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Available
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Edinburgh ; New York : Canongate, c2007.
User reviews
LibraryThing member posthumose
This is a quirky but fascinating suspense. Eric Sanderson suffers a trauma and experiences a type of amnesia afterward. And something keeps wiping his memory of even what he's relearning. While seeing a doctor for it he starts getting letters and packages signed by " the first Eric Sanderson". This
The story is original, if leaning on other writers' works and movie references (guess which one) a little too much. I'ts headed for cult status according to a number of reviewers and I believe it. The story is by turns frightening, tender and fantasy-driven. It is outside the realm of what I usually read but I'm very glad I did. It's his first novel, though he has published other things. Only 30, he is someone to watch as he grows as a writer. Don't miss this one if only for the suspense.
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'former self' is giving him clues and directions to his personal past. He is compelled to pursue this but tells no because of how it would be perceived. A wild ride of text/hypertext and a shark with a personal grudge against him ensues. He gets help from some fascinating characters, computers, and a cat along the way.The story is original, if leaning on other writers' works and movie references (guess which one) a little too much. I'ts headed for cult status according to a number of reviewers and I believe it. The story is by turns frightening, tender and fantasy-driven. It is outside the realm of what I usually read but I'm very glad I did. It's his first novel, though he has published other things. Only 30, he is someone to watch as he grows as a writer. Don't miss this one if only for the suspense.
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LibraryThing member Donwentworth
Reprinted from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Staff Picks page
Eric Sanderson is having a very bad day. He wakes up not knowing who he is, discovers he has a rare form of dissociative amnesia (this is the 11th occurrence), receives daily letters from "Eric Sanderson the First," and is being
Eric Sanderson is having a very bad day. He wakes up not knowing who he is, discovers he has a rare form of dissociative amnesia (this is the 11th occurrence), receives daily letters from "Eric Sanderson the First," and is being
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hunted by a lethal, voracious conceptual shark. And that's just for starters. Gaiman meets Nabokov (by way of L. Frank Baum) in a tour de force of metafiction with that rarest of rare commodities: a heart. Show Less
LibraryThing member fundevogel
The cover bears the quote:
"The bastard love child of the Matrix, Jaws and The Da Vinci Code. Very entertaining."
--Mark Haddon
That's not what I would have said about it though. It's more Nolan than Wachowski and infinitely more Borges than Brown. There is a huge fucking shark though.
A conceptual
It starts with a man regaining consciousness. He doesn't know who he is or where he is...but there's a letter on the table for him, Eric Sanderson, from the first Eric Sanderson. This is the first of many of letters from the first of Eric Sanderson, usually signed "with regret and also hope". Initially Eric ignores his former self's correspondence as advised by his psychologist. It will just set back his recovery she says. But as things get stranger and a new threat appears Eric turns to his collection of unopened letters for answers.
It seems, according to the letters, Eric's condition is not the simple dis-associative state he's been told. No, Eric Sanderson was preyed upon by a conceptual fish. A beast not of flesh and bones but of ideas. A beast that hungered not for his flesh, but his Eric-ness, and ate until there was nothing left.
I'd like to say more, but it's not the sort of book about which you can say much with certainty. Hall plays deftly with the surreal while grounding it in the real. After all, what is more tenacious than and idea? More dangerous than a doubt? Is there any parasite more damaging than our own misplaced fixations and errant convictions?
I'm also undecided on how I actually interpret Eric's journey. Did the first Eric pull off an amazing feat of surrealistic heroism, or was he simply a tragic figure driven to madness by his own pain? Is this a man surviving against all odds in mad world or a mad man quietly slipping out of a real world he can no longer cope with? There are no easy answers here.
I'm probably going to have to read it again.
"The bastard love child of the Matrix, Jaws and The Da Vinci Code. Very entertaining."
--Mark Haddon
That's not what I would have said about it though. It's more Nolan than Wachowski and infinitely more Borges than Brown. There is a huge fucking shark though.
