Tom, tattooed as Apart, has been hunting for John Atwater ever since he got off for killing his wife Shasta whom Tom had worshiped since college. And Tom is willing to die to get his revenge on John who recently died. But the question of revenge is complicated, especially in a Tim Powers short story. The fun is in the journey and this one is a doozy!

Purgatory As A Huge Urban Kinetic Sculpture

Our hero's thirst for revenge is so strong that, when he learns his target has already died, he has himself killed just so he can continue to track his prey through Purgatory. That is such a cool premise that pretty much anything after that counts as bonus time.

This is short, even for a novella. That's O.K. because bulking this out wouldn't necessarily have added much. I understand those who balked at the cost of this in paper, but as a Kindle download it's a good deal.

The actual plot, as is not that unusual for books nodding at the noir genre, takes great liberties and lines up all of the characters very neatly and conveniently for the hero. You know, he always seems to be in the right place and always finds the right people at the right time. Purgatory's probably a lot bigger and more crowded than this story allows, but who needs to quibble?

The fun here is in following our hero as he figures out how to get himself killed just enough to enter Purgatory. Once there we are as disoriented as he is by its fun house mirror nature. We figure out how things work just as he does. Constant movement and focus seem to be the secret to keeping the place corporeal, and thinking of Purgatory as a huge urban kinetic sculpture is sort of intriguing. It seems fair to observe, along those lines, that Purgatory is the real star here, and what does or doesn't happen to the main characters didn't concern me a great deal. Although a couple of the players were more interesting than I had expected them to be.

So, I wasn't overwhelmed here, but I had a good time and thank the author for letting me play. This was a tasty and interesting find. (Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)