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The Devil's Alphabet
From Daryl Gregory, whose Pandemonium was one of the most exciting debut novels in memory, comes an astonishing work of soaring imaginative power that breaks new ground in contemporary fantasy.
Switchcreek was a normal town in eastern Tennessee until a mysterious disease killed a third of its residents and mutated most of the rest into monstrous oddities. Then, as quickly and inexplicably as it had struck, the disease–dubbed Transcription Divergence Syndrome (TDS)–vanished, leaving behind a population divided into three new branches of giant gray-skinned argos, hairless seal-like betas, and grotesquely obese charlies.
Paxton Abel Martin was fourteen when TDS struck, killing his mother, transforming his preacher father into a charlie, and changing one of his best friends, Jo Lynn, into a beta. But Pax was one of the few who didn’t change. He remained as normal as ever. At least on the outside.
Having fled shortly after the pandemic, Pax now returns to Switchcreek fifteen years later, following the suicide of Jo Lynn. What he finds is a town seething with secrets, among which murder may well be numbered. But there are even darker–and far weirder–mysteries hiding below the surface that will threaten not only Pax’s future but the future of the whole human race.
Switchcreek was a normal town in eastern Tennessee until a mysterious disease killed a third of its residents and mutated most of the rest into monstrous oddities. Then, as quickly and inexplicably as it had struck, the disease–dubbed Transcription Divergence Syndrome (TDS)–vanished, leaving behind a population divided into three new branches of giant gray-skinned argos, hairless seal-like betas, and grotesquely obese charlies.
Paxton Abel Martin was fourteen when TDS struck, killing his mother, transforming his preacher father into a charlie, and changing one of his best friends, Jo Lynn, into a beta. But Pax was one of the few who didn’t change. He remained as normal as ever. At least on the outside.
Having fled shortly after the pandemic, Pax now returns to Switchcreek fifteen years later, following the suicide of Jo Lynn. What he finds is a town seething with secrets, among which murder may well be numbered. But there are even darker–and far weirder–mysteries hiding below the surface that will threaten not only Pax’s future but the future of the whole human race.
388 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Daryl Gregory
167 books1,327 followersAward-winning author of Revelator, The Album of Dr. Moreau, Spoonbenders, We Are All Completely Fine, and others. Some of his short fiction has been collected in Unpossible and Other Stories.
He's won the World Fantasy Award, as well as the Shirley Jackson, Crawford, Asimov Readers, and Geffen awards, and his work has been short-listed for many other awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon awards . His books have been translated in over a dozen languages, and have been named to best-of-the-year lists from NPR Books, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal.
He is also the writer of Flatline an interactive fiction game from 3 Minute Games, and comics such as Planet of the Apes.
He's a frequent teacher of writing and is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop.
He's won the World Fantasy Award, as well as the Shirley Jackson, Crawford, Asimov Readers, and Geffen awards, and his work has been short-listed for many other awards, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon awards . His books have been translated in over a dozen languages, and have been named to best-of-the-year lists from NPR Books, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal.
He is also the writer of Flatline an interactive fiction game from 3 Minute Games, and comics such as Planet of the Apes.
He's a frequent teacher of writing and is a regular instructor at the Viable Paradise Writing Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 189 reviews
January 4, 2015
Paxton “Pax” Martin is going home for a funeral. Like so many others born in small rural towns, he migrated to the big city, only to find himself trapped in a cycle of menial jobs and pointless drudgery. But unlike so many who make that journey, Pax was running away from his nightmares, not running towards his dreams. During his fourteenth summer, the a mysterious disease swept through his hometown of Switchcreek, killing a quarter of the population and drastically transforming almost all the rest. First-wave victims were transformed into “Argos,” massive, primordial beings that look like a cross between an ent and a frost giant. The second wave turned its casualties into “Betas”: smooth, hairless, vaguely feminine whose asexual reproduction cannot be halted or postponed. The third wave created the obese, powerful “Charlies” who are controlled by the “vintage” secreted by older males. But a few “skips”, like Pax, were left unchanged, at least externally. Scientists swarmed over the town, but no one could explain-- much less cure-- the strange epidemic. The scientists christened it Transcription Divergence Syndrome (TDS), took some samples, did some analysis, and eventually lifted the quarantine and disappeared to disguise their bafflement. And now Pax is back in town for the funeral of his old beta flame. But while TDS may have skipped him, his past hasn’t loosened its fetters.
The Devil’s Alphabet was my third or fourth Gregory book. From my previous experiences with the author, I was prepared to be enchanted. Maybe my expectations were just too high. The coming-home story and mystery surrounding Jo Lynn’s death were promising, but both petered out without ever really driving the story. Part of my discontent had to do with the protagonist. I don’t do well with addicts, especially when author characterizes the addiction so accurately. Pax always puts himself and his addiction first, but tries to disguise his motivation with bizarre and ostensibly noble excuses. His thin veneer of conscience fools no one, except perhaps Pax himself. I kept waiting for him to get his act together, to start caring about those around him, to start trying to proactively solve the mystery of his friend’s death. I waited in vain. Above all, though, the book just isn’t funny. I’ve come to expect Gregory’s trademark wordplay and whimsy, but Pax has no sense of humour, and this absence is reflected by the narration. There are a few gentle quips, but the book lacks the amusing commentary of Gregory’s other protagonists.
I also kept waiting for the mechanism or motivation behind TDS to be revealed, but I eventually realized that the book isn’t really about TDS, and it’s not even about the mystery. It’s an exploration of how our pasts and our physical selves shape our personalities and souls. Pax thinks he can leave his town, that
The Devil’s Alphabet scrutinizes the ways in which our physical forms shape our intangible selves:
Above all, though, I think that the book is about acceptance, about the struggle over when to become the arbiter over others’ lives and stop them from making the choices we find abhorrent. But if the book is about withholding judgement, then what does my failure to accept and forgive the protagonist say about me?
Excerpted from my review on BookLikes, which may contain additional comments, quotes, and spoilers that I was too lazy to copy over.
The Devil’s Alphabet was my third or fourth Gregory book. From my previous experiences with the author, I was prepared to be enchanted. Maybe my expectations were just too high. The coming-home story and mystery surrounding Jo Lynn’s death were promising, but both petered out without ever really driving the story. Part of my discontent had to do with the protagonist. I don’t do well with addicts, especially when author characterizes the addiction so accurately. Pax always puts himself and his addiction first, but tries to disguise his motivation with bizarre and ostensibly noble excuses. His thin veneer of conscience fools no one, except perhaps Pax himself. I kept waiting for him to get his act together, to start caring about those around him, to start trying to proactively solve the mystery of his friend’s death. I waited in vain. Above all, though, the book just isn’t funny. I’ve come to expect Gregory’s trademark wordplay and whimsy, but Pax has no sense of humour, and this absence is reflected by the narration. There are a few gentle quips, but the book lacks the amusing commentary of Gregory’s other protagonists.