A conceptual
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shark.It starts with a man regaining consciousness. He doesn't know who he is or where he is...but there's a letter on the table for him, Eric Sanderson, from the first Eric Sanderson. This is the first of many of letters from the first of Eric Sanderson, usually signed "with regret and also hope". Initially Eric ignores his former self's correspondence as advised by his psychologist. It will just set back his recovery she says. But as things get stranger and a new threat appears Eric turns to his collection of unopened letters for answers.
It seems, according to the letters, Eric's condition is not the simple dis-associative state he's been told. No, Eric Sanderson was preyed upon by a conceptual fish. A beast not of flesh and bones but of ideas. A beast that hungered not for his flesh, but his Eric-ness, and ate until there was nothing left.
I'd like to say more, but it's not the sort of book about which you can say much with certainty. Hall plays deftly with the surreal while grounding it in the real. After all, what is more tenacious than and idea? More dangerous than a doubt? Is there any parasite more damaging than our own misplaced fixations and errant convictions?
I'm also undecided on how I actually interpret Eric's journey. Did the first Eric pull off an amazing feat of surrealistic heroism, or was he simply a tragic figure driven to madness by his own pain? Is this a man surviving against all odds in mad world or a mad man quietly slipping out of a real world he can no longer cope with? There are no easy answers here.
I'm probably going to have to read it again.
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LibraryThing member kaisemic
I can see why some would dismiss The Raw Shark Texts for being too clever, but I absolutely adored it, enough so that I re-started it as soon as I finished. If I had any complaint, it would be that there were many concepts I would have liked to see expanded upon (Mycroft Ward, the Unspace
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Exploration Committee, the work of Dr Fidorous). I'd love to see a short story collection based on this world. Show Less
LibraryThing member freddlerabbit
I was initially going to say that this book is the lazier person's "House of Leaves" - but that sounds more critical and dismissive than my actual experience of reading it. The Raw Shark Texts is a novel about, I suppose, loss, at the highest level - it chronicles one man's crumbling apart from
I found some of the story unconvincing - these are ideas that appeal to me greatly, and to many of my favorite writers. Indeed, Hall seems to have similar tastes - there are quotes from Murakami, Calvino, and others throughout the pages. But there is something lacking here - I think perhaps Hall's theory is unclear, and so it comes confusedly through the pages. His ideas are wonderful, but I think he needs more work to flesh them out clearly. Ambiguity can enhance a book when skillfully deployed, but the gaps here often seem less intentional.
Despite this, I enjoyed the book a great deal, and I believe fans of Eco particularly, as well as Danielewski and Murakami - and Stephenson and Eco - would enjoy it as well. It's clever and interesting, and the narrator is reasonably compelling and appealing.
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within following the death of his girlfriend in an accident in the Greek Isles. But very close to that highest level is some exploration of language and its relationship to meaning; how connected words are to actual things, and what can happen in the absence of that connection. The author explores these ideas overtly, creating a narrative about "unspaces" and the use of actual words to build things that are experienced as real.I found some of the story unconvincing - these are ideas that appeal to me greatly, and to many of my favorite writers. Indeed, Hall seems to have similar tastes - there are quotes from Murakami, Calvino, and others throughout the pages. But there is something lacking here - I think perhaps Hall's theory is unclear, and so it comes confusedly through the pages. His ideas are wonderful, but I think he needs more work to flesh them out clearly. Ambiguity can enhance a book when skillfully deployed, but the gaps here often seem less intentional.
Despite this, I enjoyed the book a great deal, and I believe fans of Eco particularly, as well as Danielewski and Murakami - and Stephenson and Eco - would enjoy it as well. It's clever and interesting, and the narrator is reasonably compelling and appealing.
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LibraryThing member MikeFarquhar
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall, is one of those books that is likely to be much in the literary media for a while. A debut novel, it is a metatextual adventure which wears its influences – from Mark Danielewski to Haraki Murakami; from Paul Auster to The Matrix – very openly; with at least
Eric Sanderson is a man with a problem. Three years ago, while holidaying with his girlfriend in the Greek islands, she met an unexpected death. While initially seeming to cope, within a year, he has begun to suffer increasing retrograde amnesia – chunks of his past life are slowly dropping away from him. As the book opens he wakes, from what he later learns will be his eleventh memory loss episode, to realise that he remembers absolutely nothing about who he is or his past life, while retaining all of his procedural memories.
