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Featuring :
Cover by Frazer Irving
An introduction by Ian Watson
SEEDS illustrated by Rik Rawling
SATURDAY NIGHTSHIFT illustrated by John Welding
MEDICAL ETHICS & STONE COLD KILLER illustrated by David Gough
THE BRIGHTSIDE & MONGER WAR illustrated by Nigel Dobbyn
A NIGHT ON THE TOWN illustrated by Rik Rawling
THOUGHTS ON LIFE & DEATH FROM THE TARKAHA illustrated by Derek Gray
PARLOUR GAMES illustrated by Derek Gray
HYPERGOLGOTHA illustrated by Rik Rawling
DIVIDE BY ZERO illustrated by Frazer Irving
THE WAR DIARY OF CONOLLY TROON illustrated by Nigel Dobbyn
THE FUGAZI VIRUS illustrated by Alwyn Talbot
BAD JIHAD illustrated by David Stephenson
What they are saying about SHENANIGANS :
"Welcome to the worlds of Noel Hannan -- gritty, passionate, painful, and lyrical. Welcome to his words which so vividly describe those worlds with such buoyant invention, energy, grim irony, and yes, evocative beauty too."
-Ian Watson, from his introduction
"This first collection of Noel Hannan's work blew me away! The Fugazi Virus is one of the best science fiction short stories I've ever read."
- Alan Grant
" This first collection of SF from comics' writer and artist, Noel Hannan contains some delightfully offbeat short stories. The opener, Seeds, is a curiously affecting little fable about militarism in which the spawn of male robot and female golem start fighting for no reason other than that they are different. The Brightside And Monger War is a tragic tale of doomed romance set on a space ark generations out from Earth, concerning a teacher and a warrior on opposite sides of an ageless conflict, both unable to avoid the pressures and conditioning that their respective societies inflict upon them. Bad Jihad boasts probably the first Muslim superhero character, while The War Diary Of Conolly Troon offers yet another variation on the recurring theme of warfare. Medical Ethics and Stone Cold Killer are both gangland dramas featuring typical Hannan protagonists, taking place in the urban nightmare of Purgatory, a city somewhere between the hell of Blade Runner's Los Angeles, and the black hole of Manhattan Island in Escape From New York.
My use of words like recurring and typical may give a false impression, though. Not all of this writer's fiction is the same. HyperGolgotha revisits the crucifixion by means of a holographic reconstruction right on site in Jerusalem. Divide By Zero is simply British cyberpunk, but perhaps the best UK-based example of that style I've ever read. Saturday Nightshift looks at the problems of getting to work on time in 21st century Manchester. A Night On The Town tells of a young man's hot date in Caracas, and plays on barrio myths.
Of the 13 stories here, The Fugazi Virus is my instant favourite, if only for the sheer number of concepts and images Hannan crams into a mere dozen pages. If you like to discover new writers, Shenanigans is well worth a look! Starburst rating: 9/10 "
- Review by Tony Lee ©2000 - Starburst magazine
"It could be argued that it's too early for a single author collection to be published: for a writer just breaking into the professional markets, an early collection will inevitably rely on weaker stories to bulk out the book. But then Noel K Hannan has rarely opted for the conventional route. With a background rooted firmly in the comicbook scene (credits include the Streetmeat series and the licensed continuation of George Romero's Night of the Living Dead) a lot of Hannan's work has been self-published, appearing in smart little chapbooks from his Bad to the Bone and ANKH imprints.
Hannan can mix it with the big guys, of course, as amply demonstrated by the slick and stylish "A Night on the Town", first published in New Worlds, but Shenanigans brings many of his stories to a more conventional SF audience for the first time. Unfortunately, first impressions probably won't help Hannan reach out to a wider audience. The cover, while skilfully executed, as you would expect from the talented Frazer Irving, is ... well ... just a little tacky. Gun-toting, fishnet-stockinged, be-sporranned babes don't immediately lead me to expect a high-quality collection of short fiction, which is a shame. Get past the cover and you'll find a book well worth your attention: a few weaker efforts, some decent stories, and two or three gems.