I also kept waiting for the mechanism or motivation behind TDS to be revealed, but I eventually realized that the book isn’t really about TDS, and it’s not even about the mystery. It’s an exploration of how our pasts and our physical selves shape our personalities and souls. Pax thinks he can leave his town, that
Erasing the past was easy, like walking in a snowstorm. The footprints filled in by themselves.But in truth, he carries TDS with him as surely as an argo or beta or charlie. Much of the book revolves around the impact TDS’s physical changes had on the community and on what it means to be human. The argos are sterile, forced to be the first and presumably the last of their kind. The betas, even though all are effectively female, must cope with an exploding population. At the age of 13 or 14, all beta girls become spontaneously and immaculately pregnant, and their course of their entire lives revolve around their children. Since their every dream and aspiration revolves around babies, are they being “raped by their own biology,” or simply living the lives they want? Would slowing or stopping early conception be giving them agency or taking it away?
The Devil’s Alphabet scrutinizes the ways in which our physical forms shape our intangible selves:
Maybe there was nothing essential to a person that could be separated from the muscle and blood and chemicals that motored him around; maybe everything depended on the body, was dictated by it.It’s about living as an outsider in a world of outsiders. As a “skip,” Pax seems to have won the devil’s arithmetic, but he is left feeling “an alien in his own skin, an outsider, an imposter,” and without the easy diagnosis of TDS to explain his isolation.
Above all, though, I think that the book is about acceptance, about the struggle over when to become the arbiter over others’ lives and stop them from making the choices we find abhorrent. But if the book is about withholding judgement, then what does my failure to accept and forgive the protagonist say about me?
If this is what it’s like to be human... no wonder the world is so fucked up.
Excerpted from my review on BookLikes, which may contain additional comments, quotes, and spoilers that I was too lazy to copy over.
January 19, 2012
I am torn on how to rate this book. Do I rate it on just what is there, or what *could* have been (and I wish was) there? It should probably get a 3.5, but since I can't, I have to go with a 3.
I have to start with the good - I blew threw this book! I really, *really* wanted to know what happened next, and the little bits of tantalizing information kept pulling me on. Definitely a good read in that respect. Unfortunately, I feel like by the end I had been dropped on my face, and all the foreshadowing just lead no where. :( There were so many questions left unanswered that it was frustrating! Which theory on the origination of TDS is correct? Was it ever figured out? Why do the betas breed so fast and will they out populate the other clades? Why aren't the alphas reproducing at all/do they start? What is the real and actual purpose of the charlie vintage in the scheme of their race/species? Does TDS continue to spread? Does the town get out of quarantine or are they eliminated? Does the main character ever get past his "uncomfortable in his body" feeling and find meaningful relationships? All these things were points that were set up in the book but never resolved. There was no grand THIS IS HOW IT ALLLLLL WORKS! answers at the end. Hell, had the book ended with a "To be continued..." message I would have been happier because at least then I would have a chance for my questions to be answered! The biggest issue was the these questions were what the plot was built on, so to have them unresolved detracts mightily from the book overall.
I wanted to see a grand resolution, maybe have the clades not be as separate as they thought, but all meant to function together as a new kind of nuclear unit (a la Dreamsnake bu Vonda McIntyre). If not a "happily ever after" ending, at least some forward as to how things turned out, even some vague and nebulous idea that left readers with a sense of closure would have upped this books value exponentially.
In the end, story was good, writing was decent, but the book didn't meet its potential and left me feeling flat.
I have to start with the good - I blew threw this book! I really, *really* wanted to know what happened next, and the little bits of tantalizing information kept pulling me on. Definitely a good read in that respect. Unfortunately, I feel like by the end I had been dropped on my face, and all the foreshadowing just lead no where. :( There were so many questions left unanswered that it was frustrating! Which theory on the origination of TDS is correct? Was it ever figured out? Why do the betas breed so fast and will they out populate the other clades? Why aren't the alphas reproducing at all/do they start? What is the real and actual purpose of the charlie vintage in the scheme of their race/species? Does TDS continue to spread? Does the town get out of quarantine or are they eliminated? Does the main character ever get past his "uncomfortable in his body" feeling and find meaningful relationships? All these things were points that were set up in the book but never resolved. There was no grand THIS IS HOW IT ALLLLLL WORKS! answers at the end. Hell, had the book ended with a "To be continued..." message I would have been happier because at least then I would have a chance for my questions to be answered! The biggest issue was the these questions were what the plot was built on, so to have them unresolved detracts mightily from the book overall.
I wanted to see a grand resolution, maybe have the clades not be as separate as they thought, but all meant to function together as a new kind of nuclear unit (a la Dreamsnake bu Vonda McIntyre). If not a "happily ever after" ending, at least some forward as to how things turned out, even some vague and nebulous idea that left readers with a sense of closure would have upped this books value exponentially.
In the end, story was good, writing was decent, but the book didn't meet its potential and left me feeling flat.
October 28, 2016
This book is most commonly rated horror but it is not horror at all. It is purely speculative fiction. A small town in Tennessee is stricken with a mysterious disease which divides the survivors into three new branches of humanity: giant gray skinned argos, hairless seal-like betas, and morbidly obese charlies. The science is a bit thin on how these changes happened, but that is okay, because the story is really about how do the survivors adapt to these changes. How does this town maintain its community. How do the unaffected, outside world view these new branches of humanity. Interesting read.
March 7, 2020
what have i just read? an anti-abortion novel under the threadbare guise of a botched sci-fi concept fraying out completely along the way? jesus wept.
August 21, 2010
Switchcreek was once a small town like any other, until a mysterious disease swept through, killing many residents and transforming even more into one of three new humanoid species. Pax is an even rarer oddity: a human left untouched by the disease. Now, 13 years after leaving, Pax returns to his childhood home to attend a friend's funeral, and his stay in Switchcreek may reveal much about his own past and the town's strange biology and society. The Devil's Alphabet's intrigue is its premise. Unusual and often mysterious, Switchcreek's strangeness is what grabs the reader's interest and holds it through the length of the novel. Gregory often manages a balance between confusion and explication that avoids frustration while encouraging constant investigation, a recipe for a compelling, addicting novel. But the unusual premise—and the emphasis placed upon it—is also the book's greatest weakness. Many questions offered by the premise go unanswered, which is realistic and understandable but also leaves the book without a strong conclusion: the premise ends at it began, complex and mysterious, begging another look—but offering none.
The emphasis placed upon the premise meanwhile overshadows other aspects like character and plot. These aspects do still exist, of course: Pax rides the edge of antihero, making him at once deeply flawed and sympathetic, and the distinctly human, uniquely alien individuals and societies of Switchcreek offer significant interest and depth; together, this makes for a strong cast of characters. The plot, built on the mystery of Pax's friend's death, is solid but unremarkable. It goes through the motions of beginning, middle, and end; the problem comes when the plot ends and the mystery of the premise, which has capitalized the reader's attention, continues. Would that more of Pax's childhood had been brought to light to put more emphasis on his childhood friendships and more of the reader's focus—and satisfaction—on the characters and plot. As it stands, Alphabet is unbalanced—not so much as to distract from the pleasure of reading it (indeed the book is almost compulsively readable), but enough to leave a lingering question at the end: "What that all?" I recommend the book with reservations. It's intriguing, often compelling, but in its conclusion it's inescapably flawed.
