SOJALS rating:

Mediocre (2/5)

I first read this in 2000 and most recently on the 11th February 2011

The aliens came and society pretty much collapsed. The very rich live in the compounds such as "New Hope" out in the desert. For the rest it's a rough life in a chaotic, criminal world.

Gordon Acker, who prefers to be known as "Jonny", and his friends and associates live in the underworld of LA, policed over by the teenage thugs of Committee for Public Health, and drenched in drugs and violence. The gangs and the revolutionaries fight both themselves and the Committee for Public Health. Gordon, Sumimasen, Ice, Easy Money, Raquin and the like eke out unsurprisingly miserable lives with zero aspirations.

Gordon should apply himself to developing some aspirations, if he's got any sense, Things are getting a bit hectic for him right now so he finds it difficult to find the time. A girlfriend has left him and his best friend has been killed. Jonny (we'll give Gordon his preferred name, he has so little else) is having a tough time and it's going to get worse.

This was a great read the first time around. This time - some twenty years later – the novel came across just as well. However, towards the end of the novel I found myself feeling a little more strongly for Jonny and his crew. There's some good writing and a cynical subtext that I'd completed missed the first time around.