The Beasts of Electra Drive

The Beasts of Electra Drive is a novel that I didn't want to put down while I was reading it; I read it over the course of three days. After having its beautiful cover on my shelves for a while, I finally jumped in. I was transported into a domain peopled by characters who felt as if they were beckoning to me. It was as if they were inviting me into a kind of gliding embrace of harmony, within the pages of their author’s imagination.I found myself underlining things on the page, throughout it, because of the allure of Quine's language. I was fascinated with the marriage of his vocabulary and his punctuation. On the few times when I wasn’t familiar with a word he uses, I resisted looking up its meaning — so as not to disturb the flow of the prose, but also because the spell of the sentences made the mystery of those words’ meanings into an actual part of Quine’s sheer creativity.I felt drawn into his characters, which are complex. In the case of at least a couple of them, I had a strange feeling that they were somehow stroking me, while I was being led around their inner worlds. I was unable to dislike any of them, even those who clearly weren’t very nice.I also loved being reminded of when I lived in the Hollywood Hills, which is where much of The Beasts of Electra Drive is set. (I lived on Woodrow Wilson Drive.) Quine has captured the feel of those hills and canyons, in a way that will be recognised as authentic by anyone who’s lived there.This book creates a luscious and sensuous effect, which you can expand into. I have the sense that it was written by a very unusual and special person.

A fascinating and genre-defying story of a genius computer games designer waging war on the cynical and cretinous mass-market media and entertainment peddlers that threaten to cheapen and destroy our world. Perfect for adventurous readers and particularly those with an interest in gaming.