The emphasis placed upon the premise meanwhile overshadows other aspects like character and plot. These aspects do still exist, of course: Pax rides the edge of antihero, making him at once deeply flawed and sympathetic, and the distinctly human, uniquely alien individuals and societies of Switchcreek offer significant interest and depth; together, this makes for a strong cast of characters. The plot, built on the mystery of Pax's friend's death, is solid but unremarkable. It goes through the motions of beginning, middle, and end; the problem comes when the plot ends and the mystery of the premise, which has capitalized the reader's attention, continues. Would that more of Pax's childhood had been brought to light to put more emphasis on his childhood friendships and more of the reader's focus—and satisfaction—on the characters and plot. As it stands, Alphabet is unbalanced—not so much as to distract from the pleasure of reading it (indeed the book is almost compulsively readable), but enough to leave a lingering question at the end: "What that all?" I recommend the book with reservations. It's intriguing, often compelling, but in its conclusion it's inescapably flawed.
June 8, 2023
Interesting premise! It is difficult to compress millions of years of human development in a story that take place in 20 years of this story, but Daryl tries. It can be long in the telling but it gets there. Good story, well worth the effort. Pax finally sees the truth and leaves a reader something to think about in the ending. Enjoyable. Later. Keep Reading.
July 13, 2012
This was my second Gregory book in 3 days, because I loved the first one, Raising Stony Mayhall, so much. Maybe it was too soon or maybe Stony set up my expectations so very high, this book fell a bit short for me. It was still very good and very well written, but something about the subject matter just didn't wow me. The best thing about this book, just like with the last one, was the wild idea grounded with such incredible interesting characters. It was filed in scifi at the library, but it's really more of a drama with a bit of murder mystery thrown in, a story of a small town dealing with a bizarre set of events. One thing for sure is that Daryl Gregory is an amazingly talented writer. Can't quite figure out the stars for this one, gonna be generous and go with 4. Recommended.
January 27, 2020
I love Daryl Gregory and each book he writes is completely different, while still have a quirky/dark undertone. This was the least successful of his books that I have read, I would rate it 3.5 stars, but rounded it up because it is still so well written. However I found the plot confusing and meandering, I wasn't sure where it was going and at the end I wasn't sure if that was where I wanted it to end up. Some genuinely shocking things happen and some things that just were never fully explained or resolved. I found the world building fascinating and the characters complex but was left feeling that too many questions had been raised and never answered - and maybe that's the point, in life there is rarely neat resolution, but in literature we often hope for more... I would still recommend it, but with those caveats.
July 3, 2017
Paxton returns to attend a funeral at his small hometown where most of the population went through a genetic Change that resulted in them being a different clade than humans.
Good thing: His three groups (Alphas- extremely tall and struggling with violence, Betas - females who become pregnant solo with their own offspring, and Charlies - hugely round or muscular) seem almost real.
Bad thing: I wanted more of Deke in particular and more of this world in general.
I've read all of this author's work except for short stories (and Spoonbenders, which I'm starting soon - yay!) and loved all of it. Daryl Gregory is one of the best authors out there and never fails to deliver a wildly imaginative tale.
Good thing: His three groups (Alphas- extremely tall and struggling with violence, Betas - females who become pregnant solo with their own offspring, and Charlies - hugely round or muscular) seem almost real.
Bad thing: I wanted more of Deke in particular and more of this world in general.
I've read all of this author's work except for short stories (and Spoonbenders, which I'm starting soon - yay!) and loved all of it. Daryl Gregory is one of the best authors out there and never fails to deliver a wildly imaginative tale.
February 15, 2010
Really interesting concept and fundamental ideas; even better was how the characters used to communicate those ideas were round and interesting as people and not just as capital-i Ideas; even even better was its handling of both East Tennessee and sexualities other than hetero - subjects which I will fully admit are rather close to my heart and thus may be somewhat swaying in my judgement.
However - and this is a big however - the way I feel that I am forced to interpret the ending is complete, total, and utter FAIL on the abortion issue. Right up until the very end, everything's ambiguous and complicated, much like real life even before you broach the book's premise of one of the three new 'strains' of humanity being almost exclusively female and parthenogenic at that. But then the author tacks on a total cop-out ending of, "well, whatever complicated whosiwhatsits we've just done with the plot may turn out as, I like this kid, so surely it's a good thing that this child here and now wasn't aborted," with strong implications of "and therefore everything that was done to assure that this child - and maybe any child? - wasn't aborted was a good thing."
WHICH. JUST. WHAT. AFTER THE REST OF THE BOOK. I DON'T. WHAT. NO.
The book raises the really interesting scenario - what do you do when girls start getting immaculately, repeatedly pregnant at twelve or younger - and presents several different characters responding to this scenario in very different ways, but at the very end, I feel like the author just threw up his hands, went, "oh, this is complicated," and threw in the miracle baby so we could all nod thoughtfully over its miraculousness.
I mean, there's all sorts of different questions of agency you're dealing with here - when there's literally nothing a girl or woman does or has done to her in order to cause pregnancy and yet it happens anyway, when this starts happening to very, very young girls, when this starts happening to a certain subset of what used to be humanity and may now be an entirely different species with different, I don't know, standards? People kill and die because of this conflict, and somehow it's all brushed aside with, "wow, isn't this a very special baby boy."
Apparently the ending still vexes me.
One other vexation - the extensive, obsessive descriptions of members of the third strain of 'new humans' - the ones primarily defined by their fatness - creeped me out a little, but this may be my own personal sensitivity. They crossed my personal line of weirdly fetishistic and "look how gross" that I just didn't get from the descriptions of the very tall or very purple strains. It kind of reminded me of the story that Gordie tells in Stand by Me about the pie-eating contest and the descriptions of the fat kid in that. Meh.
All that aside (and that is a lot), I genuinely enjoyed 90% of this book. Even characters that might seem a little stagey and cartoonishy-villany have depth and reason behind them. Lots of interesting stuff thrown against the wall, and a lot of it sticks. Plus, well, it's set in East Tennessee. I had no idea how much I wanted to read about that until I did.
Could have been a four and a half, but now it's hanging onto the three by the skin of its teeth.
However - and this is a big however - the way I feel that I am forced to interpret the ending is complete, total, and utter FAIL on the abortion issue. Right up until the very end, everything's ambiguous and complicated, much like real life even before you broach the book's premise of one of the three new 'strains' of humanity being almost exclusively female and parthenogenic at that. But then the author tacks on a total cop-out ending of, "well, whatever complicated whosiwhatsits we've just done with the plot may turn out as, I like this kid, so surely it's a good thing that this child here and now wasn't aborted," with strong implications of "and therefore everything that was done to assure that this child - and maybe any child? - wasn't aborted was a good thing."
WHICH. JUST. WHAT. AFTER THE REST OF THE BOOK. I DON'T. WHAT. NO.
The book raises the really interesting scenario - what do you do when girls start getting immaculately, repeatedly pregnant at twelve or younger - and presents several different characters responding to this scenario in very different ways, but at the very end, I feel like the author just threw up his hands, went, "oh, this is complicated," and threw in the miracle baby so we could all nod thoughtfully over its miraculousness.
I mean, there's all sorts of different questions of agency you're dealing with here - when there's literally nothing a girl or woman does or has done to her in order to cause pregnancy and yet it happens anyway, when this starts happening to very, very young girls, when this starts happening to a certain subset of what used to be humanity and may now be an entirely different species with different, I don't know, standards? People kill and die because of this conflict, and somehow it's all brushed aside with, "wow, isn't this a very special baby boy."
Apparently the ending still vexes me.