Notes in his house direct him to his therapist who explains to him – and to us – what has happened. Slowly settling back into a semblance of life, effectively starting anew from a blank slate, he is further jarred by a series of letters, ostensibly from his past self, which threaten to upset his life again. According to his past self, Stephenson is suffering not from the diagnosis of amnesiac fugue that his therapist wants to label him with, but because he is being hunted by a Ludovician – a memory-eating conceptual shark, an entity that has preyed on humanity’s memories for countless generations, blurring the boundaries between the imaginary and the real.
That catapults him into a quest to find the truth, aided - or used? - by a young woman named Scout, as they search for the Dr Trey Fidorous that the First eric Sanderson's letters say knows the Ludovician's secrets. That search takes them initially through the North of england and then into the realm of Unspace - all the non-identity places that surround us all the time.
The conclusion is – as it has to be – ambiguous; was he just mentally ill, or were his experiences real? There is no real way to be sure, and the ending can be read either as a happily ever after or as a tragedy, depending on which way you want to look.
The book is a qualified success. It sometimes creaks under the weight of its concept and its allusions, and sometimes it skips past those too briskly, but it never quite founders completely. While Hall acknowledges all of his influences freely, he happily fuses them into something original of his own, and there are some passages of great writing. While definitely belonging to the same very small genre as House of Leaves, the Raw Shark Texts is more accessible than that book, and certainly easy to read (there’s even an old-fashioned flip-book section where the Word Shark appears to hunt Sanderson over 50 pages or so, which was childishly satisfying to flick through)
I enjoyed this; it’s a quest wrapped in a puzzle bound in literary allusions (though not heavy handedly so), and I look forward to what he does next.
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a weather eye turned towards a possible film (though filming this would be a daunting prospect)Eric Sanderson is a man with a problem. Three years ago, while holidaying with his girlfriend in the Greek islands, she met an unexpected death. While initially seeming to cope, within a year, he has begun to suffer increasing retrograde amnesia – chunks of his past life are slowly dropping away from him. As the book opens he wakes, from what he later learns will be his eleventh memory loss episode, to realise that he remembers absolutely nothing about who he is or his past life, while retaining all of his procedural memories.
Notes in his house direct him to his therapist who explains to him – and to us – what has happened. Slowly settling back into a semblance of life, effectively starting anew from a blank slate, he is further jarred by a series of letters, ostensibly from his past self, which threaten to upset his life again. According to his past self, Stephenson is suffering not from the diagnosis of amnesiac fugue that his therapist wants to label him with, but because he is being hunted by a Ludovician – a memory-eating conceptual shark, an entity that has preyed on humanity’s memories for countless generations, blurring the boundaries between the imaginary and the real.
That catapults him into a quest to find the truth, aided - or used? - by a young woman named Scout, as they search for the Dr Trey Fidorous that the First eric Sanderson's letters say knows the Ludovician's secrets. That search takes them initially through the North of england and then into the realm of Unspace - all the non-identity places that surround us all the time.
The conclusion is – as it has to be – ambiguous; was he just mentally ill, or were his experiences real? There is no real way to be sure, and the ending can be read either as a happily ever after or as a tragedy, depending on which way you want to look.
The book is a qualified success. It sometimes creaks under the weight of its concept and its allusions, and sometimes it skips past those too briskly, but it never quite founders completely. While Hall acknowledges all of his influences freely, he happily fuses them into something original of his own, and there are some passages of great writing. While definitely belonging to the same very small genre as House of Leaves, the Raw Shark Texts is more accessible than that book, and certainly easy to read (there’s even an old-fashioned flip-book section where the Word Shark appears to hunt Sanderson over 50 pages or so, which was childishly satisfying to flick through)
I enjoyed this; it’s a quest wrapped in a puzzle bound in literary allusions (though not heavy handedly so), and I look forward to what he does next.
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LibraryThing member RobinDawson
This is a wild ride – so creative, so original – never read anything like it. It’s science fiction and fantasy and thriller all in one. Not the sort of book I usually like – but I loved it. I was gasping and laughing and couldn’t put it down.