As I've said before (in my review of New Worlds, where the story first appeared) "A Night on the Town" is a breathtaking exercise in mystery and atmosphere. It's Saturday night in Nuevo Caracas, Miguel's botanist parents are away in the rainforest, his older brother off on a school trip, and Miguel is alone in the family apartment with the beautiful Maria Del Fuego. But what, exactly, does it take to turn her on? Determined to impress, Miguel takes Maria out into the barrio in search of a legendary restaurant. But in the barrio the people have nothing -- which means they have nothing to lose and everything to gain from a rich kid like Miguel... "Bad Jihad" is another standout story. Killed in action in 1987, Private Hanan Bashir is destined to be reconstructed as the perfect fighting machine: the Biological Attack Djinn. Told episodically in a succession of journal extracts, eye witness accounts and secret reports, this is Noel Hannan at his best, marrying his detailed understanding of military technology with highly-skilled story-telling.
In "Stone Cold Killer", we enter Purgatory, a brutal city district where the cops don't go and the gangs rule. Clute, Purgatory's only doctor, inevitably encounters the victims of the district's violence, offering an ideal window into the dark side of the city. In this story he encounters a prostitute in trouble and a young killer determined to be the baddest of the bad, all of which is neatly resolved as the violence unfolds: a moral tale, in the midst of immorality and degradation. Unfortunately, this story is slightly marred by inconsistencies with an earlier -- and less successful -- Purgatory story, "Medical Ethics". In the earlier story, for example, Clute routinely carried out abortions for Purgatory's prostitutes; and then in the second story, he is suddenly a Catholic who refuses to terminate. Tighter editing -- and, in particular, proofreading (there are far too many typos), would have greatly benefited Shenanigans.
Of the less successful stories, there is still plenty to interest and entertain. Indeed, two of the stories ("Divide by Zero" and "Thoughts on Life and Death from the Tarkaha") are good enough to appear elsewhere in infinity plus, but simply don't stand out in Shenanigans. And yes, there are some duds ("The War Diary of Connolly Troon", a straightforward transplant of the Irish Troubles into space that gains nothing by its science-fictionalisation; "Hyper Golgotha" and "The Brightside and Monger War" are two stories that simply fail to convince).
But no, it's not too early for us to be looking at the collected works of Noel K Hannan: it's about time he started to reach a wider audience and I hope Shenanigans helps him to do this. "
- Review by Keith Brooke, Infinity Plus
There's a form of anti-utopia (as distinct from dystopia) which I would classify as the barrio story. It presumes that in the near future the combination of triumphant capitalism and advanced technology will produce,potentially, the good life for everyone, whether they choose to work or not. There will also be a savage backlash against both environmentalism and the Nanny State, with the result that the rich will live in unexampled luxury, hygiene and security, while the poor live on state handouts and (mainly) their wits, in foetid, unpoliced slums conveniently nearby. The convenience is crucial, for the rich, as ever, will want glamour and excitement - and where better to find both than in the barrios, which offer raucous music, unwholesome food, scabrous entertainment and willing flesh of whatever colour and gender m'sieur's prefers tonight - and all spiced with unquantifiable danger? Since the alternative is the sort of thing envisioned by E. M. Forster ("TheMachine Stops"), Jack Williamson ("With Folded Hands") and John Lennon("Imagine"), I'll vote for a barrio future against any plausible opposition; but that happiness must be spiked with guilt for what it has to say aboutour originally sinful condition, and regret for those who wind up paying the necessary price of genuine danger.
Such is the theme of Noel K Hannan's collection, Shenanigans (Pendragon, £6.99). It comes with a slightly breathless introduction by Ian Watson, who describes Hannan as "a dab hand at thinking big," among other infelicities, but while none of the ideas are at all new, he approaches them with linguistic competence, stylistic brio and a welcome absence of gravitas. The book opens with a rather heavy-handed allegory of Original Sin, but having pad his scot, he sets about a celebration thereof. The cover picture(a cheerful Scottish stripper brandishing a plastic gun) has little connection with the text (though you can just about link it to the second story), but it sets the tone well enough. Good value, and worth a second read, though probably not a third.