One other vexation - the extensive, obsessive descriptions of members of the third strain of 'new humans' - the ones primarily defined by their fatness - creeped me out a little, but this may be my own personal sensitivity. They crossed my personal line of weirdly fetishistic and "look how gross" that I just didn't get from the descriptions of the very tall or very purple strains. It kind of reminded me of the story that Gordie tells in Stand by Me about the pie-eating contest and the descriptions of the fat kid in that. Meh.
All that aside (and that is a lot), I genuinely enjoyed 90% of this book. Even characters that might seem a little stagey and cartoonishy-villany have depth and reason behind them. Lots of interesting stuff thrown against the wall, and a lot of it sticks. Plus, well, it's set in East Tennessee. I had no idea how much I wanted to read about that until I did.
Could have been a four and a half, but now it's hanging onto the three by the skin of its teeth.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 21, 2013
In this intriguing variation on the theme of "you can't go home again," Paxton Martin returns to the small town of Switchcreek, TN, after an absence of thirteen years. He has come for the funeral of his close friend and lover from his high school years, Jo Lynn. He had left Switchcreek after his minister father found him in bed with both Jo Lynn and their mutual friend Deke. It was also thought that he was possibly the father of the child Jo Lynn was pregnant with when he left. But more importantly, Switchcreek had undergone The Change. Jo Lynn had become a beta, with cranberry-colored skin and a hairless body. Although it was not yet known when Paxton left, the twins she was carrying could not possible be his. Beta females reproduce by parthenogenesis. Their friend Deke is an Argo, now seven feet tall with ashen skin and the strength of a wild animal. Deke is smallish for an Argo. And then there are the Charlies, whose growth made them first look like, by one description, weightlifters who had been consuming other weightlifters. But older Charlies go to fat. Pax's father weighs 500 pounds. A third of the population died during the The Change. Pax was among the few who were "skipped."
Gregory's novel has so much potential that there seems to be a tendency to judge its relative weaknesses more harshly than they deserve. Although it is filled with incidents ranging from suicide/murder, abductions, drug addiction, financial scams, and government quarantines, the narrative moves at a leisurely and unfocused pace. Gregory writes excellent dialogue, and many of the best elements come from the interactions between old friends and acquaintances who now happen to be giants or gargantuan beings prone to emitting a powerful elixir known as The Vintage. Speculation on the cause of the The Change has begun to focus on the idea of viral migration from parallel universes, which keeps the novel tenuously in the SF realm rather than horror or fantasy. The arrival of government troops and a quarantine suggests things might go more in the techno thriller direction, but no. This is a hybrid novel with interesting characters who could use a better climax than Gregory provides them.
Gregory's novel has so much potential that there seems to be a tendency to judge its relative weaknesses more harshly than they deserve. Although it is filled with incidents ranging from suicide/murder, abductions, drug addiction, financial scams, and government quarantines, the narrative moves at a leisurely and unfocused pace. Gregory writes excellent dialogue, and many of the best elements come from the interactions between old friends and acquaintances who now happen to be giants or gargantuan beings prone to emitting a powerful elixir known as The Vintage. Speculation on the cause of the The Change has begun to focus on the idea of viral migration from parallel universes, which keeps the novel tenuously in the SF realm rather than horror or fantasy. The arrival of government troops and a quarantine suggests things might go more in the techno thriller direction, but no. This is a hybrid novel with interesting characters who could use a better climax than Gregory provides them.
October 27, 2010
Hmmm... This book is a bit difficult to rate. <3.5 stars>
I picked this book up solely on the cover art.
Although... I did read part of the synopsis from the back cover --- which I almost never do--- so I had some idea as to the premise of the book.
The premise is basically this:
Small town in Tennessee is the site of a mysterious disease that 1/3 of the population doesn't survive and the vast majority that do are changed into one of three strains of strange new beings: Argos, Betas, and Charlies. A few people, including the main character, Paxton, are referred to as "skips" as they came through physically unchanged.
Pax returns to his hometown, after a 15 year absence, to attend the funeral of a one-time close friend. He doesn't plan on staying long, but well....
What comes next is a very unique story that has great world-building and intriguing characters. However, it doesn't really read like a biological thriller or a possible murder mystery, as one might think from the description on the back cover. And it certainly doesn't read as a horror or monster story as one might think from the cover art &/ or title of the book.
To enjoy the book, it is perhaps best that you don't try to categorize it or put it in any specific genre. I found myself putting the book down often... not because I didn't like it, but because it often moves a bit slowly. There were also a few occasions in which the jargon/ scientific gobbledygook pulled me out of the story. The world and characters were interesting enough that I always picked the book back up though.
I found the book thought-provoking on quite a few levels; and though not always entirely likable, I enjoyed the lead character and his journey of discovery --- from the town's secrets to his own journey of self discovery. For me, that is what the book really is about --- Pax reconciling relationships and his memories of how he, his friends, and towns folk were before he left with his current perceptions of everyone.
January 30, 2011
An interesting old time southern town story that happens to be the epicenter of a world changing scientific anomaly. This is a story that is a conspiracy, a mystery, and a sons acceptance of his past and his heritage. The science behind the "changes" are interesting and thought provoking. Like Gregory's first novel, this one uses off humor to drive the story forward. Pax is a believable protagonist, and I found him easy to like and to empathize with. The novel is short and to the point and gives us just enough information to make it feel like it could be real. Having read both of Greogry's novels, I can definitely recommend him to science fiction, fantasy, and horror readers alike. I look forward to more from Daryl Gregory...Thumbs up!
November 23, 2011
Very engrossing. BUT some questions remained unanswered at the end. I don't need everything answered, of course. I figured I'd never be given the "real" reason behind TDS (and I'm fine with that), but I did want to know why Pax was so susceptible to the vintage. If the author is trying to say that Pax simply has an addictive personality and that makes him open to the "drug's" effects, I'm not buying it. Being a pot smoker doesn't make you more likely to lick your own father's blister pus to get high.
June 30, 2014
This is about several of Daryl Gregory's book so I'm posting in on each of those books.
Moving away from your childhood home usually hurts, and so does coming back. Returning makes old aches ache again, and creates new one as being physically close points out the distance that grows between people as we age and change. Daryl Gregory’s fiction emphasizes that, and demonstrates that all this shit is extra intense if you’re possessed by a demon, or if you’re a zombie, or if your home town was the site of an outbreak of a strange illness that rewrote the genetic code and mutated the bodies of most of the population.
I brewed myself quite a mood this past season, what with the cold and long winter, the cold and long job hunt, and the sleeplessness of my job and my two young kids. Under those conditions apocalypse fiction appealed to me because fuck it let the world end, and especially let it end on the bus before I get to work and not right after I spent the day there. That’s why I started my still ongoing busride to work zombie fiction binge, and while I was asking around for other recommendations someone said “zombie books? check out this book Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory.” So I did and then I immediately read his novels Pandemonium and The Devil’s Alphabet and now I’ve started on his short stories. To summarize my response to Gregory’s fiction: god damn.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology,” in a famous phrase from the British writer Arthur C. Clarke, “is indistinguishable from magic.” That seems right enough to me, and ‘advanced’ is relative. Alcohol is a kind of technology, one that I don’t really understand, it’s advanced in that it outstrips my understanding of it. I don’t know why or how it does what it does, it just works. On the infrequent occasions I have time to partake, I put it in my mouth, my mouth feels warm, this continues until I feel relaxed. Likewise for a great many other technologies, some of them old and many of them new. (Not the “I put it in my mouth part” but rather the “I don’t understand it but it just works” part.) The first time I used Skype it felt like being in the distant future. In everyday life I use all kinds of stuff that may as well be powered by angels and steered by ghosts and built by demons. This is part of why I sometimes talk to my phone and laptop when they freeze up – “oh come on, don’t do this, not now, please.”