LibraryThing member DanCook
From the outset this book reads like a film script. Hall leans towards the cinematic throughout the book, never fighting the urge to show, to visualise, to explain what the character sees. The work is dusted with images composed of text elements, which sadly serve to underline the lack of
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well-formedness to the ideas in this work, and the lack of depth (and believeability) of the strange world of "evolved ideas" he seeks to explore. I found I lacked sympathy with Sanderson, the protagonist, due to the shallowness, passiveness and lack of credibility in his behaviour. Here is a character with a strange and debilitating history, one which readers will not share, but this history is explored inadequately, and marks a chasm at the centre of the Hall's narrative conceptualisation. Weak dialogue, overly self-aware description and laboured-feeling plot-devices do not help impressions. The Raw Shark Texts has the visual imagination to make a favourable transition to the big screen: as a novel, this half-baked cod text is floundering in the shallows. Show Less
LibraryThing member galpalval
Don't know what to make of this. Obviously written with hopes of being a film, some of the writting is awful- or maybe, contrived?,self-conscious?- and sometimes, stupid. The idea of the book probably meant to be sophisticated and post-modern, drawing on many previous novels and films, does make me
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feel like I'm missing something. But that aside, I can't help but try to finish it. Show Less
LibraryThing member debutnovelist
Great book of a totally unexpected nature. Brilliantly inventive, littered with puzzles (were they puzzles?) diagrams and the odd completely blank page. In between the writing is spectacular. Compelling read, and also very moving. Suspect it's a 'love it or hate it' book and I loved it. Hope to
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return later with more comments . Show Less
LibraryThing member murraymint11
I enjoyed this book, despite it being a little weird and wacky. I suppose the style reminded me of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but the storyline felt more like a movie script; in fact the final few chapters were lifted straight out of the Jaws movie, so much so that it gave the ending
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away! Different. Show Less
LibraryThing member Tid
I haven't even finished this book, and I'm bursting to write a review! This is one of the most original themes for a novel I've ever read. Think of "The Phantom Tollbooth" meets "Jaws" meets Nick Hornby meets "The Name Of The Rose" ...
Conceptual sharks? That's the central premise, and as a device
The plot begins dramatically : Eric Sanderson finds himself on the bedroom floor of his own house. Neither of these facts is known to him as his memory - his PERSONAL memory - has been completely wiped. He doesn't know who he is, or where he is, though in all other respects he functions quite normally. He finds his way, via a note left for him by "The First Eric Sanderson", to Dr Randle, who can apparently help him. She tells him about the accident in which his girlfriend Clio Aames died, and about his "condition" which is seemingly more than simple amnesia. Months later, after receiving daily letters from The First Eric Sanderson (who has apparently pre-arranged their mailing), and one extremely dramatic event, Eric sets off with his grumpy cat Ian, to locate the mysterious Dr Trey Fidorous who is somewhere in "un-space". En route he is helped by the beautiful Scout, who embodies a few unexplained mysteries of her own. What is her connection with Fidorous? With Eric? With Clio Aames? (And that's about as far as I can go without spoiling the plot).
Stephen Hall draws Eric Sanderson extremely well, as the kind of hapless modern male archetype that Nick Hornby helped to establish as the modern novel's combined "hero and anti-hero". Even better is the dialogue between Eric and both the women in his life, which sparkles with wit, genuine affection, and a realistic kind of modern cynical banter. These relationships are absolutely central to the story, so a facility with drawing them, and the dialogues involved, is necessary; fortunately, Hall handles them well.
The story itself revolves around the fantastical central conceit of "what are conceptual fish, and how do you deal with them?", but because it is set in a familiar everyday world, and peopled by well-drawn characters, the reader is willingly swept along.
The use of graphic illustrations is a luxury not entirely necessary to the story (as they are for example in Mark Haddon's "Curious Case Of The Dog..."). Indeed, at one point they are positively irritating, occupying around 30 pages of the book, and taking you closer to the end than you really wanted to be. However, that's a minor quibble.
All in all, this is a breathtakingly original novel, aided by well-drawn characters, good dialogue, taut action sequences, and one cat. Thoroughly recommended.
