William Burroughs – DaneCobain.com

Julianne Pachico – The Lucky Ones | Review

Title: The Lucky Ones

Author: Julianne Pachico

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 264

Rating: 4*/5

Julianne Pachico – The Lucky Ones

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for free to review as part of my position on the Young Writer of the Year Award shadow panel. Click here to find out more about that.

This is the first of the five books that I’ve read so far from the Young Writer of the Year Award shortlist, and it sets a strong precedent that it’s going to be tricky for the others to live up to. What we have here is a collection of short stories that span several decades and take place in Latin America, and it’s interesting because it’s kind of interconnected and kind of not, with a few running themes like coca leaves that tie them all together.

Pachico’s writing is stunning, and just the way she strings sentences together was a joy to behold. Flicking in at random, I get: “They cast their bluish-white searchlights over the campsite, slowly illuminating one item at a time; the wooden picnic table, the hammocks, the tin cups, the black rubber boots with yellow bottoms, the packets of Frruitino strawberry juice powder, the Saltine cracker wrappers, the enormous blocks of unrefined panela sugar in plastic bags.” There’s just something about her writing style that I loved.

Overall, it was fun and ethereal, and I’ve since compared it to watching someone else’s dreams and said it reminded me in some vague way of William Burroughs. It’s most definitely a tough act to follow.

Julianne Pachico

Click here to buy The Lucky Ones.

William Gibson – Neuromancer | Review

Title: Neuromancer

Author: William Gibson

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 320

Rating: 3*/5

William Gibson – Neuromancer

I was given this book by a friend who wanted me to read it, and so I had high hopes to begin with – they’ve read a few books that I’ve written, and they have a good idea of my taste in literature. So I was a little disappointed when I got into it.

The main problem here is that the futuristic dystopia that Gibson depicts is so alien to our own that it’s often hard to understand what he’s talking about. I was able to understand what was happening in the overall plot, but the little intricacies were lost on me and I kept finding myself either drifting off or getting confused when a plot twist happened. I kept not realising it was a twist because I didn’t know what was happening to begin with.

The story follows a character called Case, who’s injected with tiny sacks of mycotoxin that bond to his artery walls and threaten to eventually disintegrate, killing him. The only way for him to avoid death is to take on a mission for a man who says he has the antidote. Case’s skills lie in weird sci-fi obscurity, involving the ability to connect to a weird Matrix thing and see events through other people’s eyes.

William GIbson

I usually like science fiction, but this was such hardboiled sci-fi that I’d say it’s only for die-hard fans of the genre. That’d be why it won Hugo and Nebula Awards. At some points, it reminded me of William Burroughs, which can be equally difficult to read. But this wasn’t William Burroughs and for me, it just wasn’t much fun to read, and I was glad when I finally finished it.

Overall, then, this is the book for you if you’re into classic sci-fi. If you’re not, don’t bother. It’s pretty much that simple.