Author: D. Harlan Wilson
Published by: Raw Dog Screaming Press
Due: early 2007
‘Dr. Identity’ - also known as ‘Farewell to Plaquedemia’ - is a wonderful and heartwarming tale set in the post-capitalist city of Bliptown; this is a fun surreal place where time constantly ticks sideways, where artificial monstrosities will punish the local populous for their consumer-capitalist lethargy, and where bouts of ultraviolence are as essential as your daily multivitamins and jetpack.
In this future nightmare-to-come we follow the educational exploits of a ‘Corndog University’ Professor with no name, as he copes with a whole range of everyday problems that are endemic in such a profession as his: from android doppelgängers and lazy students, to the murderous intentions of other Professors in the English faculty, to name but a few of them - and the less said about the lobsters living in the walls the better.
Dr. Identity is a ‘pulp science fiction’ novel in the truest sense of the term - its a novel that has not so much been written by D. Harlan Wilson as it has evolved like some kind of killer alien embryo in the wet folds of his living brain and then spread itself virus-like onto the page. It is jammed full of quite bizarre scenes and wacky unforgettable characters, and it romps through a future so blatantly absurd that it just has to be real - a society where people have had surrogate android replicas of themselves created to do their menial and monotonous jobs, whilst they in turn pursue their own passions; which usually means being useless and doing nothing for the most part.
The comparisons to other authors will be obvious (and predictable) when reading the novel - from Kafka, Gibson, Philip K Dick and Steve Aylett as well as others, but D Harlan Wilson has his own acerbic style and wicked sense of humour, and isn’t afraid to use it.
Any story that has lines like “Dostoevsky sweated like an animal”, “Why is it you never filled my veins with wine? It’s very fashionable” or characters with names such as ‘Petunia Littlespank’ is definitely going to be good value for money, and in that respect Dr. Identity doesn’t disappoint at all. You’ll be blinded by morphing zoot-suits, troubled by hippopotamus whips and left stammering by the satire and the spectacle of it all. Brilliant and disturbing in equal measure.
The novel has won the Stick Figure Prize for Language & Literature, and will be available to buy in early 2007.
For more details, go to the author’s official website at ( www.dharlanwilson.com)
Mo Ali was born in a haunted hospital and has exceeded all expectations and kept breathing.
A digital artist, poet and writer, he needs to find some paid work before the inevitable apocalypse. To make matters worse he lives in Berkshire.