Subject: Review: ONE OF US by Michael Marshall Smith

From: Mysterious Galaxy <[email-masked]>
Date: 22 Jun 1998 16:06:46 -0400

ONE OF US by Michael Marshall Smith
	Review Copyright 1998 Maryelizabeth Hart

Michael Marshall Smith knows how to write a good plot, but my real
appreciation of his work is of the details. In his new book, many
household appliances have been given personalities; one might come across
a "wild" band of coffee-makers on a lonely road in the dark. The Net has
become a virtual representation of a real neighborhood, with web sites
like suburban tract housing. One can purchase coincidences by injection,
or have one's memories or dreams transferred to another's brain. Hap
Thompson does legitimate work receiving people's anxiety dreams, and
illegal work receiving memories. Memory transfer is supposed to be
temporary: just long enough to forget about your spouse and have a no
guilt fling, or forget about your actual income when being grilled about
your taxes. Too bad for Hap that he has a memory of a murder he didn't
commit that the client won't take back, and if he is caught with it in his
head, it'll convict him. That may not be as worrisome as the fact there is
a contract on his head, taken by his assassin ex-wife; or the seven
mysterious figures on his tail who might be aliens or something even
stranger.

--Maryelizabeth Hart

%T One of Us
%A Michael Marshall Smith
%D August 1998
%I Bantam hardcover
%O $23.95.