This gets at elements of Gregory’s work, I think, in that he writes about stuff where science and magic are indistinguishable for the people living with the situations he writes about. Do the dead walk and people’s DNA become suddenly re-written because of spirits or because of viruses that grew in parallel universes and learned to propagate themselves by leaping into other universes in something called quantum teleportation? At the level of the effects on the everyday lives and loves and relationships of the people affected, those causes don’t matter all that much, though at the same time his characters do care about causes in the sense that they try to make their lives explicable as part of trying to make them livable. That trying is a work in progress for the characters; these books are full of people who have not yet fully understood what is happening to them and why, and they have to live within that uncertainty – even when they’re dead.
So, when Gregory writes about weird shit that can’t happen – or that hasn’t yet happened on this Earth in this universe as far as we know – he doesn’t dwell on the explanations and doesn’t much try to make it scientifically plausible. The strangeness of the events he writes about is interesting in its own right, but the work never becomes an act of extended speculation on how that kind of strangeness could actually take place, speculation that’s captivated by the big pictureness of the idea. Instead he treats the strangeness as an open question for his characters in the worlds they inhabit – they wonder about why these events have occurred, and they don’t reach clear conclusions – and above all he focuses less on the weird events themselves as a matter of science-and/or-fantasy speculation and much more on how those weird events shape the lives of his characters. It’s less “whoa this shit is so weird it blew my mind” and more “wow that weird shit would totally fuck people up and then they would have to live with that, and live with each other in the aftermath of that, what would that be like?”
That is to say, in his stories Gregory writes about (what are hopefully) impossible events in a way that brings out the realness of his characters. His characters wrestle especially with departures and returns – characters leaving and returning home feature in the three of his novels and the two short stories I’ve read of his so far in his collection Unpossible, “In The Wheels” and “Second Person, Present Tense” – and with the tensions of relationships pulled between distance and closeness. He particularly emphasizes families – who in their families do people turn to when crisis happens, what keeps family being family, and how do families reconnect after too much time has gone on, all of this comes up in Gregory’s novels. The fact that the crises are demon possession, physical mutation, or the resurrection of the dead doesn’t change those core human dynamics so much as force people into especially extreme circumstances that test them and bring out their deeper humanity, in all its ugliness and beauty.
All of that may make these books sound like awkward, slow, heavy, books that put ideas and themes in front of story. They’re not. They’re fast-paced, suspenseful page-turners with characters I cared about a lot as I read them, and they’re often funny. As I read each of these novels I had to fight to not stay up too late reading, and to put the book away and do stuff I have to do, like walk the rest of the way to the building where I work without slipping on the ice, which requires looking at the sidewalk instead of the book.
One thing that especially jumped out at me in these books is how the characters give each other shit. I’m not sure if that’s a regional term or not, in case it is and anyone from outside the midwest is reading this, ‘giving you shit’ is a term for how midwestern people, or at least midwestern guys, or at least guys from Illinois and Iowa, tease each other aggressively as a form of wordplay and affection. My friend Juan said it was an adjustment when he moved to Minneapolis and I didn’t notice it until he pointed it out, because Minnesotans don’t seem to do this the same way and to the same degree as people where we’re from. In that kind of interaction between the characters in Gregory’s books I could totally see the interactions I have with my brothers and my Chicago friends and my friends who have never lived in Chicago but kinda seem like they have (and there are few compliments bigger than that as far as I’m concerned), how we fuck with each other, how we give each other shit, lovingly and aggressively. I don’t remember ever having read that kind of interpersonal interaction in a book before and I really liked that.
All of this means that technically speaking Gregory’s books are not in the apocalypse fiction genre (subgenre? super-genre?) that I was binging on when I shambled onto Raising Stony Mayhall. His books aren’t about worlds ending so much as about worlds changing and people adapting, or failing to adapt and struggling to live out of step with the world around them and with their loved ones. That’s a much more hopeful and less bleak thing than global apocalypse and yet a much more painful thing. The human species doesn’t face a threat of extinction in these books, but relationships and families do. Even with the zombies and demons and genetic mutation, that’s some real shit. So yeah. Daryl Gregory’s books? God damn. Go read them.
Moving away from your childhood home usually hurts, and so does coming back. Returning makes old aches ache again, and creates new one as being physically close points out the distance that grows between people as we age and change. Daryl Gregory’s fiction emphasizes that, and demonstrates that all this shit is extra intense if you’re possessed by a demon, or if you’re a zombie, or if your home town was the site of an outbreak of a strange illness that rewrote the genetic code and mutated the bodies of most of the population.
I brewed myself quite a mood this past season, what with the cold and long winter, the cold and long job hunt, and the sleeplessness of my job and my two young kids. Under those conditions apocalypse fiction appealed to me because fuck it let the world end, and especially let it end on the bus before I get to work and not right after I spent the day there. That’s why I started my still ongoing busride to work zombie fiction binge, and while I was asking around for other recommendations someone said “zombie books? check out this book Raising Stony Mayhall by Daryl Gregory.” So I did and then I immediately read his novels Pandemonium and The Devil’s Alphabet and now I’ve started on his short stories. To summarize my response to Gregory’s fiction: god damn.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology,” in a famous phrase from the British writer Arthur C. Clarke, “is indistinguishable from magic.” That seems right enough to me, and ‘advanced’ is relative. Alcohol is a kind of technology, one that I don’t really understand, it’s advanced in that it outstrips my understanding of it. I don’t know why or how it does what it does, it just works. On the infrequent occasions I have time to partake, I put it in my mouth, my mouth feels warm, this continues until I feel relaxed. Likewise for a great many other technologies, some of them old and many of them new. (Not the “I put it in my mouth part” but rather the “I don’t understand it but it just works” part.) The first time I used Skype it felt like being in the distant future. In everyday life I use all kinds of stuff that may as well be powered by angels and steered by ghosts and built by demons. This is part of why I sometimes talk to my phone and laptop when they freeze up – “oh come on, don’t do this, not now, please.”
This gets at elements of Gregory’s work, I think, in that he writes about stuff where science and magic are indistinguishable for the people living with the situations he writes about. Do the dead walk and people’s DNA become suddenly re-written because of spirits or because of viruses that grew in parallel universes and learned to propagate themselves by leaping into other universes in something called quantum teleportation? At the level of the effects on the everyday lives and loves and relationships of the people affected, those causes don’t matter all that much, though at the same time his characters do care about causes in the sense that they try to make their lives explicable as part of trying to make them livable. That trying is a work in progress for the characters; these books are full of people who have not yet fully understood what is happening to them and why, and they have to live within that uncertainty – even when they’re dead.