(Now I have finished the book, I wish to add a postscript : the final chapter is a pseudo-explanatory addendum which I feel is unnecessary. We could have been left where Eric's story ended, asking the questions that a novel like this almost begs us to ask, but also smiling - emotionally fulfilled and sighing with satisfaction.)
Conceptual sharks? That's the central premise, and as a device
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for narrative fiction, it's pretty awesome on its own account - yet the story is so much more than that. It's a retrospective detective story, it's a love story (well, two love stories.. well, sort of), it's an Odyssey, and it's an exploration of memory loss and grief. I will try not to spoil the plot, so the next paragraph is going to have to be very carefully crafted. The plot begins dramatically : Eric Sanderson finds himself on the bedroom floor of his own house. Neither of these facts is known to him as his memory - his PERSONAL memory - has been completely wiped. He doesn't know who he is, or where he is, though in all other respects he functions quite normally. He finds his way, via a note left for him by "The First Eric Sanderson", to Dr Randle, who can apparently help him. She tells him about the accident in which his girlfriend Clio Aames died, and about his "condition" which is seemingly more than simple amnesia. Months later, after receiving daily letters from The First Eric Sanderson (who has apparently pre-arranged their mailing), and one extremely dramatic event, Eric sets off with his grumpy cat Ian, to locate the mysterious Dr Trey Fidorous who is somewhere in "un-space". En route he is helped by the beautiful Scout, who embodies a few unexplained mysteries of her own. What is her connection with Fidorous? With Eric? With Clio Aames? (And that's about as far as I can go without spoiling the plot).
Stephen Hall draws Eric Sanderson extremely well, as the kind of hapless modern male archetype that Nick Hornby helped to establish as the modern novel's combined "hero and anti-hero". Even better is the dialogue between Eric and both the women in his life, which sparkles with wit, genuine affection, and a realistic kind of modern cynical banter. These relationships are absolutely central to the story, so a facility with drawing them, and the dialogues involved, is necessary; fortunately, Hall handles them well.
The story itself revolves around the fantastical central conceit of "what are conceptual fish, and how do you deal with them?", but because it is set in a familiar everyday world, and peopled by well-drawn characters, the reader is willingly swept along.
The use of graphic illustrations is a luxury not entirely necessary to the story (as they are for example in Mark Haddon's "Curious Case Of The Dog..."). Indeed, at one point they are positively irritating, occupying around 30 pages of the book, and taking you closer to the end than you really wanted to be. However, that's a minor quibble.
All in all, this is a breathtakingly original novel, aided by well-drawn characters, good dialogue, taut action sequences, and one cat. Thoroughly recommended.
(Now I have finished the book, I wish to add a postscript : the final chapter is a pseudo-explanatory addendum which I feel is unnecessary. We could have been left where Eric's story ended, asking the questions that a novel like this almost begs us to ask, but also smiling - emotionally fulfilled and sighing with satisfaction.)
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LibraryThing member trinityM82
It's long and it's complicated, but it's good. It needs a second read to understand it.
LibraryThing member maddiegreene
For the first time in months I'm really enthused about something I'm reading.
I don't remember how I learned of it. I heard and read the title here and there, nowhere I remember specifically. As it turns out this untraceable memetic revelation was eerily fitting.
If you're offended by experimentation
This is the story of a man who wakes up with amnesia. But it's a little bit worse than that. The tides and currents of human interaction have evolved lifeforms of their own, and the informational equivalent of a knowledge shark-- it's a Ludovician, a conceptual fish-- has fixated on his personality and is slowly eating chunks of him. Defenses include adopting alternate personalities, hiding personal documents in heaps of other people's letters to muddy the data stream, and attacks with "letter bombs" composed of old typewriter keys and firecrackers.
It's not a perfect book: the ideas are grand but the writing style's pretty simple. And there's no way I'm buying the love interest as a fully developed character. But the relentless conceptual shark-- a shark that can hunt you over land and consume all the data of you-- genuinely freaks me out, and the word-based graphics that illustrate its attacks are great examples of ideas as words as objects.
