This is a great primer for Marshall Smith. He's out ofBritain, so some of his stuff isn't available on amazom.com so checkamazon.co.uk. It's worth the extra shipping fees. He's probably the best satirical sf writer out today. No dragons or ogres, just almost normal people in a messed up situation.

Sheer unadulterated brilliance is what Marshall Smith deliveres here. In a surreal world where people are cloned for spare parts, one man, down on his luck, comes to the rescue of beings considered less than human. Always enthralling, but at times you are unable to tell if this book is incredibly hilarious or really scary. Prepare for the most enjoyable assault on your imagination.

I think this is one of the best futuristic books ever writen, because it is so "realistic". Although it's a litle violent, it has certain "details" that describe so well what our society will probably be. The inoperancy of the police force, the power and the futility of High Society, the horror of poverty and the perversity of common crime is so well told that we actually believe that Michael Marshall Smith went in some kind of time journey and saw the future. I recommend this book to anyone with taste for adventure, science and thriller... believe this book will get into your head.

First off let me clarify one thing: This book is both science fiction and fantasy. If you're a fantasy fan, you probably won't have any trouble with this book. The sci-fi portions of it are quite creative and not at all hard. If your a science fiction fan, though, tread carefully! The last half of this book requires some serious suspension of disbelief.

Now, as for my opinion of the story, I have to say it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for me. At first it was a little hard to get into, because Smith applies a bit of quirky British humor in spots, and though I usually enjoy that it doesn't quite work for me here. However, once I came to terms with this, the first half of the book was really great. I enjoyed the action, the characters and The City - and the action! Then, in the second half, it took a nose dive. Frankly, I found the whole notion of Jeamland cheesy and unpalatable. And I like cheese! *Ahem* Anyway, by the final fifty pages or so, things seem to get more or less back on track, and the ending had me flipping pages as fast as I could.

In summary, parts of this book deserve two stars and parts of it deserve four, so overall I have to rate it a three. Would I recommend this one? Not unless I knew your tastes well enough to think you'd like Jeamland more than I did.

A couple of years have passed since I read this book, as I was desperate enough to order the British edition after reading a handful of Mr. Smith's short stories in the small presses. Needless to say, I was far from disappointed ... I read ONLY FORWARD in one night, hooked from the very beginning. Aside from the vivid world, the sympathetic and fully realized characters, and the gripping plot, the book contains some accurate observations on the world and its inhabitants, giving it more depth than one would expect from a first novel. Mr. Smith blends science fictional elements with a good mystery story, adding a touch of fantasy here and there to keep things interesting, and it all blends together artfully. I'm ashamed to say I haven't read much more of his work, but the praise for SPARES and ONE OF US is equal to that of his debut, and it's hard to imagine that he doesn't get better with practice. (But if you need reassuring, check out his latest story, "The Book of Irrational Numbers," in the anthology 999.)

Now that ONLY FORWARD is available here in the states, it would be a shame for anyone to miss it. Read it. Be amazed.

Found this book at a used book store. It's the Britishversion, with the funky black cover, and the only things on it werethe title and the phrase "May we introduce Stark. Oh, and by the way, good luck...." I flipped it open to skim the first couple pages and it hooked me. I was laughing in the store. I had to buy it. It didn't disappoint me. It was a convoluted book, alternately funny, nasty, and tragic, with a cast of characters that constantly surprised me, and a flurry of intriguing new concepts. The one that sticks out most for me was this: "The reason that it seems to take less time to return from a place than it was to get there in the first place, is because the way back is actually shorter".

The second time I read it, the comedy wasn't as sharp, which was fine, because it made the real story, the tragedy, stand out all the more.

I'm not doing this book justice at all. I can't. Buy it, borrow it, do anything to wrap your hands around it. And read it. And read it again. I'm going to.

Attempt to slot this book to a a genre and it'll slither away - on speed. A coctail of dark fantasy, cyberpunk, sci-fi and a good old fashioned "whodunnit"; Spares takes you to a macabre world with no sugar on top, chillingly close to our own.

If you have the money, you can do anything - bash a few bones, burn off your face - no problem - because your "spare" is waiting to be utilised on a nearby farm. Jack Randall guards one of these farms run by SafetyNet, but in an uncharacteristic act of heroism - or insanity - he flees the Farm together with some spares.

This seemingly innocent start to the story leads the reader through a typically Marshall-Smith-esque maze of about-turns and stomach churning discoveries - all slipped to your subconcious while it was busy digesting the last few pages. This book isn't adrenaline packed. It's more like someone was slowly tickling your brain with a feather.

Must be read with an open mind. But it must be read.

"Spares" is Michael Marshall Smith's second novel, his first being the simply amazing "Only Forward". Like its predecessor, "Spares" is an unusual mix of Douglas Adams like humour, Gibson-esque science fiction, fantasy, action, philosophy, adventure, romance and horror that all combines to create something disturbingly familiar yet satisyingly unique. Set in a futuristic post-apocolypse America, "Spares" centers around the life of Jack Randall a down on his luck ex-cop who finds himself the guardian and protector of six spares; a group of cloned humans whos existance is due to a very sinister agenda by those in power. Having escaped The Farm with the spares in tow, Jack seeks refuge in New Richmond; an ex-flying shopping center made city, attempting to secure an escape vehicle for himself and his charges. But instead of salvation Jack finds himself confronted with his past and a frightening vista of reality known to Jack as The Gap. Stuck with no place to go Jack has no option but to fight the demons of years past. Starting off relatively light hearted and humorous "Spares" quickly darkens in tone until at last the horrors of The Gap along with the ravages of drug addiction are revealed to Jack. This novel is a much darker and disturbing work than "Only Forward" yet is just as satisfying as a peice of literature. The narrative is told by the central character himself and makes for an easier to read almost conversationalist tone. With this easily accessable style "Spares" can acurately be described as one of those book which is impossible to put down, despite its disturbing surreal overtones. "Spares", while lacking the commentary on the human condition shown in "Only Forward", still makes some very astute observations on the human psyche. With its crucible of concepts and styles "Spares" comes highly recomended and quite possibly will become the best book you have ever read, unless of course you have read "Only Forward" in which case it is a tie.

