituality reminded me of the early, bizarre trilogies of Elizabeth Hand and Paul Park. even better, his use of arch & deeply ironic dialogue, his shallow & self-absorbed hero, and the oddly cheerful & light tone for some dark events were reminiscent of Jack Vance's equally picaresque and arty Dying Earth series. in this story of a tormented, murderous hero and his, let's say, larger-than-life sword, there is also more than a nod to Moorcock's Elric series - it seems almost like a straight-up homage. and, obviously, the basic narrative of this novel - a hero's descent into an underworld to save the life of his lady love - is also the basis of innumerable tales and legends.

    the writing is wonderful. the imagery is gorgeous. the narrative is compelling. the characters are off-kilter but strangely iconic. the author, himself an English expat living in Philippines, brings to the table both insouciant verve and a lived-in understanding of elements of Filipino culture. this is science fantasy that made me pause and consider many things.

    it is perhaps inappropriate to actually call this a "science fantasy". the history of this world is given careful pseudo-science explanation. START SPOILER. first of all, the universe is composed of many dimensions. sometimes these dimensions bleed over and sometimes denizens of one dimension will cross over to another. in a certain dimension that is clearly where the idea of Hell sprung from and bled over, evil is good. people apparently have given themselves the appearance of what we call devils, amongst many such outre appearances. the philosopher-scientists who dominate this dimension, and the dark-energy beings that protect them (including that eternally famous villain, the cold-hearted Metatron) became ambitious and sought the create their own personal universe. disaster occurs; their dimension is destroyed; their spirits crossed over to a new dimension to possess and integrate with its more perverse and artistic residents. these newly transformed beings began to create great & terrible machines and to fashion new, more appealingly demonic forms. they were called many things: goblins, ogres, malignos. they are not necessarily evil... they just see things a different way. and driven underground, they plot to someday return. oh, and i'm not even talking about our dimension. Malignos takes place in a post-post-post-apocalyptic future of a familiar-seeming earth, but one that includes such world powers as Atlantis and Cathay. END SPOILER. it's all so mindboggling and carefully thought-out... awesome!

    there are many absorbing scenes, bizarre & beautifully described tableau, and moments of stylized dialogue & offhand musings to enjoy, to chuckle over, to slowly digest their implications, to read again, maybe to treasure. one of my favorite bits:

    "If she embraces old superstition, Defoe, it is because the new superstitions that have currency in our world, superstitions that inhibit and finally destroy our sense of empathy, will lead us all to destruction.' Gala frowned. She did not seem to like the equation of her faith to superstition. Neither, perhaps, did I. But I was too damaged by war to be able to lift my face to heaven and put all my hope in the love everlasting. The only thing I feared more than the mummery of my own existence was the possibility that God also was an ostentatious fake."
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