Image is isolation in MELANCHOLY’S FINEST
Talking Grant Wamack’s latest, along with a few movie recommendations that share the vibe.
It’s been a while since I devoured anything as fast as Grant Wamack’s latest book, Melancholy’s Finest — a fast-paced thriller about lost souls struggling to stay adrift in a cyberpunk dystopia.
It’s a propulsive read that cycles furiously between several characters: Darius and Mila, an image-obsessed couple who are trying (and failing) to rekindle the spark they once had.
Jin, a digital artist and refugee from the S.W.A.M.P. — a cyberspace gallery that keeps the populace aroused so to encourage reproduction — who finds himself expelled and trying to adjust to an outside world (reality) that he doesn’t understand. Things get more complicated when he meets Sook, a wealthy young woman with more than a passing interest in his former life.
There’s also the assassin Motorpapi, he of the book‘s subtitle, The Motorpapi Chronicles — Book I, with his professional code and attention to style (this is cyperpunk, where image is everything). But even this professional killer struggles to find more meaningful connections in the cold and thankless world that he inhabits.
As with all great fiction, what keeps Melancholy’s Finest humming is its style. Wamack juggles alternating points of view with energy and ease, imbuing his characters with unique voices. Imagery here is consistently vivid and nothing overstays its welcome. Most chapters run two to five minutes and it gives the book a kind of breakneck pace that’s nearly impossible to put down.
It also steers clear of the one thing that sinks these types of stories before they get out of the gate:
World-building.
Wamack offers steady drips of information, of course. Details along the way, but only as they’re relevant to the story and his characters. The picture of his world becomes clear as things go on and as with the best cyberpunk stories, there is a strange allure to the oppressive world of New Florida, where your ability to reproduce is everything, civilization is under siege by a deadly virus from darkest corners of cyberspace, and human emotions are things to be suppressed via your latest cybernetic implant.
Image is everything, sure, but that breeds alienation. The characters of Melancholy’s Finest struggle for authenticity in a society that discourages it (hmmmm). And that may be what hurts them the most.
As these stories begin to intersect, there’s bursts of action and violence and while I love the imagination in these moments, Wamack never gets bogged down in “I wish this were a screenplay” style blocking.
When a character squares off against a strange and all-knowing entity, or another dons a kind of digital armor that transforms them temporarily into a sort of “anime warrior,” well, these aspects sing. And leave you wanting more.
Also present is a fair display of sexuality and it’s the kind of thing I can’t believe I’m compelled to point out, though it feels both welcome and honest in a world (genre fiction) that feels increasingly afraid to go there.
Before the end of Melancholy’s Finest there are some truly vivid and horrific images and Wamack conjures Clive Barker without ever feeling derivative. Imagine the dream sea of Quiddity in The Great and Secret Show and Everville except on a digital scale and you kind of get the idea. Like everything else, it’s restrained, giving you just enough to sit up and want more and you begin to realize that Grant Wamack is even more confident in his craft than you suspected.
It isn’t really surprising. He’s been doing this a while. And to acclaim. He has over 40 short stories in various publications, and his short novels Black Gypsies and God’s Leftovers have been praised by authors like Jordan Harper, Daniel Vlasaty, and Lucas Magnum. After Melancholy’s Finest, I’ll be sure to read them.
Wamack’s characters are messy and imperfect. Mila is selfish and vain. Jin is a lost little boy. Motorpapi’s vanity and ego prevents him from getting what he needs. “Imperfect people” are precisely why this cooks. Wamack understands that LIKABILITY by design is overrated, and that there is plenty to like about these people, flaws and all. We’re a lot closer to them than we want to admit and the honesty is refreshing.
Over the course of this book, our perceptions and sympathies shift. While some may find fault in how Melancholy’s Finest doesn’t end so much as stop, the book leaves you lingering in a fully realized world of characters you’re eager to see again. And possibilities you can’t wait to see explored.
Melancholy’s Finest is a speedball of low-level crime and high concept sci-fi, all of it cut with horrific delirium. For me, it’s the book of the summer. Get your copy today and thank me later.
While reading it, I was reminded of several films that trafficked in similar themes or styles. Nothing derivative, just adjacent works. Half-forgotten films that I’ll always take the opportunity to push:
Hardware (1990 dir: Richard Stanley)
In a nuclear ravaged future, scavengers unearth the remains of M.A.R.K. 13, a prototype military cyborg built for urban pacification. The device quickly rebuilds itself and develops a psychosexual fixation on Jill (Stacey Travis) while cutting a swath through the residents of a fortified high rise.
Opening with a biblical quote (“no flesh shall be spared”) from Mark 13 (get it?), director Richard Stanley goes all in on the “evils of tech,” presciently painting technological obsession as not only the religion of the future, but the latest biblical plague. The end result is gloriously disreputable, a sleazy and grisly cyberpunk horror story that deserves another look. And then another.
Split Second (1992 dir: Tony Maylam)
If you’ve spent any time in cult movie circles, somebody has probably recommended Split Second. The reason this has such a cult following is because it doesn’t do anything half-assed. Its dystopian world is interesting, from the endless flooding and ensuing rodent infestation, to the late Rutger Hauer’s hero cop who spends the entire movie growling his lines while gnashing chocolate and guzzling coffee. He turns out to be a wonderfully complex character!
Just tons of personality and flavor here. One of the finest movie monsters ever created. Fantastic set design. A fun buddy/cop dynamic. A sorely underused Kim Cattrall (who you love to see all the same). There’s so many reasons this has lingered in our cult-addled movie brains for almost thirty years.
And you can buy a terrific Blu-ray edition on Amazon.
Nemesis (1992 dir: Albery Pyun)
This might be the best film on my makeshift list. A slick action masterpiece about a future where data is everything. Cyberpunk on a dime, but money well stretched because late director Albert Pyun was a genius and managed to craft a globe-hopping shootout that never ceases to impress with its energy and spectacle.
Violent, sexy, and loaded with amazing character actors, you won’t believe this is the type of film that once defined the term “low budget movie.”
Grab the fully loaded special edition Blu-ray here.
Housekeeping
On the writing front, I have some new projects to announce in the coming months (and hopefully even more than I’m currently thinking).
In the meantime:
My latest novel Graffiti Tombs, a horror noir about a vigilante and the ghosts that haunt him, was released earlier this year. Please give it a read and help me spread the word.