Michael Marshall Smith is a great new writer with a very unique and invividual voice. Coming on the heels of his debut, _Only Forward_, _Spares_ confirms that he is definitely someone to watch!

Some reviewers have faulted Smith for attempting to shoehorn too many diverse ideas into a single book, or for creating such an unlikeable person in his protagonist, Jack Randall. Depending on your point of view, this may be a valid criticism. For me, the mix worked and worked in a magical way I come across all too infrequently in my reading these days.

Jack is a drug-addicted former policeman in the surreal future world of New Richmond, Virginia, a grounded MegaMall which has been taken over as the basis for a city. On the run with a group of spares he's liberated from a Farm, Jack comes up against the same forces which necessitated his escape five years previously. Throw in the Gap, a strange, interdimensional reality, not quite analagous to cyberspace but similar, in which a war was fought 20 years ago, a war Jack and several of the other characters are veterans of, and the book is almost overflowing with ideas, originality, and an amazing level of energy.

If you're a fan of cross-genre mixes, hardboiled/sci-fi, this book is definitely worth your while. Based on his first two novels and a number of his short stories, including "More Tomorrow," an excellent Internet horror tale, Smith has quite a future ahead of him and, for now, a dedicated new fan in this critic.

The spine of this book labels it as "suspense," and it certainly does share some aspects of that genre. It is also, however, a science fiction, mystery, fantasy, speculative religious thriller. This is both the joy of the book, and its curse. The joy is simply reading it for the excitement of not knowing what Smith is going to throw at you next. The curse is wanting it to coalesce into something besides the ephemeral pleasure of a roller coaster ride, and being disappointed when the coaster car simply comes gliding back into the station.

Hap Thompson is a petty con man who has fallen into the less-than-savory business of being a dream-washer and memory-holder. This would have likely been fine, except for his character flaw of being able to turn down wads of cash hovered virtually in front of him. He agrees to do a side memory job for a client so as to see all of the cash rather than just the skimmed bit given to him by his employer, REMtemps, and instead finds himself holding onto the memory of the murder, and if he doesn't get rid of it soon, LAPD will be on him. It doesn't matter that he didn't commit the murder--just having the memory is enough to set him up for life.

Smith hovers between writing like Raymond Chandler and William Gibson, and the result isn't as unpleasant as that match might seem (in fact, I've long thought Gibson's style of cyberpunk fit the early noir of Chandler, and only needed the psychological edge of James M. Cain to really perfect it). The book breaks down towards the end, however, when Smith starts trying to channel either Benny Hinn or Joseph Campbell. This is similar to the macguffin in Neal Stephenson's work, where he actually tries to make sense of all the fun and all it sounds like is pseudo-scientific claptrap.

Smith's an interesting enough writer to watch, however, and there are a number of science fiction/mystery novels that don't even come close to being as engrossing as One of Us. You could do much worse for pleasure reading, and there's not much better being published today.

I picked this one up on a whim. I had never heard of Mr. Smith, and I certainly hadn't read anything by him prior to this. Talking, walking alarm clocks? Roving bands of coffee makers? Is this book for real????? Luckily I continued reading despite my initial reaction to the story. I am so glad I gave this book a chance. It is bizarre, it is surreal, but somehow it all works.
Hap Thompson narrates this story about how he came to be employed as a dream and memory receiver, and how this line of work quickly puts him in danger. On the sly, Hap decides to accept a memory (which is illegal work) from a client who then refuses to take back the memory; Hap is in danger not only of going to prison for life but of being killed for this memory. He then sets out on a roller-coaster adventure that addresses ethical, philosophical and theological issues....but it's done in such a tongue-in-cheek, film noir style that it avoids being preachy.
The setting is sometime in the future in a world where humans share space with appliances that not only talk but have attitude. Surfing the internet takes on a literal meaning in this story, and computer hacking is central to the plot. This is a quick, funny, suspense story, and I enjoyed it immensely. Sometimes I'm totally surprised by a book....this one surprised me by how much I enjoyed it. I described it to a friend as Mickey Spillane meets Alice in Wonderland meets the X-Files meets Brave Little Toaster.

One Of Us is a very well crafted novel featuring modern-day humanity in a not-too distant future. I love Smith's knack for twists on technology - the talking appliances (also seen in Spares but less developed) add quite a bit of humor to the reading. Smith also has a fabulous way of describing the ordinary that will make you chuckle.

I found myself drawn in throughout the book in a similar way to the first two. I say one only must read it once as a comparison to Only Forward, and even Spares. With Only Forward, I immediately turned back to the first page and started reading the entire book again, having so many questions. What drew me in was Smith's ability to make you think - and though there are signs of it in One Of Us, it lacks some of the power in Only Forward. Still, it is a complete book and one I would highly recommend!!