A review by tyrshand
The Album of Dr. Moreau, by Daryl Gregory
5.0
Well, this is a whole lot of fun! I basically picked it up just because it’s Daryl Gregory and didn’t really pay attention to what it was about. This novella satisfies in nearly every possible way. It’s kooky, but perfectly takes the feel from its inspirations — it has the feel of classic science fiction but also of the classic mystery. It feels modern and plays with pop music tropes well. But most of it all, it is such a pleasure to read!
Now, I got some coworkers to read his “We Are All Completely Fine” earlier this year and one pointed out that there are some male-gazey bits to that one. And I could definitely see it on that re-read. I did not see any of that here, so I think maybe she’d be more pleased with this one.
I did say satisfies in “nearly” every way. There was one line — of course publishers ask you not to quote from review copies, so I won’t and I’ll be interested to see if it is in the final copy. I need to sit on it a bit and ponder why I think it was there. Currently I’m thinking it’s a joke in poor taste that maybe was written after some big events of the past year, but not the most recent ones. Which means I’d still have thought it was in poor taste if I’d read this last April, but it wouldn’t have stung quite so much.
Now, I got some coworkers to read his “We Are All Completely Fine” earlier this year and one pointed out that there are some male-gazey bits to that one. And I could definitely see it on that re-read. I did not see any of that here, so I think maybe she’d be more pleased with this one.
I did say satisfies in “nearly” every way. There was one line — of course publishers ask you not to quote from review copies, so I won’t and I’ll be interested to see if it is in the final copy. I need to sit on it a bit and ponder why I think it was there. Currently I’m thinking it’s a joke in poor taste that maybe was written after some big events of the past year, but not the most recent ones. Which means I’d still have thought it was in poor taste if I’d read this last April, but it wouldn’t have stung quite so much.