Rating: 
Summary: Oh man! What a dream!
Review: Whilst, judging from some of the other reviews, I am not sure I "got" *all* of the philosophical depths and alleged allusions to allegory here, I was perfectly content enough to just go with the flow and enjoy the vivid trippy experience that KSR has penned for our delectation and to pick up perhaps a few wry insights into life's great comedy along the way.Short, it certainly is, coming in at just 150 pages (plus 30 identical chapter title illustration pages). Sharp? Yes, I guess so, in the keen, striking, intelligent or even witty sense. And how about the shock? Well our mysterious and amnesic wanderer Thel certainly encounters plenty of these in his travels. KSR has populated his spineworld (a kind of negative manifestation of Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld) with some of the most bizarre and evocative creations that the sci-fi/fantasy genre has ever spawned. From seaweed-folk to tree-people and the enigmatic facewomen, from people of rock/clay, to the profoundly disturbing eroticism of the Queen of Desire, all of the strange inhabitants conjured forth by KSR are players in a series of increasingly sumptious and dream-like tableaux (the almost Dali-esque homes of the shell-people being my personal favourite). Many human archetypes are here - companion, lover, provider, bully, mage. Traditional characterisation is kept to a minimum though - and rightfully so; to do otherwise would have diluted this novel's impact. I devoured this book in a flurry of page-turning and many of its images will stay with me for a long time. I certainly got a few flashes of realisation long after reading certain chapters. Someone compared this to Iain Bank's (marvellous) "The Bridge". On a very superficial level I can appreciate that parallel being drawn, however, to me, Short Sharp Shock felt like a more profound and satisfying version of Coelho's "The Alchemist". So what fundamental truths did I pick up from SSS? ....... no. Sorry. To share them with you would be perhaps to prejudice your enjoyment of this book, but, if you have an open mind and appreciate challenging works, enjoy it you certainly will!
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