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sparks_fitz's review
4.0
Flawed, but still amazing. Great concepts, imagery, and everything. It's short, feels like a short story at times (Spencer mostly writes short stories so it makes sense). I think about it's events all the time, I love the prose, I love the visuals, I love the characters (though they don't get developed very much). Flaws are that it's pretty short, and it doesn't build or evolve very much over it's page count, and it's padded with a decent amount of boring perspective switches to villains and minor characters that add scarcely little. Still amazing, 4.5 stars.
billymac1962's review
4.0
Zod Wallop was recommended to me by a vistor to my site, and thanks.
This was very enjoyable, with the type of bizarre plot I usually look for.
Harry Gainesborough is a writer of children's novels, on par with today's Harry Potter phenomenon. As he struggles to cope with the death of his daughter and separation from his wife, he is visited by a band of escaped lunatics from an asylum, living his latest novel.
Then it gets weird.
Zod Wallop is surreal, heartbreaking, and at times hilarious. It's a very quick read, which is probably why the I haven't given this a 5-star rating. How unlike me!
But the story was so good that I really feel it could have used some fattening up.
But yeah, definitely a fun ride, and I highly recommend it.
This was very enjoyable, with the type of bizarre plot I usually look for.
Harry Gainesborough is a writer of children's novels, on par with today's Harry Potter phenomenon. As he struggles to cope with the death of his daughter and separation from his wife, he is visited by a band of escaped lunatics from an asylum, living his latest novel.
Then it gets weird.
Zod Wallop is surreal, heartbreaking, and at times hilarious. It's a very quick read, which is probably why the I haven't given this a 5-star rating. How unlike me!
But the story was so good that I really feel it could have used some fattening up.
But yeah, definitely a fun ride, and I highly recommend it.
modernzorker's review
5.0
The Paranormal Romance genre absorbed 'Dark Fantasy' like an amoeba in the 21st century, but there was a period of time when Dark Fantasy meant what it said on the label instead of being shorthand for 'angsty, hard-knock-life women falling in love with angsty, hard-knock-life werewolves, vampires, mermen, or other things designed to stretch local bestiality ordinances to the ripping point'. Those were the days of Wagner, of Lovecraft, of Poe and Gaiman and Smith and Grant, where the real world was besieged by forces man was not meant to know, and man fought back, bravely, often futilely, against things beyond comprehension because capitulation was not an option. William Browning Spencer's Zod Wallop resides in this realm of instability, where reality is refracted through a cracked prism, and characters know it, but we a readers keep thinking that maybe, if they can just find the right viewing angle, suddenly everything will make sense and go back to normal.
We're fooling ourselves and we know it, but we keep reading anyway.
'Zod Wallop' is a book. Obviously it's a book, I'm writing about it, but it really is a book. Or rather, a book within a book. Harry Gainsborough should know--he's the one who wrote it, after all. He's 1995's equivalent of J. K. Rowling, the most popular author of children's fantasy literature in the world. Everyone reads Gainsborough, and everyone loves 'Zod Wallop'. What they don't know is the 'Zod Wallop' they've fallen in love with is a fake, a fraud, a counterfeit painted over by its own artist, dipped in saccharine, rolled in chocolate, and served up on a tray of Happily Ever Afters so sweet you can taste the diabetes. It's all bullshit, and the public ate it up like pigs at a trough. It made Harry Gainsborough a very wealthy man, which has only brought him further ruin, as money cannot replace the two gaping holes in his heart.
The real 'Zod Wallop' was penned by Harry at the suggestion of one of his doctors during his stay at the Harwood Psychiatric Institute. The stay was prompted by the accidental drowning death of his only daughter, and subsequent separation from his wife. Now back on his own two feet, the heavy-drinking author is (dis)content to live out the remainder of his days in utter solitude while his agent routinely badgers him about writing a sequel or, at the very least, selling the film rights. There he would remain if it wasn't for another Story, this one named Raymond.
A fellow patient at Harwood, Raymond Story is the dictionary definition of the mental man-child: a grown-up who has refused to grow up, a man who still tilts at windmills, believes in happily-ever-afters, and is convinced Harry Gainsborough is a prophet who will lead them all on the biggest, most important, most epic quest since a couple of hairy-footed men clung to one another at the foot of a volcano after disposing of the world's worst piece of jewelry. The biggest problem with Raymond Story, in Harry's mind, is that he's seen the original 'Zod Wallop'. He found it, he read it, and he hated it. While the published 'Zod Wallop' is all about redemption and finding the power within, the original is nothing like it: a dark, disturbing world where no one will be saved, filled with glacial-dwelling frost giants, shadowy demonic entities, and their minions: the flying, manta ray-like, soul-devouring Ralewings.
