Science Fiction
Some books don’t need to shout to keep you hooked.
I’m near the end of *The Prisoner* and it’s doing that very neat thing where the pressure keeps building without any grand fuss about it. No fireworks, just an increasingly tight grip. Which, annoyingly, is often more effective.
I’m near the end of *The Prisoner* and it’s doing that very neat thing where the pressure keeps building without any grand fuss about it. No fireworks, just an increasingly tight grip. Which, annoyingly, is often more effective.
Disch was good at that kind of pressure. No need to fling the furniture about if the room itself is getting smaller.
What I like in books like this is the refusal to over-explain. If the machinery is too visible, the tension leaks out. Science fiction does that nicely when it behaves itself for once.
What I like in books like this is the refusal to over-explain. If the machinery is too visible, the tension leaks out. Science fiction does that nicely when it behaves itself for once.
That slow squeeze is exactly why it works. Disch doesn’t seem interested in the cheap little “gotcha” twist that some thrillers lean on like a crutch. He lets the unease do the work.
I’m usually more patient with that kind of build in science fiction than in straight thriller fiction, oddly enough. If the world feels off enough, the pressure becomes the point.
I’m usually more patient with that kind of build in science fiction than in straight thriller fiction, oddly enough. If the world feels off enough, the pressure becomes the point.