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The BookViral Review:
Al Schnupp’s brand of political satire is delivered with sensational results. A cutting allegorical story with laughs, it’s farcical, frightening, a timely reflection on the current state of global politics and perhaps a reminder that things could always be worse!
The social importance of satire should never be underestimated. It’s popularity tends to wax and wane but one thing that remains constant is that power and politics can’t stand to be ridiculed. And Schnupp has crafted a vitreous cocktail of naked ambition and blustery bravado with a distinctly bitter aftertaste.
A nihilistic rendering of what power and politics is he’s crafted a host of superb bumbling and weak-minded characters who lack any real conviction other than a desire for power and position. Whilst his choice to ground such madness in an off-world setting proves wholly sublime!
From outrageous fundraising events to image makeovers at the Shimmer Clinic for Politicians, to the Dazzle Box. The plotting and backstabbing grow ever more elaborate whilst the relentless self-interest of central characters, Zero, Maxie, Horace and Inspector Oodles knows no bounds.
They’re funny because they are shocking in ways you don’t want to believe another human being can be. And Zero as the wannabe Icon of Groad isn’t just bird-brained and venal but crassly awful!
Schnupp wants his readers to be uncomfortable but doesn’t ask us to laugh at their cruelty; instead, he makes us laugh at the absurd pettiness and ultimate in narrow-mindedness that often drives political ambition and the pursuit of power.
With satire this good it’s easy to wax lyrical but Schnupp has once again given us something extraordinary and a joy to read. A must-read for fans of the genre Zero is unreservedly recommended.
A bitter, bloody tour de force Chernov unflinchingly explores the random horror, grisly spectacle and the ugliness of war and ideology with a narrative that has an intoxicating, classic feel about it and instantly submerges its readers in the period.
Avoiding the pitfalls of cliché his seven ‘Brady Cops’ are uniformly strong with their identities pivoting on their successes and failures which in turn justifies an intriguing array of coincidences and surprises.
How often do we read a book where a character appears in the mind’s eye fully formed?
From Monty python to Dorothy Parker, and even Shakespeare, dark humour and satire has entertained the best of us.
History and present day testifies to the struggles women face and have faced to earn what should be the natural right of all humankind – fairness.
We are constantly and enduringly fascinated with fictional accounts of parallel existence, alternative realities and genetic engineering. Films such as ‘The Fountain’ present immortality as attainable, whilst books such as ‘The Book Thief’ (Markus Zusak) explore the nature of death, in this case by death himself acting as narrator.
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