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Do you ever feel you'd like to reboot the world?
Do you ever think that the human world is hopelessly out of balance, blighted,
off track, and the only hope is some kind of apocalypse, some sort of "Judgment
Day with justice" that would allow the human race to start over--without, ah,
certain people?
You know you don't want--and can't believe in--the usual Judgment Days that are
predicted and ballyhooed by hysterical, superstitious people.
But when you look around at the world as it stands you see Darfur, you see
Somalia and the Congo, you see the modern slavery of indentured servitude, you
see children sold into prostitution, you see millions starving, you see mindless
wars, you see people you care about dying of Alzheimer's and children dying of
cancer and millions of others trapped in schizophrenia or living lives of
media-hypnotized desperation...
And you know that it's only
going to get worse. This can't go on; something has to change.
What if you could change it? What if you could design your own Judgment Day? Not
a Judgment Day based on childish interpretations of religion, on bias and
cultural narrowness...
What if you could design a Judgment Day, for the whole world--one that offers
real Justice?
What would it be like?
In John Shirley's novel, The Other End, a wave of light shatters the
world's assumptions; human
behavior takes a sudden unexpected turn; Swift, a newspaper reporter, has to
find his missing daughter in a panicking world even as something from Every
Where makes millions of people suddenly look inward. And looking inward,
strangely, takes them outward again...
And then come the Adjustors. Who are they? Where exactly are they from? They say
they're not angels, or aliens...Then who are they?
The usual End Timers offer one End of the World as We Know It...
John Shirley's courageous, genuinely risky new novel offers the other end. The
other end of the ideological spectrum; the other end of the world.
Does it involve...aliens? No.
Does it involve God? Not really--but then, it depends on your definition.
John Shirley, the
award-winning
author of Demons,
In Darkness
Waiting,
Cellars,
A Splendid Chaos,
Eclipse,
Black Butterflies,
and so much more
gives us a totally unexpected Judgment Day. Something is coming, to near-future
Earth--to the whole world.
Something is coming that will finally give the human race the chance
it never had before...to bring it to The Other End.
Reviews:
'Veteran horror writer Shirley (Cellars) swaps gory for glory in this inventive
if politically heavy-handed left-wing answer to Tim LaHaye and Jerry B.
Jenkins's evangelical Left Behind series. Child slavers, genocidal soldiers and
corrupt statesmen have fourth-dimensional visions and abandon their wicked ways
in the first part of the novel, narrated by Sacramento Bee reporter Jim Swift
and his conspiracy-nut friend, Ed Galivant, in a style oddly reminiscent of C.M.
Kornbluth's 'The Silly Season.' Readers of all persuasions will relish the
repentance of these universally acknowledged bad guys...' -- Publishers Weekly
'What Shirley does exactly right as a writer is to strip down his novel into a
thrill-packed action ride, with each slice of the knife driven by a series of
very understandable ideals. You'll read this book in a day or two and be charmed
by Shirley's characters and his generous sense of humor. The laughs here are all
over the map. From a subtle suicide to a heavy-handed disposal of heavies,
Shirley spares no-one.
'The Other End is bound to cause comment from all ends of the political spectrum,
but it's not just a tract or a polemic. It reads quite simply, but unpacks with
a surprising level of complexity. Even those treated with the least respect here
are treated in a manner strictly in accordance to Shirley's premise.
He debunks of the LeHaye/Jenkins interpretation of the Book of Revelations with
fact-finding accuracy. Shirley may make as many enemies with this novel as
friends, but he gives anyone willing to read the novel lots to think about, and
sends everyone else to a well deserved, just reward. Vengeance is mine, says
John Shirley.' -- Rick Kleffel,
Metro Santa Cruz
'If you ask me, this is just what we need right now: a sober, non-religious
(though unabashedly left-leaning) account of an apocalypse, specifically
conceived as an alternative to those fundamentalist "End Times" books by Tim
LaHaye and others...Another plus is author John Shirley returning to the type of
tripped-out metaphysical weirdness that typified his bizarro masterworks SILICON
EMBRACE and ...AND THE ANGEL WITH THE TELEVISION EYES With a panoramic scope and
a half dozen or so central characters (along with cameos by President Bush,
Osama Bin Laden and the aforementioned Tim LaHaye, who all go unnamed), the book
has an epic thrust, but is still a fast, easy read. The tone is disconcertingly
cheerful, at least in contrast to much of the author's previous work. I prefer
my John Shirley books tough and nasty (the case with essentials like CELLARS,
WETBONES and THE VIEW FROM HELL), but THE OTHER END is so much fun I can't
complain overmuch. Watching the real bad guys of our world get their just
desserts is gratifying, to say the least; in his introduction the author claims
the book at one time might have been subtitled A WISTFUL DREAM, which does
adequately sum up the overall effect. If at all possible buy two copies and
give one to your local church!'--Fright.com
'...the novel is perfectly toned to express the message the
author was hoping to achieve. John Shirley always has something important to say
and this might be the most perfectly balanced work of fiction and message he has
ever produced. Is it my favorite of his novels? No, but it is important work,
written with almost surgically perfect prose that needs to be experienced.' -- David Agranoff.
Apex Digest
'Shirley, who helped start the splatterpunk subgenre,
admits to a liberal bias, so the anti-mainstream bent of his end-of-the-world
novel can sometimes seem overwrought. But the 12-year-old glee he exhibits while
"doing-in" such obvious villains is infectious.' -- Dorman T. Shindler St Louis Post Dispatch
'THE OTHER END is John Shirley's answer to the left behind scenario. His theory
is that when Judgment Day comes, people of all creeds and religions will have a
choice for true justice if they choose the right path. Although there are many
characters given their second chances, they serve as archetypes and avatars that
move the story along. Mr. Shirley has a wonderful imagination and a way of
creatively (pun intended) putting his ideas into a fascinating and unorthodox
storyline that readers will thoroughly enjoy reading.' -- Bookgasm
'They say winners write history and Harry Turtledove writes alternate history. In
THE OTHER END, John Shirley writes a futuristic alternative tale of Armageddon -
set "about a year from whenever you're reading it" - until now monopolized by
fundamentalists like Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins....John Shirley's
courageous book is an account for the
rest of us. As the title suggests, this is a book for the other end of the
ideological spectrum: the non-superstitious, those concerned with real-world
problems - issues we can see and misfortune we can address here and now....
But the heart of the book does not lie within his challenge of
"conventional" ideas; it lies within the relationship between Swift and his
daughter, Erin, with whom he's grown closer even as his fundamentalist ex-wife
has taken her further away....Shirley makes it clear from the beginning he
doesn't intend
to veil anything, thinly or otherwise.
While the author's vision of Judgment Day isn't meant to be taken literally like
its extreme Christian counterpart, open-minded readers will agree the events and
consequences in THE OTHER END are just as plausible as the side it
opposes.'--Jason Light
'Shirley's passion is obvious...he's got a message the masses could stand to
hear.' -- Tim Pratt, Locus
'[Recommended Reading 2006] Among SF I enjoyed...John Shirley's THE OTHER
END...' -- Faren Miller, Locus
Now available from Cemetery
Dance
(the publisher who first brought you Demons).
[Read the Author's Preface to The Other
End].
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