Every Single One by Robert W. Bertrand

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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Every Single One by Robert W. Bertrand

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

This one reminded me a bit of Simon R. Green's "Nightside" novels, with its weird, hellish milieu populated by people(?) of godlike or demonic power. (If nothing else, the Dead Man apparently has survived many things that should have killed him -- and his disgust and desire to cleanse the city of its pestilential residents is expressed through Old-Testament-style indiscriminate and merciless destruction.)

Maybe if you think of the city as a sort of Purgatory, surrounded by Gods (or Devils) only knows what -- and the Dead Man as an Angel of Death, come to clean the place out?

(Of course, cat owners will begin to wonder just what their pets are thinking when they sniff and lick fingers and faces...)

RM
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Robert_Moriyama
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Re: Every Single One by Robert W. Bertrand

Post by Robert_Moriyama »

Mebbe that there waitress was possessed ... hence (a) not approaching the whole killing thing with what one might consider any professionalism, and (b) not overly concerned with self-preservation, since the self in question was just a borrowed (well, rustled, to be "rode hard and put away wet") shell. I really think that the piece needs to be viewed as a moment in an ongoing apocalypse, with the Dead Man's rampage just the beginning of the transition from Sodom and Gomorrah conditions to violent chaos. When the most rational character is an arms dealer with a couple of cats who take to the taste of human blood rather readily, you have to assume you're not in Kansas anymore. Or even Oz (not the prison, the place with the Emerald City).

Could/should this piece be the beginning of something larger and more story-like? If Mr. Bertrand isn't reduced to a pile of smouldering ashes by our tender attentions, I wouldn't mind seeing more of this world. Is it all going to hell, or was the City the one cesspool that really needed draining?

RM
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Jack London (1876-1916)
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Re: Every Single One by Robert W. Bertrand

Post by kailhofer »

Are you sure Quentin Tarantino didn't write this? I don't understand his movies either, but they seem equally violent. However, it does seem in that blowing-away-monsters/people, violent-just-for-the-sake-of-showing-violence cinematic vein.

I will say that I liked the resolve of Dead Man, but a person who is just out to destroy the world sounds more like a comic book supervillain than a real character. As for the main character, I needed something that would make him appealing, some reason to like him.

In terms of storyline, he gets Dead Man a gun, grabs his cats, and gets out of town. That's it. I'm afraid to say that just wasn't a gripping plot. He isn't even presented with that many challenges to overcome.

I'm all for liking cats, but that wasn't enough.

Nate
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