I rarely give books a perfect ten rating, but Michael Marshall Smith can do no wrong in my eyes. This collection of short stories is nothing short of mind-boggingly good. Love it. Love him.

Here's what Amazon has got to say about it:

The first ever collection of Michael Marshall Smith's award-winning short stories. The first piece of fiction Smith ever wrote -- a short story called The Man Who Drew Cats -- won the World Fantasy award. It's included here along with many others, some unpublished, which show the incredible versatility of one of the most exciting writers working in Britain today. The collection is stuffed with surreal, disturbing gems including: 'When God Lived in Kentish Town' Someone comes up to you when you're quietly eating your stir-fried rice in a great Chinese take away, and tells you: 'I've found God'. You try to ignore them, right? But what if they have, and what if He works in a drab old electrical store on Kentish Town Road and he's not getting many customers? 'Diet Hell' Some people will do anything to fit into their old jeans. 'Save As...' What if you could back up your life? Save it up to a certain point and return to it when things went horribly wrong? 'Everybody Goes' An idyllic childhood day from a long, hot summer. The kind you want to last for ever. All good things must come to an end, mustn't they?

Smith has always been one of the most quirkily inventive and surprising of writers, with novels such as Only Forward and the remarkable Spares demonstrating an imaginative grasp all too rarely encountered these days. But his greatest achievement is his totally individual use of language and dialogue, and this highly diverse collection has 17 brilliant microcosms of his style. From terror in cyberspace to bizarre fusions of man and machine, through twisted manifestations of the artistic impulse to highly disturbing future sex, Smith has the measure of it all. And his gift for the bizarre image remains as acute as ever:

About a week afterwards, I noticed that my back was looking a little hairy. I figured, what the hey, maybe some hormonal thing. Then it started getting harder to hold things. My thumb seemed to be going a little weird, not as opposable as it used to be. There were a couple of days when it looked like there was some kind of tail deal developing.

And because this is my second copy of this book, I will start a bookring with it to get more BCers aquainted with this incredible author. Do yourself a favour and join!

List of participants so far:

sudokugirl
Megi53
brunton11
NathanMF (.UK -> UK pref, EU poss.)
Shimmy-crazy (UK -> anywh.)
Bookworm-lady (Spain)
...
back to me, please.

The book is on the way to sudokugirl as of yesterday.

Arrived safely this morning. Looks good, I'm looking forward to reading this.

What a cool book. I'm really glad I joined this ring, don't think I would've stumbled upon this book otherwise. Thank you, samulli.

I have Megi's address and will send the book her way during the day.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to Megi53.

Came in today's mail, in a package with wonderful stamps! Looking forward to reading the stories starting this weekend.

Edit on Dec. 6: I was reading "The Owner" when my son went on a spur-of-the-moment trip. Previous tales have been so terrifying that I don't want to finish this while I'm by myself!! Will continue tomorrow evening.

Finished the last story (and the six-line "Truth Game" at the end) earlier this evening.

Impressions (and I will probably return to this j/e in coming days to add more): "The Dark Land" and "What You Make It" are two of the most powerful stories I've ever read. The slacker's neat house changing to a dusty hovel full of rubbish after visits by two mysterious men in the first; the amazing, singing, parading, battling animatrons at Wonder World in the second -- such unique plot ideas I've never seen before.

I was a bit upset with the graphic violence, especially in the first story, "More Tomorrow". Along with "More Bitter Than Death", it touched on a sick perversion that I try my best never to think or read about because they (a different thing in each story -- would spoil to tell) make me feel a phobic revulsion.

Spoiler: If anybody else is squeamish like me, I can tell you that "Everybody Goes" (although creepy and suggestive), "Diet Hell", "The Owner", and "When God Lived in Kentish Town" don't have any outlandishly horrific parts.

The two stories with females in the lead roles, "The Owner" and "Always", started out very excitingly but kind of lost their focus at the end. For me, anyway -- the writing was highly personal, as Smith took on the tone of a bemused everyman trying his best to be helpful and fair in all of his first-person stories. Spoiler: Yes, even when the narrator killed somebody, it was all in the spirit of fairness: "she killed my cat ... I killed her back."

One of my favorite passages was from "The Man Who Drew Cats" (page 130): "It always feels like you're giving a bit of yourself away when you praise someone else's creation ..." Quite a bit to ponder there.

I enjoyed the recurring themes: cats, of course; mugs; expanding living rooms; and urban settings.

Mailed to brunton11 Monday, December 15. Thanks for introducing me to a unique and fabulous writer!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to next person on bookring.

Received today - Thanks all for sharing.

Sorry I've had this one a bit longer than planned. I liked this collection of short stories though agree with previous entries that the majority of them were a bit dark to put it mildly.

Thanks all for sharing - Waiting for NathanMF's address - I'll whisk this book off to the Post Office as soon as I get it.

Posted today to AliceF (NathanMF's mum - Nathan's a bit young for this one!).

Gratefully received by post today from brunton11... thanks! Really looking forward to this one :-)

This is the third ring book on my bedside table... if I concentrate on one per week, I should be able to get this on its way within a month... fingers crossed!

Fascinating stuff... I'm going to send it on its way now, because a) I've read about two-thirds of it and that's enough to know that I ought to get a copy to read and keep; and b) it's been with me for two months now.

Shimmy-crazy already has a copy, so I'm contacting Bookworm-lady next.

I've received this book today; thanks for sending it on, AliceF, and thanks for sharing it, Samulli.
Great reviews so far; can't wait to read it...
Eva

Currently reading it, and loving it so far!

What a fantastic book of short stories! This is a writer I hadn't heard about before, and I will be looking for more of his work.
I must say I love short stories as a genre... and I love horror! Now, to find original plots in this area is quite difficult. We seem to have read it all before, don't you agree? And here is where Mr. Smith hits a chord: unexpected and very original plots every time.
My favorite? Maybe "The Owner" tapped into some of my particular fears... and "Later" is a brief, disturbing and beautifully written masterpiece.
I didn't like "The Dark Land" that much... maybe the only story in the book which I didn't quite get into.
I love this writer treatment of couple relationships, the constant presence of cats, the flowing dialogue...
And all the places in North London that get mentioned, and that I remember so well, having lived nearby for six years.
Ah, a special mention for the clever book design: one icon per story. Simply fantastic!
Thanks for sharing this one, Samulli, and introducing this author to me. (Love it, love him too.) It will soon be back on its way to you.
Eva

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent this morning back to Samulli, in Germany.
Full circle, well done!
And thanks for sharing this great book with us.
Eva

Yay, the book made it safely home. :o) And it's even in good enough shape to maybe go out on another round one of these days.

Thanks everybody for taking such good care of it. It was great to read all your JE's and to see that you mostly enjoyed it as much as I had hoped.
For the ones of you who are gonna seek out more books by this incredible author: I can recommend every single one of his stories, they are all great. My absolute favorite so far is "Only Forward", though. I'll try to get my hands on a second copy of that one as well and start another bookring with that. Look out for it in the forum. ;o)