Sunday, September 03, 2006

Galaxie review

GALAXIE REVIEW

A serial rapist on the loose; a 16 year old boy desperate for a seductive prostitute; an unruly little boy who ends up a monster; a woman who abuses her maid…..These are just some of the stories that fuel Dark City. The book comprises 12 twisted tales set in Malaysia. The stories are written by a female freelance writer who goes by the name Xeus. Xeus’ stories are the result of her appetite for the dark side of life.
Each tale opens a disturbing can of worms. They concentrate on the ills that plague our society, with some twists thrown in for good measure. Some of the stories here like Psychotic, The Six Million Dollar Man and The Resistance are sensational and thought-provoking, while others are less intriguing. And even though some of the characters are not so believable, Dark City is a fun read with plenty of thrills to keep you engaged.


I'm still so amazed by the different tastes of different people. So far, everyone (either via media or personally to me) have told me about their favorite stories from Dark City. And it varies widely!

Argus Lou - when asked which stories I should serialize for The Star, she suggested Monster and Coup of the Century.

Malay Mail ed - Trashcan Child

NST - The Scarlet Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Coup of the Century

Jerry (my agent) - The Scarlet Woman

Many people (esp Singaporeans) - One if by Land

A few people, including Shashi (from the Sun) and Vaneeta (sp?) - The Resistance

Yvonne Lee - The Scarlet Woman

Zabir (Singaporean editor) - Session One

Ted - Incident at Monkey Gorge

My brother - Trashcan Child

My Uncle Albert - "It's all utter nonsense!" (Hee hee, I liked that one. Uncle Albert is a Rushdie and Tagore fan.)

My Uncle Victor - "Congrats, congrats. I guess we're forced to buy your book."



Lydia has yet to buzz me on her likes and dislikes :) And Bib has yet to read the book, I think!

Anyway, I was at the airport, and was gratified to see Dark City being sold out in all bookshops there. BUT the distributors are a little wary of restocking them because of ...reasons I can't mention here (Yvonne knows).

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

My favourite has to be The Resistance, The Scarlet Woman and Coup of the Century - in that order! ^_^

Ted Mahsun said...

Hmmm. Why would more Singaporeans like One if by Land? Anything significant for them in the story aaa?

Yvonne Foong said...

I dunno anything!

J/K

Anonymous said...

Well, as soon as I read it, I'll let you know which is my favourite and you might be adding another newspaper review to your blog.

;-)

And, hi.

Argus Lou said...

Ted, maybe Singaporeans harbour a secret desire to 'escape' from the constricting rules of their well-ordered society.

Hey, Xeus. Please tell your uncle Albert I like Rushdie's work too but I can appreciate a well-told traditional short story any time, too.

Did your mother read the book? ;-)

Ted Mahsun said...

Hmmm, Argus, that's interesting. But then wouldn't the story become a cautionary tale - out of the pan, into the fire? hehe...

Argus Lou said...

Yes, Ted. Why not? Often humans think yonder field is greener, but it's just good and bad all mixed up again.

Artemis Hunt said...

Dear Eternal Wanderer, thanks! Please do come if you can to my MidValley reading this Sunday. More to be posted later.

Dear Ted and Argus, I'm not quite sure why the Singaporeans like that particular story...it's something I heard from my Singaporean agent. Or maybe it's just THOSE Singaporeans who know Jerry....

And Argus, my Uncle Albert hasn't read the book yet :) Nor has my mother :)

Artemis Hunt said...

Dear Gette, I have been to your blog. Interesting! "I like little children, they taste good." Ha ha ha!

Thanks for visiting and would be real grateful if you could feature it for the Sarawak Tribune/Borneo Post.

Argus Lou said...

Xeus, those 'old fogies' (look who's talkin'!) should read your book before they misplace their eyesight, eh?

Gette said...

Xeus: I can't seem to find a contact email on your blog. Could I trouble you to get in touch with me at froget[AT]gmail.com? Thanks.

Artemis Hunt said...

Argus, my Uncle Albert won't read a book until it's won the Booker :) You know the guy. Very amusing. He's also an evolutionary biologist.

But he confessed to being hooked by Stephen King's 'The Langoliers' once.

Syaf said...

Ur featured in KLue magazine! Hahah....the page was neatly done by the KLue team. I like the pic used.

Artemis Hunt said...

Cool! I'll check Klue out as soon as I get back to Malaysia.

Argus Lou said...

Xeus babe, ya'll hafta photograph or scan the layout. Klue's current stories are not online.

Maybe you can get Dark City translated into Vietnamese, seeing as you're so often in the Land of the Quiet American.

Artemis Hunt said...

I'll have to get the hubby to scan then, hee hee, since I don't know my scanners from darkly to brightly. They came over to my house to photograph me, in dark glasses and holding the book over the lower half of my face. Most cool. Will definitely scan.

Most Vietnamese people have not enough money to survive, let alone buy books!

But they have a good wi fi system though. I'm in one of their billion free wi fi cafes now.

Argus Lou said...

Good that it's free, but do you have to buy a bowl of beef noodles to sit there? Yummy, those noodles. ;-P'

Lydia Teh said...

Xeus, Psychotic is a page-turner. I like the twist and turn in the story. Gasp! Does that mean there's a touch of the sadist in me?! Eeww!

Argus Lou said...

Heh heh. Lydia, you have suppressed sides that you want to imagine are not there (cue: weird pipe organ music).

Artemis Hunt said...

Lydia, there's a sado-masochist in all of us :)

Anonymous said...

Hi, I went missing....hehehe. May I add, I love Psychotic too and yes, thanks for MONSTER. You know what? Now my son is too scared for his life to play 'hide-and-seek' with me at shopping malls unlike before.

I read to him that chapter, his eyes red and lips quivering and I rubbed it in with, " And they will chop off your hands, legs and you can not play computer anymore!" Wahahahaha....I dun wan, dun wan....!!!!
Eh, I'm like the bad mother from hell ah?????

Artemis Hunt said...

Yvonne, I did tell you that book is not for your children! Lydia was asking the same thing, whether or not she can show the book to her kids. I said NO!

Argus Lou said...

Yvonne! And I thought you were such a kind and sweet mum. Hee hee. Your poor son! How old is he? (But, really, the story has served quite a good purpose, hasn't it, for you as a mother? The boy in 'Monster' was only a monster before he got kidnapped.)

A friend of mine, J, said his godson read the book and J felt compelled to discuss it with him because of the contents. I asked, so how old is your godson?

After a moment's hesitation, he said: "Nineteen."

"What! Haiya, he already knows more about such things than you do, J," I said.

bibliobibuli said...

yeah i've yet to read it. i got things to finish for review and this 'clan of the cave bear' (500 pages) for my reading group

don't worry, i'm looking forward to it

Lydia Teh said...

Xeus, when I told my kids your book is 18PL, they said, "Huh? Books where got rating one?"