Well bless my stars and garters! Atomic Fez is just the bees’ knees, it seems! According to
Peter Tennant at
Black Static, certainly.
Not just one, but two of the books published last year made up two entries of the 13 in Mr. Tennant’s “Best of 2010″ list over on his blog in
THIS POST HERE. James Cooper’s
A Beautiful Red was cited for its excellent writing, as was Andrew Hook’s
Ponthe Oldenguine.
Click through and read the full text, but here’s some selected text from last week’s post, as well as a little something from Mr. Tennant’s original reviews for the two books.
Cover art by David Gentry
(click to enlarge or close) | Cooper writes with a scalpel like economy of style, a surreal eye and a vision uniquely out of kilter with the world we know, but still connected enough to reveal to us truths we’d rather not confront.
“There’s Something Wrong With Pappy”… chronicles the dissolution of a family after the death of the mother, with sympathetic magic… and all sorts of micro/macro shifts of perspective… but also eerie and strangely compelling… Even better is “Eight Small Men”… with events past and present informing each other, and excellent characterisation throughout… a moving and powerful story, and testament to what Cooper can accomplish when he stretches himself. … As so often with Cooper [in “My Secret Children”] there’s the suggestion of something else going on in the background… it’s the ideal note on which to end this collection by one of the most promising writers to emerge from the small press pack in recent years. |
Cover art by Steve Upham
(click to enlarge or close) | …A delirious smörgåsbord… in a barbed satire that would have brought a smile to the faces of… Swift and… Pope.
Despite its brevity this is a book fizzing with ideas. While so much of it, at least superficially, seems preposterous, beneath the surface serious commentary is being made about the banality of modern entertainment and life itself… [Andrew] Hook doesn’t set a foot wrong with the writing, his voice charming the reader so that we accept the audacity of his invention, the way in which it continually fools not only us but also itself. It is his best book yet, and I loved it. |
Atomic Fez was the only publisher to be mentioned twice, as far as I can tell, which prompted this comment from the highly respected reviewer:
…two out of five releases [in 2010], so it appears I think [Atomic Fez] are doing something right…
The titles of the two books in the second paragraph above will lead you to their product pages, where you can purchase your very own copies of both. You’ll be glad you did, too; don’t just take Atomic Fez’s word for it!