So, when Gregory writes about weird shit that can’t happen – or that hasn’t yet happened on this Earth in this universe as far as we know – he doesn’t dwell on the explanations and doesn’t much try to make it scientifically plausible. The strangeness of the events he writes about is interesting in its own right, but the work never becomes an act of extended speculation on how that kind of strangeness could actually take place, speculation that’s captivated by the big pictureness of the idea. Instead he treats the strangeness as an open question for his characters in the worlds they inhabit – they wonder about why these events have occurred, and they don’t reach clear conclusions – and above all he focuses less on the weird events themselves as a matter of science-and/or-fantasy speculation and much more on how those weird events shape the lives of his characters. It’s less “whoa this shit is so weird it blew my mind” and more “wow that weird shit would totally fuck people up and then they would have to live with that, and live with each other in the aftermath of that, what would that be like?”
That is to say, in his stories Gregory writes about (what are hopefully) impossible events in a way that brings out the realness of his characters. His characters wrestle especially with departures and returns – characters leaving and returning home feature in the three of his novels and the two short stories I’ve read of his so far in his collection Unpossible, “In The Wheels” and “Second Person, Present Tense” – and with the tensions of relationships pulled between distance and closeness. He particularly emphasizes families – who in their families do people turn to when crisis happens, what keeps family being family, and how do families reconnect after too much time has gone on, all of this comes up in Gregory’s novels. The fact that the crises are demon possession, physical mutation, or the resurrection of the dead doesn’t change those core human dynamics so much as force people into especially extreme circumstances that test them and bring out their deeper humanity, in all its ugliness and beauty.
All of that may make these books sound like awkward, slow, heavy, books that put ideas and themes in front of story. They’re not. They’re fast-paced, suspenseful page-turners with characters I cared about a lot as I read them, and they’re often funny. As I read each of these novels I had to fight to not stay up too late reading, and to put the book away and do stuff I have to do, like walk the rest of the way to the building where I work without slipping on the ice, which requires looking at the sidewalk instead of the book.
One thing that especially jumped out at me in these books is how the characters give each other shit. I’m not sure if that’s a regional term or not, in case it is and anyone from outside the midwest is reading this, ‘giving you shit’ is a term for how midwestern people, or at least midwestern guys, or at least guys from Illinois and Iowa, tease each other aggressively as a form of wordplay and affection. My friend Juan said it was an adjustment when he moved to Minneapolis and I didn’t notice it until he pointed it out, because Minnesotans don’t seem to do this the same way and to the same degree as people where we’re from. In that kind of interaction between the characters in Gregory’s books I could totally see the interactions I have with my brothers and my Chicago friends and my friends who have never lived in Chicago but kinda seem like they have (and there are few compliments bigger than that as far as I’m concerned), how we fuck with each other, how we give each other shit, lovingly and aggressively. I don’t remember ever having read that kind of interpersonal interaction in a book before and I really liked that.
All of this means that technically speaking Gregory’s books are not in the apocalypse fiction genre (subgenre? super-genre?) that I was binging on when I shambled onto Raising Stony Mayhall. His books aren’t about worlds ending so much as about worlds changing and people adapting, or failing to adapt and struggling to live out of step with the world around them and with their loved ones. That’s a much more hopeful and less bleak thing than global apocalypse and yet a much more painful thing. The human species doesn’t face a threat of extinction in these books, but relationships and families do. Even with the zombies and demons and genetic mutation, that’s some real shit. So yeah. Daryl Gregory’s books? God damn. Go read them.
January 21, 2019
Another good book kicking off the first month of this year's reading challenge:
I'm currently studying medicine so I enjoyed being familiar with some of the scientific stuff that were mentioned in this book. Really hit close to home. But overall, this book wasn't as what I had expected--which wasn't a bad thing-- since I thought I would be immersed into a disease-ridden dystopian setting but found myself in a town full of strange-looking creatures behaving like very normal people instead (which I find interesting in its own way). You could do without the physical appearances of the characters since they were evidently still the same people on the inside (sort of) but that aspect truly did add to the substance of the plot. My favorite mutation would definitely be the Argos'. They're a clade to be reckoned with. Hugely built, ticking predatory time bombs.
The best thing about reading The Devil's Alphabet was how it makes the reader empathize with the characters. The author did a superb job with it. Well-written, no stupid dialogs or distratingly ridiculous prose. It was a good reading experience because of that. Even if the content had more drama than action It never got boring for me at all. If anything, It felt real. Two thumbs up for this one.
I'm currently studying medicine so I enjoyed being familiar with some of the scientific stuff that were mentioned in this book. Really hit close to home. But overall, this book wasn't as what I had expected--which wasn't a bad thing-- since I thought I would be immersed into a disease-ridden dystopian setting but found myself in a town full of strange-looking creatures behaving like very normal people instead (which I find interesting in its own way). You could do without the physical appearances of the characters since they were evidently still the same people on the inside (sort of) but that aspect truly did add to the substance of the plot. My favorite mutation would definitely be the Argos'. They're a clade to be reckoned with. Hugely built, ticking predatory time bombs.
The best thing about reading The Devil's Alphabet was how it makes the reader empathize with the characters. The author did a superb job with it. Well-written, no stupid dialogs or distratingly ridiculous prose. It was a good reading experience because of that. Even if the content had more drama than action It never got boring for me at all. If anything, It felt real. Two thumbs up for this one.
September 8, 2022
When the author referred to this book as a "spiritual sequel" to Revelator which came out this year - I knew I wanted to read it. It is a pretty weird and interesting book about a town that had an outbreak that kills a third of the population and then rewrites the genetic structure of most of the rest so they are transformed into three kinds of humanoids. It's ostensibly a murder mystery as the protagonist Pax returns to the town after a 13 year absence because his childhood best friend dies under mysterious circumstances. The mystery isn't exactly the point - it's more about how people deal with the changes from the disease and kind of what it means to be human. Definitely full of unanswered questions though, if that kind of thing annoys you.
January 31, 2016
Je vais devenir un inconditionnel de Daryl GREGORY j'aime beaucoup son regard, sa façon de raconter l'histoire, ses multiples personnages tous plus vrais et vivants, du genre que l'on côtoie dans la vie Dans ce livre, le héros, Pax, n'est pas un héros plutôt un homme "ordinaire" avec de nombreux défauts et quelques qualités ... L'intérêt de l'histoire est que petit à petit l'auteur nous force à réfléchir sur les relations humaines, sur la destinée (pourquoi lui et pas moi ?) sur la différence (encore une fois !) sur le degré de tolérance de notre société ... Il est certain que l'histoire reste dans le vague, que les explications scientifiques sont à peine suggérées, mais cela même rend le livre plus passionnant encore
Ici une citation de la critique de David J. Schwartz sur STRANGE HORIZONS qui résume parfaitement mon ressenti : "The Devil's Alphabet is a novel about creating community, a first contact novel, a murder mystery, and a story of (arrested) self-realization. There's an element of bio-existential horror here, too, but for the most part Gregory concentrates not on the cosmic but on the domestic—the question of how to live with catastrophic change is what's central, and compelling, here."
and also : "Gregory has such a sure hand with details that his story and characters feel surprisingly grounded. The fact that it doesn't fully satisfy some genre expectations is not, to this reviewer, a flaw in and of itself, especially when there is some question as to which genre this is. This is, after all, a story about catastrophic evolution (or inter-dimensional invasion) that somehow never feels over the top, that feels like it's about real people even when they are barely identifiable as human, that asks good questions about whether society is better based on rules or on relationships. The Devil's Alphabet is good, verging on great, and Gregory is raising expectations"
Nota :
I'm sorry my english is not good but M. David J. Schwartz read my mind so I only have to copy his words ... many thanks to him Read more of his review in : http://www.strangehorizons.com/review...