I don't remember how I learned of it. I heard and read the title here and there, nowhere I remember specifically. As it turns out this untraceable memetic revelation was eerily fitting.
If you're offended by experimentation
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with pages and letters, if you disdain authorial acknowledgment of the physical object that gets his story to you, this might be a little challenging. Not House of Leaves challenging, just "this is so post-pomo" challenging. But I love a book that demands to be used, not just read.This is the story of a man who wakes up with amnesia. But it's a little bit worse than that. The tides and currents of human interaction have evolved lifeforms of their own, and the informational equivalent of a knowledge shark-- it's a Ludovician, a conceptual fish-- has fixated on his personality and is slowly eating chunks of him. Defenses include adopting alternate personalities, hiding personal documents in heaps of other people's letters to muddy the data stream, and attacks with "letter bombs" composed of old typewriter keys and firecrackers.
It's not a perfect book: the ideas are grand but the writing style's pretty simple. And there's no way I'm buying the love interest as a fully developed character. But the relentless conceptual shark-- a shark that can hunt you over land and consume all the data of you-- genuinely freaks me out, and the word-based graphics that illustrate its attacks are great examples of ideas as words as objects.
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LibraryThing member edfinn
I really enjoyed this book. It truly deserves the category of "conceptual thriller"--witty, inventive, and unabashedly enthralled with Jaws, it's everything that a high-concept postomodern novel usually isn't. Plus it has actually does something compelling with concrete poetry, which you almost
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never see. Hall is somehow connected with David Mitchell (whom he thanks in his acknowledgments), leading me to speculate in my head about a new Scottish/expat postmodern novel school. Exciting! Read this today. Show Less
LibraryThing member nagem13
Well, when I saw a shark made out of text on the cover of this book, I knew that I had to check this book out. The protagonist, Eric Sanderson, apparently has chronic amnesia. The major question permeating in the novel is whether or not Eric is experiencing what he's experiencing in his head, or if
The scenes with Eric and his girlfriend, Clio, kind of gave me heartache. I know that sounds corny, but I thought Hall portrayed intimacy between lovers quite effectively. I found my reaction especially interesting since a few other reader reviews that I read found the Eric/Clio stuff really lame. Sigh... I guess these things can be rather subjective. In any case, Hall makes a good point when he argues that once someone's gone, you can't capture their essence completely with words... things always get left out, and you just forget things over time. As Regina Spektor sings, "Thought I'd see your face in my mind for all time, But I don't even remember what your ears looked like." In my experience, that's a sad truth.
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it's really happening. Or, an even bigger question, if that even matters. I'm not sure... In any case, it's part Jaws part House of Leaves when the conceptual shark attacks.The scenes with Eric and his girlfriend, Clio, kind of gave me heartache. I know that sounds corny, but I thought Hall portrayed intimacy between lovers quite effectively. I found my reaction especially interesting since a few other reader reviews that I read found the Eric/Clio stuff really lame. Sigh... I guess these things can be rather subjective. In any case, Hall makes a good point when he argues that once someone's gone, you can't capture their essence completely with words... things always get left out, and you just forget things over time. As Regina Spektor sings, "Thought I'd see your face in my mind for all time, But I don't even remember what your ears looked like." In my experience, that's a sad truth.
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LibraryThing member dczapka
The Raw Shark Texts may not be the mind-blowing, genre-bending instant classic that many reviewers are claiming it is, but if you give yourself over to it for 428 pages, it's an exciting, fast-moving story that pulses at an intense pace from start to finish.
To try and elucidate the plot at all
If it sounds vaguely Memento-esque, it should, since the novel paces itself in ways that seem to mirror landmarks pop culture films: first Memento, then The Matrix, then, inexplicably, Jaws.
To try and rationalize what happens is besides the point -- as is characterization, dialogue, and anything that doesn't involve chaotic, borderline-excretory imagery and an overwhelming sense of panic. The novel's own internal logic (barely) holds together, and if you allow yourself to get caught up in it, it effectively reels you in. Pages fly by (in one particular instance, at a 50-page clip), with cheesy sci-fi/thriller description interspersed with the occasional textual image, an intriguing idea that feels like it works despite, like the rest of the novel, feeling like it probably shouldn't.
