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stitching_ghost's review
5.0
As a lover of both post-apocalyptic horror and nonfiction this book made me happy on a level that's hard to explain. It's funny at times, really dark at other times and engaging through and through. The structure is unusual but not to the point where reading it ever becomes a chore.
whatmeworry's review
4.0
This review first appeared on scifiandscary.com. I received a copy of the book for review consideration
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading ‘A Warning About Your Future Enslavement That You Will Dismiss as a Collection of Short Fiction and Essays by Kit Power’ by Kit Power, other than, given that attention grabbing title, it would likely be weird. It was, but it was also brilliantly written at times, memorable and very, very funny.
As the title suggests, it’s a collection of short fiction and essays, the twist being that they are tied together by a linking story. That story revolves around a technician in a dystopian future reviewing a series of “memory dumps” and trying to piece together the details of the past world. Author Kit Power has some fun with that tale, and there’s a definite plot to it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the stories and essays that it links.
Those pieces are, by and large, a delight. There are 21 of them and they’re enjoyably varied. My absolute favourite was an essay which explains at hilarious length why ‘RoboCop’ is the best film ever made (admittedly not a hard argument to make as it transparently is the best film ever made). The short stories are often almost plotless, often more vignettes than true stories, but they’re brilliantly effective. Power does a great job of pulling you in quickly and effectively and there’s a real gut impact to a lot of the tales, even when the events are very simple.
All the stories are good, but there were two standouts for me. ‘The Hand’ features a poker game and is almost painfully tense. ‘Wide Load’ is the story of someone passing an unusually large stool. It’s as unpleasant as it sounds, uncomfortable so at times, but also as gripping as any thriller I’ve read lately.
The book is very British, and stories like ‘Richard Madeley is a Fuctard and We’re All Going to Hell’ might not work quite so well for international audiences. (In case you don’t know him, Richard Madeley is a fuctard with a successful television career despite his tendency to say really stupid things, like the time he told actress Keira Knightley that “she’d make a good crack whore”). Despite that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. It’s refreshingly different, very well written, often extremely funny and a perfect antidote to the kind of anodyne fiction that fills up the shelves of our book shops far too often these days.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started reading ‘A Warning About Your Future Enslavement That You Will Dismiss as a Collection of Short Fiction and Essays by Kit Power’ by Kit Power, other than, given that attention grabbing title, it would likely be weird. It was, but it was also brilliantly written at times, memorable and very, very funny.
As the title suggests, it’s a collection of short fiction and essays, the twist being that they are tied together by a linking story. That story revolves around a technician in a dystopian future reviewing a series of “memory dumps” and trying to piece together the details of the past world. Author Kit Power has some fun with that tale, and there’s a definite plot to it, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as the stories and essays that it links.
Those pieces are, by and large, a delight. There are 21 of them and they’re enjoyably varied. My absolute favourite was an essay which explains at hilarious length why ‘RoboCop’ is the best film ever made (admittedly not a hard argument to make as it transparently is the best film ever made). The short stories are often almost plotless, often more vignettes than true stories, but they’re brilliantly effective. Power does a great job of pulling you in quickly and effectively and there’s a real gut impact to a lot of the tales, even when the events are very simple.
All the stories are good, but there were two standouts for me. ‘The Hand’ features a poker game and is almost painfully tense. ‘Wide Load’ is the story of someone passing an unusually large stool. It’s as unpleasant as it sounds, uncomfortable so at times, but also as gripping as any thriller I’ve read lately.
The book is very British, and stories like ‘Richard Madeley is a Fuctard and We’re All Going to Hell’ might not work quite so well for international audiences. (In case you don’t know him, Richard Madeley is a fuctard with a successful television career despite his tendency to say really stupid things, like the time he told actress Keira Knightley that “she’d make a good crack whore”). Despite that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. It’s refreshingly different, very well written, often extremely funny and a perfect antidote to the kind of anodyne fiction that fills up the shelves of our book shops far too often these days.
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