Angel Scene / Teeth and Tongue Landscape (Eraserhead Double #2)

Rating:
Summary: where gratuitous violence is just there for the sake of viol
Review: Angel Scene is written by Richard Kadrey, and is one of those things I mention where gratuitous violence is just there for the sake of violence. The only morale I could read into the story is that one needs to be themselves and can't be taught to be yourself, and love rises above all. The problem is that this comprises only 3 chapters out of the 30 chapters in the story. The rest is graphic descriptions of gore, violence, and wonton sexual activities. Overall I would say that it were hardly worth the paper printed on it, unlike the CM3 novels which use gore and sex to create an emphasis on a morale, this story had no plot, no morale, and was simply a gore lovers feast. Definitely a story I wouldn't recommend.

Unfortunately, a brilliant CM3 novel is attached to the backside of this double feature and one is forced to buy both just to get the gem. Teeth and Tongue Landscape is a strange book set in a world made flesh. People living on a living surface of meat and living landscapes. The story revolves around the narrator, the lone survivor in a strange disappearance of people. He meets a robotic female whom he falls in love, and spends his time trying to find others through which he can spend time with. He spends so much time trying to fit in, but then realizes that his uniqueness is what makes him fit in. This book would have to be his most gentile book out of the ones I have read so far. It focus mainly on the story and description of the landscape, with less sex and graphic violence then any of his other novels. A very interesting read and one I would recommend to people who want to be introduced to CM3 books without being overly offended.

Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting....
Review: Hmmm....that's what I said after I read Angel Scene, which took about 45 minutes. It's a story about angels, employed by the Men In Suits to murder certain people. Why though, is never answered. Along with many other important questions. Some of the ideas of the story are intruiging, but it is told in such a poor manner, one can't really get into it. The author just carelessly describes the killing of people and the sexual encounters with the other angels (both male and female). It becomes very monotonous and boring after the first few chapters (most of which consist of a few paragraphs and a sexually explicit picture on the adjoining page - usually of some half naked female bound with rope). This is why this book gets only 3 stars.

Now, Carlton Mellick's story Teeth And Tongue Landscape on the other hand was fantastic. I was a little disappointed at first at the short chapters and lack of background information, specfically on how the world became flesh and how all the different creatures in it came to be (and how did all the cities disappear). I wasn't sure about the narrator's style at first, very jaunty and one-dimensional. But it grows on you like a scab in a fleshy world (wink wink). So much happens in the 100 or so pages this story is written in, you wish there was more. Between traversing the fleshy landscape with his metallic robot wife, meeting the race of identical Themrocs who live in an apartment complex that houses all of the countries of the world, escaping the demon mechanical jellyfish that thrive on human souls, comforting God as he wanders through the halls of the Themroc house depressed, and finally meeting the Night Serpent who will take him to the lost civilization of humans in the basement, the main character goes through a lot. If this book had been written as a longer novel, with more time spent developing each part, it would be amazing, a cult classic even. Nevertheless, Carlton Mellick III is definately a great author with lots of potential. I give it 4 1/2 stars. Averaged the whole book to 3 because of Angel Scene though.

Rating:
Summary: Like shadows on the sun
Review: That's exactly what these two novels will make you feel. I found these to be the exact refreshment I was looking for, like a cool glass of lemonade in a sweltering summer.

Both are avant-garde, as you would expect, illustrations peppered throughout. Angel Scene is chock full of exquisite technological artwork, while Teeth and Tongue has the occasional pencil-sketch. Both are quite high-quality, but some of the illustrations are misplaced, or cut off at certain points, which caused a few ripples in my reading. Nothing serious.

Carlton Mellick III is excellent as always, although Teeth and Tongue is a considerably smaller-scale novella compared to his other works. The novella/novel is rather an exploration of a meaty landscape told through his amusingly unique 1st person view, fast becoming his own definitive voice. Although not a great deal happens in the novel, it is highly readable and satisfying all the same.

Angel Scene is a blitzkieg of sexual scenarios, Kadrey's immensely fertile mind set ablaze in the bodies of the Angels. Disturbing on all stages, sometimes even mortifying. It's fascinating how the human mind can imagine and list down such erotic terrors, blindly cruel manipulations of sexual genitalia. The novel is very short, made out of around 40 one/two page chapters.

Both novels chart the decay and machinations of a human, with an almost robotic mind. Also, they share the theme of ugly/beautiful, something cherubic and devilish at the same time. Need a release? Buy this book.