The novel's investment in linguistics, typography, and communication firmly cement its postmodern themes, and though things do get confusing, the ending feels appropriately ambiguous and satisfying. Many things end up being not what they seem and that's okay, for some strange reason. In fact, almost all of The Raw Shark Texts, despite one's reader's intuition, manages to work out despite itself.
If you're willing to suspend some of your sense of "proper" literature -- and ALL of your sense of disbelief -- then you'll find yourself swept away in this bizarre, fantastical mind-trip.
To try and elucidate the plot at all
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would be both challenging and unfair, since the events are so deftly and complexly interwoven that half the fun of the novel is figuring out what's going on next. Our hero, Eric Sanderson, wakes up in a house he does not recognize and, through visits with a psychiatrist and a series of letters sent to him by "The First Eric Sanderson," he is forced to piece together the life he once had and try, if possible, to save himself from losing more of his memories.If it sounds vaguely Memento-esque, it should, since the novel paces itself in ways that seem to mirror landmarks pop culture films: first Memento, then The Matrix, then, inexplicably, Jaws.
To try and rationalize what happens is besides the point -- as is characterization, dialogue, and anything that doesn't involve chaotic, borderline-excretory imagery and an overwhelming sense of panic. The novel's own internal logic (barely) holds together, and if you allow yourself to get caught up in it, it effectively reels you in. Pages fly by (in one particular instance, at a 50-page clip), with cheesy sci-fi/thriller description interspersed with the occasional textual image, an intriguing idea that feels like it works despite, like the rest of the novel, feeling like it probably shouldn't.
The novel's investment in linguistics, typography, and communication firmly cement its postmodern themes, and though things do get confusing, the ending feels appropriately ambiguous and satisfying. Many things end up being not what they seem and that's okay, for some strange reason. In fact, almost all of The Raw Shark Texts, despite one's reader's intuition, manages to work out despite itself.
If you're willing to suspend some of your sense of "proper" literature -- and ALL of your sense of disbelief -- then you'll find yourself swept away in this bizarre, fantastical mind-trip.
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LibraryThing member Djupstrom
I think I liked this book...but I am not 100% sure. It was exciting and engaging, but also confusing and out there. If The Matrix, Neverwhere, Jaws, Moby Dick, and Memento had a love child, I think it would be this book. The ending was not a salute to Jaws, but an out right copy of the thing.
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Having said that, I would recommend other to read this book. I guess I liked it...at least I think. Show Less
LibraryThing member KC9333
Mind bender of a book.....man struggling with amnesia/mental illness finds messages sent from himself. Who is he, what happened to him.....Hunted by a conceptual shark he struggles to make sense of it all.....Book makes you think about language and memory and the interconnectedness of people. Not
Think Matrix meets Jaws........I am not sure loved the book but I certainly couldn't put it down and for that I highly recommend it.
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sure the story all works but A+ for originality. The last 100 pages fly by offering a tragic ending or joyous triumph depending on your perception.Think Matrix meets Jaws........I am not sure loved the book but I certainly couldn't put it down and for that I highly recommend it.
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LibraryThing member rolhirst
The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall, which starts out as an intriguing riff on Christopher Nolan's Memento, and then just goes completely mental. I'm still about a hundred pages from the end, so I'm not sure if it'll all tie together, but so far Hall's debut is as close to being a British Chuck
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Palahniuk as I've yet read. And it features a cat called Ian, so what else do you need? Show Less
LibraryThing member laphroaig
Eric wakes up without any memories and carefully crafted instructions on how to meet his psychologist. After that, things all becomes a little strange. Eric learns of a world-within-a-world, in which language is more than just living, it is an ecosystem ... and as with any ecosystem there are some
The Raw Shark Texts' imagination burns brightly throughout the book. Halls familiar and yet fantastic, abstract world is painted in great swathes of colour with strong, compelling characters and a post-modern, punkish, anti-authoritaniasm flavour. Despite this its style is friendly and compelling, its main character likable and its language is vibrant and clever (at one point a character is said to a have a "headmaster-late-for-assembly walk"), through which its plot twists and turns through kooky and sometimes plain nasty developments.
