Time Snake and Super Clown - Vincent King
King only wrote four novels and this is the final one.
It's not a difficult read but he uses an odd style which takes time to get used to...
At the start he uses a huge number of ellipsis marks at the end of many phrases... But this turns out to be his way of reflecting the mental confusion of the protagonist, the Watcher.
He's been genetically modified and otherwise manipulated since before his birth and is also recovering from amnesia of some sort... so he often lets his thoughts trail off...
As his mind sharpens up the style changes and their use drops off substantially - until, towards the end, one of the other characters suffers a breakdown and he starts using them!
The Watcher watches over an almost deserted Earth, in control of powerful weapons ready to defeat an expected alien intruder. But his mind is being messed with and he's unsure about a lot of things as he stumbles about looking for a girl he met in a previous slice of time.
Time travel exists and he and the other two main characters are able to travel to any particular 'slice' of it, where they can either observe the 'wraiths' or interact with them (which was not explained particularly well in the text, I think). It's been a long time since I first read it but maybe even that fairly distant remembrance helped my enjoyment as I didn't find it nearly as bad, or awkward, as it' current reputation would suggest... I think I did prefer Candyman this time though, which I read next, immediately after Time Snake.
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Time Snake and Super Clown - Vincent King
King only wrote four novels and this is the final one.
It's not a difficult read but he uses an odd style which takes time to get used to...
At the start he uses a huge number of ellipsis marks at the end of many phrases... But this turns out to be his way of reflecting the mental confusion of the protagonist, the Watcher.
He's been genetically modified and otherwise manipulated since before his birth and is also recovering from amnesia of some sort... so he often lets his thoughts trail off...
As his mind sharpens up the style changes and their use drops off substantially - until, towards the end, one of the other characters suffers a breakdown and he starts using them!
The Watcher watches over an almost deserted Earth, in control of powerful weapons ready to defeat an expected alien intruder. But his mind is being messed with and he's unsure about a lot of things as he stumbles about looking for a girl he met in a previous slice of time.
Time travel exists and he and the other two main characters are able to travel to any particular 'slice' of it, where they can either observe the 'wraiths' or interact with them (which was not explained particularly well in the text, I think). It's been a long time since I first read it but maybe even that fairly distant remembrance helped my enjoyment as I didn't find it nearly as bad, or awkward, as it' current reputation would suggest... I think I did prefer Candyman this time though, which I read next, immediately after Time Snake.
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