Ici une citation de la critique de David J. Schwartz sur STRANGE HORIZONS qui résume parfaitement mon ressenti : "The Devil's Alphabet is a novel about creating community, a first contact novel, a murder mystery, and a story of (arrested) self-realization. There's an element of bio-existential horror here, too, but for the most part Gregory concentrates not on the cosmic but on the domestic—the question of how to live with catastrophic change is what's central, and compelling, here."
and also : "Gregory has such a sure hand with details that his story and characters feel surprisingly grounded. The fact that it doesn't fully satisfy some genre expectations is not, to this reviewer, a flaw in and of itself, especially when there is some question as to which genre this is. This is, after all, a story about catastrophic evolution (or inter-dimensional invasion) that somehow never feels over the top, that feels like it's about real people even when they are barely identifiable as human, that asks good questions about whether society is better based on rules or on relationships. The Devil's Alphabet is good, verging on great, and Gregory is raising expectations"
Nota :
I'm sorry my english is not good but M. David J. Schwartz read my mind so I only have to copy his words ... many thanks to him Read more of his review in : http://www.strangehorizons.com/review...
August 23, 2012
This book is centered around a small southern community called Switchcreek - where, over a decade ago, an unfortunate and mysterious epidemic occurred which turned most of the population into 3 distinct groups of mutant-like 'clades' - The Agros, who are thin, tall, fast and strong - The Betas, the females of which can procreate without the need of any male interaction - and The Charlies, short, and fat, with males that have a strange side effect in their later years.
This one again suffered from the 'biting off more than it can chew' syndrome same as the last book I read, Lev Grossman's The Magicians; although in this case, I am more than willing to admit that maybe some of it just went over my damn head. There's a reason I don't read much hard sci-fi. All the scientific mumbo jumbo and quantum physics just float about my head like those stars around cartoon characters when they've been hit too hard. Still, there was so much going on here, so many distinct storylines that never seem to get developed or finished.
I do recognize that part of the reason why Gregory might not want to answer these questions is tied into what I think is the overarching theme of the novel itself - humankind's desire to control our own manifest destiny and the growth of our civilization and species, and our fear of anything 'strange' and 'different' that might arise. But I just wanted some answers damn it. I just don't think I'm the right market for this kind of novel. I was left wanting in the end and felt like the book left more questions than they answered. Gregory is a capable author with interesting ideas, but I don't think this particular novel of his was for me.
This one again suffered from the 'biting off more than it can chew' syndrome same as the last book I read, Lev Grossman's The Magicians; although in this case, I am more than willing to admit that maybe some of it just went over my damn head. There's a reason I don't read much hard sci-fi. All the scientific mumbo jumbo and quantum physics just float about my head like those stars around cartoon characters when they've been hit too hard. Still, there was so much going on here, so many distinct storylines that never seem to get developed or finished.
I do recognize that part of the reason why Gregory might not want to answer these questions is tied into what I think is the overarching theme of the novel itself - humankind's desire to control our own manifest destiny and the growth of our civilization and species, and our fear of anything 'strange' and 'different' that might arise. But I just wanted some answers damn it. I just don't think I'm the right market for this kind of novel. I was left wanting in the end and felt like the book left more questions than they answered. Gregory is a capable author with interesting ideas, but I don't think this particular novel of his was for me.
December 26, 2010
This book started out great, then fizzled towards the end. The main guy, Pax, comes back to his hometown at the death of his childhood best friend, who has apparently hung herself, but he doesn't believe it. While there he sort of reconnects with his other old best friend, and a whole complicated relationship with his estranged father. Pax left the town when he was about 14 because the town mysteriously went through changes, where a third of the town died, and most of the rest, except for Pax and a few other people, turned into different species alltogether. These are three other distinct species that are like aliens, except they are still the actual people. Many didn't survive these changes. Why did it happen? There is one half-hearted theory but they never really resolve it. I was really interested in learning about that, and the changes in the people, and the changes in their children, the first true generation of their species. The whole town is run by the mayor Rhonda, who is a "Charlie" woman, one of the three subsets, that makes you really large. I totally pictured Kathy Bates as Rhonda the entire book they just acted the same. I was so interested in this book..why is Pax's reaction to the "vintage" different than other humans? What will become of these new types of people? What are their new cultures? How could he just leave the murder of his best friend Jo alone & accept the reason as a good one? But nothing was ever gotten into deep enough. It was interesting that Pax is not straight, but this isn't super emphasized in the book, just another fact, and that one of the reasons his dad sent him away at 14 was because he caught him with his two best friends, one another boy. This book had so much potential.. maybe it could spawn a whole series?
May 21, 2018
The one where Paxton goes back to his hometown and it's like the people he grew up with are a whole different species. No, literally.
This was marketed as horror, but it seemed to me quite straightforward science fiction of the "environmental/scientific mystery" category.
Pax was in his teens when a mysterious disease swept through his town, and most of the people who survived were transformed into three "clades" -- argos, who are twelve feet tall and incredibly strong; betas, who have raspberry-colored skin and expressionless faces; and charlies, who are immensely fat. His two best friends, Deke and Jo Lynn, became an argo and a beta, but Pax didn't change.
Brought back to town by Jo Lynn's death, he discovers that his father, a charlie, is emitting some kind of chemical that other charlies are collecting, and that the betas seem to be getting pregnant spontaneously, sometimes even before puberty. Quite a lot of time is spent discovering things about the physiology of the clades.
So it was really disappointing to me that nothing was really resolved; no one ever discovered why this was happening or what it added up to. I was waiting, honestly, for a Childhood's End-style revelation that the three were actually the different forms of a single species, like worker and queen bees -- a pointed reference to naked mole rats seemed to be indicating this -- but it all went nowhere.
Pax's emotional journey was better drawn, but, you know, a good character arc is necessary but not sufficient; I read sci-fi for sci-fi.
This was marketed as horror, but it seemed to me quite straightforward science fiction of the "environmental/scientific mystery" category.
Pax was in his teens when a mysterious disease swept through his town, and most of the people who survived were transformed into three "clades" -- argos, who are twelve feet tall and incredibly strong; betas, who have raspberry-colored skin and expressionless faces; and charlies, who are immensely fat. His two best friends, Deke and Jo Lynn, became an argo and a beta, but Pax didn't change.
Brought back to town by Jo Lynn's death, he discovers that his father, a charlie, is emitting some kind of chemical that other charlies are collecting, and that the betas seem to be getting pregnant spontaneously, sometimes even before puberty. Quite a lot of time is spent discovering things about the physiology of the clades.
So it was really disappointing to me that nothing was really resolved; no one ever discovered why this was happening or what it added up to. I was waiting, honestly, for a Childhood's End-style revelation that the three were actually the different forms of a single species, like worker and queen bees -- a pointed reference to naked mole rats seemed to be indicating this -- but it all went nowhere.
Pax's emotional journey was better drawn, but, you know, a good character arc is necessary but not sufficient; I read sci-fi for sci-fi.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 26, 2010
I read The Devil's Alphabet in basically two days, while I was too ill to do much of anything. It is a testament to how pleasant it was to read that I managed to make it through when doing just about anything else seemed too taxing.
