Review by Tracey Madeley -- Going Gone by Abraham Lopez

[Tracey Madeley]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Going Gone" by Abraham Lopez.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Going Gone by Abraham Lopez

This book is described as an anthology and I thought it would be a series of short stories. In reality it is a series of episodes tied together by a single theme – death. It took me a while to realise this as I assumed there was some continuity to the story; that the characters were linked, even on a casual level, by the terrorist explosion, but I feel that is largely superficial compared to the theme.

For me the first chapter was by far the best. Dynamic, evocative and very visual in its description of events. My only thought was the word ‘flash bang.’ I realise it describes the effect, like a magician’s trick, to distract with smoke and sound, but it seems out of place and old fashioned. I almost expect to see Eliza Doolittle enter. It would be much better to describe it as a blinding flash of light and acrid smoke.

The first death was a terrorist attack, then a suicide, before returning to terrorism and a young boy. I like the fact the terrorist had a conscience when it came to the young boy, but I wonder how realistic that is. I know books such as The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid show no one starts out as a fundamentalist, but Al-Qaeda have such a disdain for western values, why would he care about a boy?

In Showtime things started to get a little problematic. The egotistical self-centred musician, the talk show host and the religious cult are all very stereo-typical. I understand the need to represent a diverse range of people and the fact that death makes no distinction, but I think the characters could have been better drawn. There must be rock stars without an ego and journalists who know when to walk away from a story, despite their career.

Having the President killed for the greater good is understandable and this is often the justification for a military coupe. What makes this different, is this is America, not a third world dictatorship. The young soldier essentially becomes the fall guy for the assassination plot. It is notable in the last chapter, that one of the first acts of the newly promoted President, is to order the deployment of the Tangerine Daemon, a biological weapon which attacks the immune system.

For me Darwin was the worst of all the stories. A computer system invented by the Defence Department becoming self-aware – why not just call it Skynet? Where it does differ from Terminator, is the experiments conducted through gaming culture and subliminal suggestion, which I imagine is illegal in most countries. There are a lot of deaths before the computer gains a conscience, shades of Asimov’s I Robot here. As a total non gamer, I found the language in the chapter a little alienating. It was also one of the longer chapters, which made it a bit of a struggle to get through.

After all the death and destruction, the ending gave some hope that a simple young man would become the saviour of civilisation. It also leaves the door open for a simpler, straight forward sequel.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars.
As the descriptions suggests this is not a linear character driven story. It is visual, impressionistic and episodic in nature and that is where its strength lies. Different and unusual it does make a refreshing change and for those people who don’t read a lot of fiction, I think it would be ideal.

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Going Gone
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