- Review by Chris Gilmore, INTERZONE, November 2000
Coll of vari themed SF/F fic, intro'd by Ian Watson. Whole slew of genre tropes here fr' cyber, gene-mutant, moral fable, urban noir, 1st contact, war dystopia, that mix chills, noble wonder, shock marvels wi' dose of tech argot fun. Zine Kat's fave here is The Brightside and Monger War curio bewitchy romance across enemy lines that smart, poignant & wise. ROCKS
- DRAGON'S BREATH REVIEW
A glowing introduction by Ian Watson hints at the pleasures to be found in Noel Hannan's Shenanigans (Pendragon Press, trade, £6.99, 255pp). As Watson observes, Hannan traffics mainly in post-cyberpunk wonders, offering gritty adventures in high-tech/lowlife milieus, as in "Medical Ethics" where a certain "Doctor Clute" must choose between survival and honour in a literal Purgatory. But a story such as "Seeds" with its senseless but colorful war between Morphs and Netics, shows Hannan can achieve levels of David-Bunchian weirdness as well. At times here I detect echoes of Lucius Shepherd and John Shirley as well, and with a capable acolyte like Hannan, these mentors can be proud.
- REVIEW OF SHENANIGANS BY PAUL DIFILLIPO (ASIMOV'S)
There's a quote on the back of this book from Alan Grant - 'Noel K. Hannan blows me away'. I can understand why. The thirteen stories contained in this book cover a variety of SF themes that have been written about countless times over the years. What the author does in this book is he writes about them in a way which makes them seem fresh and new, as though he was the first person to ever cover the topics. We have a war on a generations starship (The Brightside and Monger War), a Doctor practising medicine in a city reminiscent of 'Escape from New York' (Medical Ethics, 'Stone Cold Killer'), life in a dark future city (Saturday Nightshift), Alien Encounters (Thoughs of Life and Death...), computer hacking (Divide By Zero) and other such familiar topics.
There is a general theme running through this book, one of a dark future. His vision of how today's problems in the cities, the impersonal nature of the workplace, and the environment are to progress in the future is bleak (very bleak in some respects). But his characters do not dwell on this, there is not a feeling here of preaching a message. The settings are merely backdrop to some quite wonderful tales. Each of the tales contained within is told in a clear prose style, with no grandeous words blocking the rapid flow of the narrative and causing the reader to reach for the dictionary.
The tales are quick to read and thoroughly satisfying. This is a writer who should be read by anyone who needs a fresh look at SF. Just try the first tale in the collection (my personal favourite) Seeds. It is a story of a scientist who plays at being god and is perhaps the exception in terms of feel and setting, being as it describes a experiment of life creation set in a forest. I expect to hear good things of Noel Hannan in future years.
- Steve, The Eternal Night Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Web Site
Of the thirteen stories in this collection by Albedo One story-award-winner (oh, is higher praise possible?) Noel K. Hannan, two are masterpieces: “Thoughts on Life and Death from the Tarkaha” and “The Fuzagi Virus”. “Thoughts...” is 95% dialogue, so it shouldn’t work as a story. But it does, very much so, because it is one of those rare stories that has a worthwhile statement to make about the Human Condition. Read this one! If you’re too cheap to buy this book, read it on the excellent Infinity Plus website, but read it. “The Fuzagi Virus” is superior fare for a very different reason. We’re dropped in a sensawonda gigascale idea (and I won’t commit the crime of giving you a spoiler), which keeps you on your toes while the scale of events increases and increases and you’re guessing what the heck is behind this all. Hannan likes his backgrounds grim and bleak. “Medical Ethics” leaves “Doc” Clute in a life-or-death dilemma. The location is Purgatory: an extrapolated Mean Street, USA environment. It’s a solid, bad-guy packed action story. “Parlour Games” is a tale of human tension, set against a global disaster backdrop. The bleakness can get so extreme it hampers the story, as the nuance is disappearing and is taken over by relentless black. “The War Diary of Connolly Troon” is such a story about civil war, and “Divide By Zero” is the bleakest story of this collection: a teenage computer hacker gets caught by a corrupt government, and is forced to continue his hacking as a slave for the government. The boy’s neighbourhood and family are 100% hopeless, the government 100% corrupt, and I miss the subversive humour that would add strength to the story. Isn’t living in a world with George Bush Jr. depressing enough already? Avoiding that trap is “The Brightside and Monger War”, a Romeo and Juliet retelling set in a generation spaceship whose inhabitants have split in two camps. The differences between the “good” and the “bad” side are peeled down layer by layer during the course of the story, until all we have left are the people in the middle, refugees of a battle between two uncaring powers. Though the superficial goodness of the Brightside wears a bit thin, the story keeps you reading and the scenes between Brightsider Ankh and Monger Banshee are well portrayed. The other stories in this collection are solid reads. “A Night on the Town” is an effective tale of pride and foolishness. “Hyper Golgotha” is an imaginative tale, using vivid scenes of an artist’s recreation of the crucifixion to bring us to the decision he has to make about his marriage. The story oozes sense of wonder. The hill of Golgotha is larger than life, while its audience has real and normal people. The sparks created by that juxtaposition contain real emotion. The marital conflict that drives the plot is sharp, biting and to the point. I should have reviewed Shenanigans a good while ago. Luckily, it is still available. You won’t find it in the libraries, so do yourself a favour - buy it.