Some of this is layered on a little too thick. Eric's companions are occasionally too much tank girl and too little real person - all black humour and clever comeback - and the novel's bizarre use of imagery (some pages are pictures made of words) is arresting, but by the end is beginning to feel like a gimmick.
Not everyone will like it. I did. Worth a try.
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very, very nasty predators.The Raw Shark Texts' imagination burns brightly throughout the book. Halls familiar and yet fantastic, abstract world is painted in great swathes of colour with strong, compelling characters and a post-modern, punkish, anti-authoritaniasm flavour. Despite this its style is friendly and compelling, its main character likable and its language is vibrant and clever (at one point a character is said to a have a "headmaster-late-for-assembly walk"), through which its plot twists and turns through kooky and sometimes plain nasty developments.
Some of this is layered on a little too thick. Eric's companions are occasionally too much tank girl and too little real person - all black humour and clever comeback - and the novel's bizarre use of imagery (some pages are pictures made of words) is arresting, but by the end is beginning to feel like a gimmick.
Not everyone will like it. I did. Worth a try.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Alera
This is one of the best books I'd never heard of before that I've picked up lately, and it was all thanks to the title. This novel is a brilliant blend of genres that leaves you constantly wondering what is about to happen next and at the same time it constructs this entire other fantastical world
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beneath our own made of words and thoughts. In the end you're not entirely sure if he's crazy, if it's all real, or if it even matters. He's happy. And somehow after that journey that is all you need. Show Less
LibraryThing member sidhene
One more decent Sci-Fi writer. Thank goodness!
Why why why does this book only have a 3.5 star average on Amazon? Do these people have any idea how rare it is that anyone manages to produce good science fiction?
A great (or even decent) sci-fi novel is almost impossible to find. The genre suffers
_Shark Texts_ is literature. Independent from its genre it is a great book: original, vivid, well-written, and intense. The kind of book you buy overpriced at the airport and feel like you got your money's worth. The characters are well-developed, the settings are clearly-rendered enough to imagine yourself in them. Add that to the fact that there's only about two dozen sci-fi novels in the world that are of this quality and you have something amazing.
If you love Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Geof Ryman, you'll love this.
Why why why does this book only have a 3.5 star average on Amazon? Do these people have any idea how rare it is that anyone manages to produce good science fiction?
A great (or even decent) sci-fi novel is almost impossible to find. The genre suffers
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from a dearth of honed talent. In this respect, sci fi is a lot like romance - the books are produced by "storytellers" rather than "real" writers, who lack the irrepressible drive (and talent, and training) to produce great works. Hence, there is very, very little sci-fi out there that is not pulp fiction. I don't like to read pulp fiction because it doesn't satisfy me. I don't care if that makes me sound snobby. I love sci-fi but I can't stand to read stuff that is poorly written or boring._Shark Texts_ is literature. Independent from its genre it is a great book: original, vivid, well-written, and intense. The kind of book you buy overpriced at the airport and feel like you got your money's worth. The characters are well-developed, the settings are clearly-rendered enough to imagine yourself in them. Add that to the fact that there's only about two dozen sci-fi novels in the world that are of this quality and you have something amazing.
If you love Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Geof Ryman, you'll love this.
Show Less
LibraryThing member captom
This is a novel that is somewhat "Matrix" like and is an extended allegory of external influences on our life. Its kind of a nature vs. nurture story somewhat entangled but very imaginative and interesting
LibraryThing member yachris
A wonderful read. Truly a clever conceit, but it drags a bit at the end when he has to get Alice back out of the looking glass. Nice twist at the end.
Sort of a horror story for intellectuals, the main character is being pursued by a *conceptual shark* which is shown through clever letter graphics.
Sort of a horror story for intellectuals, the main character is being pursued by a *conceptual shark* which is shown through clever letter graphics.
Subjects
Awards
Somerset Maugham Award (2008)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Shortlist — 2008)
Borders Original Voices (Fiction — 2008)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2007-04-10
Physical description
428 p.; 21 cm
ISBN
9781841959115
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