Gun Machine

Niklas reviewed Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

Review of 'Gun Machine' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

While it's easy to feel for the main character and his cronies, this is a book that has some brilliant moments, keeps the reader fairly interested, but fails when it comes to tempo and where writing easily turns into a clichéd noirish mess. Still, it's a fun read.

Ellis, a great graphic novel writer, turns the reader onto an early murder frenzy and a great mystery. While the main character and some of the others reminded me a lot like Ellis himself - notably through his blog book, [b:Shivering Sands|808879|The Shivering Sands|Victoria Holt|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1258022755s/808879.jpg|2826055] - it's obviously a problem. And smart details feed into the script endlessly, mostly without finesse.

This book is still to like. His language is easy to read, the tone is simple and makes for intelligent pulp reading, but a lot of details irritated me.

Niklas reviewed Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

Review of 'Gun Machine' on 'LibraryThing'

3 stars

While it's easy to feel for the main character and his cronies, this is a book that has some brilliant moments, keeps the reader fairly interested, but fails when it comes to tempo and where writing easily turns into a clichÃ©d noirish mess. Still, it's a fun read.

Ellis, a great graphic novel writer, turns the reader onto an early murder frenzy and a great mystery. While the main character and some of the others reminded me a lot like Ellis himself - notably through his blog book, b:Shivering Sands|808879|The Shivering Sands|Victoria Holt|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1258022755s/808879.jpg|2826055 - it's obviously a problem. And smart details feed into the script endlessly, mostly without finesse.

This book is still to like. His language is easy to read, the tone is simple and makes for intelligent pulp reading, but a lot of details irritated me.

Michael @ Knowledge Lost reviewed Gun machine by Warren Ellis

Review of 'Gun machine' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Warren Ellis reimagines New York City as a puzzle with the most dangerous pieces of all: GUNS.

After a shooting on Pearl Street claims the life of Detective John Tallow’s partner, he unwittingly stumbles into an apartment stacked high with guns. When examined, it is found that each gun is connected to a previously unsolved murder. Someone has been killing people for twenty years and keeping each gun as a trophy. Tallow has been put on the case and with the help of two CSU employees they are soon on the hunt for what could be the most prolific mass murderer in New York History.

I recently read Warren Ellis’ Crooked Little Vein and while I enjoyed the book I felt it was missing something. Gun Machine has that missing element; blending Ellis’ humour this book offers the violence with that dark cynicism that his other book was missing. Gun …

Warren Ellis reimagines New York City as a puzzle with the most dangerous pieces of all: GUNS.

After a shooting on Pearl Street claims the life of Detective John Tallow’s partner, he unwittingly stumbles into an apartment stacked high with guns. When examined, it is found that each gun is connected to a previously unsolved murder. Someone has been killing people for twenty years and keeping each gun as a trophy. Tallow has been put on the case and with the help of two CSU employees they are soon on the hunt for what could be the most prolific mass murderer in New York History.

I recently read Warren Ellis’ Crooked Little Vein and while I enjoyed the book I felt it was missing something. Gun Machine has that missing element; blending Ellis’ humour this book offers the violence with that dark cynicism that his other book was missing. Gun Machine starts out with the loss of Detective Tallow’s partner and while he should be mourning this tragedy he has been forced into what could be the biggest case of his career. Pairing with a couple of gothic CSU agents to help with forensics, Tallow begins to uncover a huge New York conspiracy.

Tallow is the perfect lead for this type of story, stuck between hating his job and the sudden loss of his only friend and partner; he is thrown into the deep end with no help at all. He struggles to make sense of this room full of guns and with the help of his two misfit sidekicks they begin to form an unlikely team.

While Ellis does favour the hard-boiled genre a little, this is more of a crime thriller than anything else. The blend of humour and his cynical outlook are what make this book worth reading. Crooked Little Vein tried to blend the two together but ended up focusing too heavily on the humour and the weird fetishes to really work too well. Gun Machine seems to get that balance right, turning this into a purely entertaining escapist novel.

Gun Machine really works at what it sets out to do, not too heavy on the humour, violence or dark aspects. It’s been creating a buzz about it and it is well deserved, I loved reading this book and didn’t want it to end. Sure it’s not without its flaws but for the escapist element, this book really is worth reading.

This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2013/03/25/book-review-gun-machine/