In the end, I wasn't quite as blown away by The Devil's Alphabet as I was by Gregory's first novel, but Pandemonium is a damn tough act to follow, and The Devil's Alphabet is still a top-notch book and a worthy sophomore effort.
In the end, I wasn't quite as blown away by The Devil's Alphabet as I was by Gregory's first novel, but Pandemonium is a damn tough act to follow, and The Devil's Alphabet is still a top-notch book and a worthy sophomore effort.
July 30, 2010
Paxton Martin, a preacher’s son, is returning to his hometown of Switchcreek, TN, for the funeral of a childhood friend. Pax left Switchcreek 12 years ago, soon after an outbreak of Transcription Divergence Syndrome devastated the population of the small town. TDS, or The Changes, killed a third of the people living in Switchcreek and caused three different mutations in most of the people left alive. The victims of TDS-A, or Argos, became gray-skinned and grew to abnormal heights. TDS-B victims, or Betas, became hairless and seal-like, and TDS-C victims, or Charlies, became grotesquely obese. A few residents, Paxton included, were unaffected and remained unchanged. When Paxton returns for the funeral, he finds that there are many unanswered questions surrounding the suicide of JoLynn, and with the help of his friend Deke he tries to unravel the mystery of her death.
I would not describe myself as a science fiction fan, but I really enjoyed this one. It had great characters, bits of mystery and humor, and a few parts that rated about a 9.5 on my ickiness scale.
I would not describe myself as a science fiction fan, but I really enjoyed this one. It had great characters, bits of mystery and humor, and a few parts that rated about a 9.5 on my ickiness scale.
January 22, 2011
I went to the library looking for Daryl Gregory's "Pandemonium", which was checked out. But this one was in, and the cover drew me like a magnet. (It's a neat trick with the eyes--wish I'd thought of it.) The story begins like this: Paxton Martin, lately of Chicago, is returning home to the small town of Switchcreek, Tennessee, for the funeral of a childhood friend who has committed suicide. Switchcreek is no ordinary place, however. Fifteen years before, the entire town was infected with what's been called 'Transcription Divergence Syndrome' (TDS) which killed some of the population and turned the rest into monsters: 8 foot grey-skinned 'argos', hairless magenta-skinned 'betas', and 'charlies' who are as wide as they are tall. Paxton is one of a handful that was 'skipped' by the disease, which creates problems of its own. It's a wildly imaginative book, and the author goes into an incredible amount of detail to bring the new people to life. I really enjoyed it, and want to seek out more of his books.
March 2, 2011
If there was a 4.5 star option, I would give it to this book. I can't give it a 5 for two reasons - the main character, Paxton, slipped between useless and unlikable, and clever and funny, far too often to be interesting or realistic. Secondly, this is another book that wanted to be science-fiction but didn't know enough about the science to properly fictionalize it.
Aside from that, this novel's execution is almost perfect: the small town politics, the divisions between people, and the way that all of the characters changed because of one another and not just because of themselves made it feel like a look into a real town overcome with a real disease. Though there was a main character, all of the characters seemed to develop themselves equally, and even more than that, the way each clade or group changed within itself during and after The Changes was spot-on. Nothing in this - aside from what was left out - struck a false note, and I can't blame the author for writing a shorter book than I would have liked.
Aside from that, this novel's execution is almost perfect: the small town politics, the divisions between people, and the way that all of the characters changed because of one another and not just because of themselves made it feel like a look into a real town overcome with a real disease. Though there was a main character, all of the characters seemed to develop themselves equally, and even more than that, the way each clade or group changed within itself during and after The Changes was spot-on. Nothing in this - aside from what was left out - struck a false note, and I can't blame the author for writing a shorter book than I would have liked.
July 21, 2010
Well-written and interesting....but the main character is not the brightest, has a fairly blah personality, and a genetic predilection for drug addiction. Which...kind of puts a damper on me loving this book the way I liked the author's previous book Pandemonium. Also, they never do figure out how exactly the disease/transformations are occuring; they throw around some outlandish ideas of alternate universes, but while I read the story, I never felt that the idea was truly serious. The story has a slight horror feel to it, what with the blister-popping imagery, but in the end, the point of the story is more about people coping with drastic change than anything else.
Also the mystery was a little half-baked, with the main character solving half of it through a drug-induced revelation, and the consequences are hand-waved away...
But if you are not too too picky, and are not too offended about (for or against) abortion issues, then it is a pretty good read.
Also the mystery was a little half-baked, with the main character solving half of it through a drug-induced revelation, and the consequences are hand-waved away...
But if you are not too too picky, and are not too offended about (for or against) abortion issues, then it is a pretty good read.
January 30, 2011
Daryl Gregory is now an author that I will be looking out for. His debut novel, Pandemonium, was unique and interesting. I never knew what was coming next. I can say the same of The Devil's Alphabet. It's very different from his first book, yet equally creative and compelling. He builds his situations and settings in ways that make them vivid to the reader without describing every little thing in minute detail. As a result, the reader becomes part of the creative process. His characters are so human, even when they're freakish mutants.
I can't wait to see what Daryl Gregory does next.
I can't wait to see what Daryl Gregory does next.
March 11, 2010
Much like Pandemonium, Gregory's debut novel, The Devil's Alphabet feels tepid -- like washing hands in water too cool to be comfortable, yet ultimately not bothersome enough to fiddle with the faucet knob (you simply know that in a few seconds, the scrubbing will be done), and just like Pandemonium, I rolled quickly into the second half realizing that while this book wasn't going anywhere very interesting, it would be over before I knew it.
Gregory feels like the sort of writer who lacks the imagination to dress up a clever conceit with compelling story. In particular, the ending is truly bad.
If you're expecting something more sophisticated than the latest SyFy movie of the week, than this novel isn't for you. If you're terribly happy with that sort of mediocrity, dive right in.
Pandemonium was better, but only by a little.
Gregory feels like the sort of writer who lacks the imagination to dress up a clever conceit with compelling story. In particular, the ending is truly bad.
If you're expecting something more sophisticated than the latest SyFy movie of the week, than this novel isn't for you. If you're terribly happy with that sort of mediocrity, dive right in.
Pandemonium was better, but only by a little.
July 30, 2011
Daryl Gregory is one of the most exciting new authors to come on the scene in a long, long time. He manages to take the extraordinary and put it to the level of the everyday. I've seen him compared to Stephen King, and that's probably right (I don't enjoy King's fiction all that much, although I adore his On Writing). This book is very different than Gregory's first novel Pandemonium, but still packs a very large punch as he once again uses non humans to examine the human condition. And once again manages to gently twist the story every time you think you get it. Masterful the way he does that. I'm not sure I actually liked the hero that much, but I still couldn't put the book down.
Rated: A
Rated: A
January 14, 2014
Daryl Gregory can really write. This novel works on so many levels. It imagines the introduction of three distinct new races into a small town in the deep south--A, B and C--that allow the author to explore issues of fear, prejudice and segregation on many levels without ever mentioning whether the actors were originally black or white. Seamlessly combines sci-fi/fantasy elements with southern a gothic mystery. The ending was to me a surprise. Super! If you like well written novels with a unique perspective, definitely pick this up. Readers of this novel should also check out Hugh Howey's Wool series.
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