- Review by Roelof Goudriaan, Albedo One, Ireland
Shenanigans’ is a short story collection by Noel K Hannan, which includes previously published stories between 1993 and 1999. The collection covers such issues as the post-plague world, totalitarian regimes and cities with as character as the people who inhabit them.
This book is violent - violence threads through that stories but the future that Hannan depicts is dystoptian and therefore the violence is justifiable. It is shocking when the violence happens because the characters are well-drawn, believable and likeable. ‘Medical Ethics’ is about a doctor who works in the condemned city of Purgatory and the retribution that he deals out to a child-killer. It is a deeply moving and disturbing story, very powerful in its emotions, mainly through the empathy that you feel for the doctor: an essentially good man struggling against the tide of horror that overwhelms him each day.
Hannan is also skilled at writing in various styles and techniques. This is best seen in his last story ‘BAD Jihad’, where the story of a Muslim super-warrior is told from varied viewpoints from a British military commander to a chatty newspaper article. This story also highlights another interesting angle to Hannan's stories. BAD Jihad was a warrior created from a dead soldier and technology, with a mission to kill Salman Rushdie. He escaped and then proceeded on a campaign to kill anyone who is against the Muslin faith. This raises interesting questions about religion, fanaticism and supermen - but it is the individual that Hannan is focuses on and what type of man is BAD Jihad.
In ‘Shenanigans’, Hannan takes issues and themes that are important in Science Fiction but uses a magnifying glass effect to focus on the individual and creates empathy between the reader and the characters.
- Review by Katie McGivern, www.computercrowsnest.com
The blurb describes author Noel K. Hannan as 'one of the rapidly rising stars of SF' and certainly I read nothing in Shenanigans to make me doubt this claim. Indeed, I'd go so far as to say this collection of thirteen contemporary science fiction tales is the best single-author anthology I've read in ages. This is writing for grown ups; there's a maturity and depth to Hannan's fluent prose which, in my opinion, lifts him way above many of his small press peers. Okay, the stories are all set in the future and this allows the author a degree of poetic licence, but the recurring themes of war, tyranny, lost love and the collapse of civilisation are timeless, and the impression I got from reading the engaging descriptions of medical procedure, computer hacking, battle scenarios, etc. is of someone who's both knowledgeable and passionate about his subject matter... I will be watching with interest how Hannan's writing career develops in future.
As for the stories, there's not a single bad one. My own personal favourites include "Medical Ethic's" and "Stone Cold Killer", both of which feature a burned out medic who patches up all kinds of criminal scum just to survive and yet somehow manages to retain his humanity. "A Night On The Town", in which young stud Miguel borrows his father's Ford Machos 'Matador' Special Edition to impress the lovely Maria and runs a gauntlet of 'muggers and lepers and beggars, of car thieves and body-part bootleggers and army deserters' as he unwisely takes her for a spin beyond the city limits. "Parlour Games", in which a brother and sister living alone in their island home enjoy immunity from the terrible disease which has ravaged the rest of civilisation. And "Divide By Zero", in which a young computer hacker is captured by government forces and compelled to join a covert operation against other cyber terrorists.
Shenanigans is a finely presented paperback. The glossy cover is designed by Frazer Alex Irving and his artwork is sure to quicken the pulse rates of readers who are attracted to the female form. Additional artwork is provided by Rik Rawling, John Welding, David Gough, et al and there's also an informative introduction by Ian Watson which complements the author bio. Editor Christopher Teague deserves hearty congratulations for publishing this fine collection and I wish it every success.
- Paul Lockey © 2000