Fractal Despondency

Exceptional

Zelazny shows real growth with this one. Engrossing and literary. Very solid story.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Highly Recommended

Bleak, and all too believable. A path few of us hope to go down.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Even better than his collection, which I loved

The more Trent Zelazny writes, the better he gets, the more serious his work gets. I was more than pleased with this one. Dark and uncomfortable, sad, but with an odd beauty. Recommended.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

One Thrill Ride of a Read!

Suspenseful and mystifying. If you want a gritty page-turner, don't pass up the opportunity to seize this book and allow it to pull you in. Zelazny's Fractal Despondency is a must read!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Not for the faint of heart

Engrossing. Original. A page-turner. But don't expect to feel too cheery when reading this one. Dark and at times uncomfortable.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

When traumatized, troubled Blake meets the cool, seductive, and

When traumatized, troubled Blake meets the cool, seductive, and somewhat twisted Denise on the night side of Santa Fe, you know something has to give.

FRACTAL DESPONDENCY can best be described as psychological noir, and very well done it is, too. Trent Zelazny's writing is honest, even visceral, his characters intensely drawn, almost ultra-realist. This story is a compelling, uneasy read, a place in which reality and dream-state entwine, and the reader can only watch, fascinated, as Blake struggles to hold his broken psyche together in the face of all-too human needs and temptations.

This is a book you can't put down, and one which I, at least, won't quickly forget. Zelazny is a new and unique talent, and his unaffected prose occasionally startles with a burst of pure poetry when the reader least expects it. I strongly recommend this one, and am looking forward to reading more of Zelazny's work.

This one sticks with me. Fractal Despondency is dark. It is noir

This one sticks with me. Fractal Despondency is dark. It is noir. It isn't tough guy noir, with macho guys kicking ass and heists gone wrong. There is a dame, and she fits into the "femme fatale" category, but she is an unusual one. There were times when I couldn't figure out if this was all really happening, or simply taking place inside of Blake Gladstone's head. To me it often reads like poetry. Gloomy poetry, and the story is on the depressing side, almost too much at times. But throughout the whole thing, Fractal Despondency feels true, honest, human. I rank it high up there with truly great reads (and you can read it quickly. It's a short book.) I'm still thinking about it. I recommend it for sure. To read Fractal Despondency is to take a trip through real human despair. A beautiful book.

I could NOT put this one down!!!

Zelazny's "Fractal Despondency" struck many chords within me - especially as I live in Santa Fe and thus know the places he describes. The story sucks one in from the very beginning, whipping from present action to dark views within the main character's psyche and painful past.

The psychological tension never breaks, and his 'girlfriend'? is a conundrum all her own. Their shared experiences are darkly plausible and the arc of the story is at once fantastically dark and brilliantly possible. Zelazny somehow makes the horrific seem brief and almost accidental, while the psychology and emotion is riveting.

I LOVE this book and cannot wait for more! Highly recommended read!!!

Madness and Noir

Fractal Despondency explores the routines of madness in a noir setting. Its prose is nervous like a schizophrenic tapping his fingers to an imaginary tune, but it captivates the reader and draws him into the subjective world of Blake Gladstone, who filters the people he meets through a haze of casual suspicion. The Fat Man tells Blake, "You like things quiet." And Blake responds, "You don't like silence." Blake is our guide through the quiet madness, and it is a good ride for the reader. I won't tell you where the ride will take you, but I assure you that you will want to take this ride more than once. Fractal Despondency should be read more than once. And Trent Zelazny shows us that his love of pulp noir has not gone for naught. He is the modern pulp writer, and I welcome him.

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