Harry left the old 'Zod Wallop' behind, but Raymond never could. Now Raymond has broken out of Harwood with his 'bride' Emily (a wheelchair-bound young woman, comatose since childhood), the ox-like Allen, the tragically-depressive Rene, and Lord Arbus, Raymond's trained monkey. They're on a cross-country trip to find Harry, because Raymond isn't sure what to do next, but Harry will have the answers. He's got to. After all, he invented the Ralewings, and they're currently chasing Raymond's group, along with the vile Lord Draining who has plans for all five of them, but especially for poor, defenseless(?) Emily.
Have the five patients from Harwood all cashed in their sanity chips, or has Harry Gainsborough actually penned a story so powerful that it's ripped through the fabric of reality like the creatures from Stephen King's The Mist, to reshape our world to its specifications?
Zod Wallop is like nothing I have ever read, and even now, twenty-two years after my first encounter with it, I've been unable to get it out of my mind. Spencer's writing is dramatic, impactful, and dream-like. Cross Alice in Wonderland with H. P. Lovecraft, throw in a liberal dose of mind-altering/expanding drugs, and you'd get something akin to this novel. This is Dark Fantasy of the O.G. variety, not the drippy, love-triangle-laden bullshit that crowds the shelves today.
Find this book. Read this book. Treasure and love it. Harry's world will never be the same again...and neither will yours.
We're fooling ourselves and we know it, but we keep reading anyway.
'Zod Wallop' is a book. Obviously it's a book, I'm writing about it, but it really is a book. Or rather, a book within a book. Harry Gainsborough should know--he's the one who wrote it, after all. He's 1995's equivalent of J. K. Rowling, the most popular author of children's fantasy literature in the world. Everyone reads Gainsborough, and everyone loves 'Zod Wallop'. What they don't know is the 'Zod Wallop' they've fallen in love with is a fake, a fraud, a counterfeit painted over by its own artist, dipped in saccharine, rolled in chocolate, and served up on a tray of Happily Ever Afters so sweet you can taste the diabetes. It's all bullshit, and the public ate it up like pigs at a trough. It made Harry Gainsborough a very wealthy man, which has only brought him further ruin, as money cannot replace the two gaping holes in his heart.
The real 'Zod Wallop' was penned by Harry at the suggestion of one of his doctors during his stay at the Harwood Psychiatric Institute. The stay was prompted by the accidental drowning death of his only daughter, and subsequent separation from his wife. Now back on his own two feet, the heavy-drinking author is (dis)content to live out the remainder of his days in utter solitude while his agent routinely badgers him about writing a sequel or, at the very least, selling the film rights. There he would remain if it wasn't for another Story, this one named Raymond.
A fellow patient at Harwood, Raymond Story is the dictionary definition of the mental man-child: a grown-up who has refused to grow up, a man who still tilts at windmills, believes in happily-ever-afters, and is convinced Harry Gainsborough is a prophet who will lead them all on the biggest, most important, most epic quest since a couple of hairy-footed men clung to one another at the foot of a volcano after disposing of the world's worst piece of jewelry. The biggest problem with Raymond Story, in Harry's mind, is that he's seen the original 'Zod Wallop'. He found it, he read it, and he hated it. While the published 'Zod Wallop' is all about redemption and finding the power within, the original is nothing like it: a dark, disturbing world where no one will be saved, filled with glacial-dwelling frost giants, shadowy demonic entities, and their minions: the flying, manta ray-like, soul-devouring Ralewings.
Harry left the old 'Zod Wallop' behind, but Raymond never could. Now Raymond has broken out of Harwood with his 'bride' Emily (a wheelchair-bound young woman, comatose since childhood), the ox-like Allen, the tragically-depressive Rene, and Lord Arbus, Raymond's trained monkey. They're on a cross-country trip to find Harry, because Raymond isn't sure what to do next, but Harry will have the answers. He's got to. After all, he invented the Ralewings, and they're currently chasing Raymond's group, along with the vile Lord Draining who has plans for all five of them, but especially for poor, defenseless(?) Emily.
Have the five patients from Harwood all cashed in their sanity chips, or has Harry Gainsborough actually penned a story so powerful that it's ripped through the fabric of reality like the creatures from Stephen King's The Mist, to reshape our world to its specifications?
Zod Wallop is like nothing I have ever read, and even now, twenty-two years after my first encounter with it, I've been unable to get it out of my mind. Spencer's writing is dramatic, impactful, and dream-like. Cross Alice in Wonderland with H. P. Lovecraft, throw in a liberal dose of mind-altering/expanding drugs, and you'd get something akin to this novel. This is Dark Fantasy of the O.G. variety, not the drippy, love-triangle-laden bullshit that crowds the shelves today.
Find this book. Read this book. Treasure and love it. Harry's world will never be the same again...and neither will yours.
dayseraph's review
4.0
Mental hospitals, strange books, and unreliable realities? Yes, sign me up! This was a page-turner dark fantasy with more heart than I expected, and I’m glad I found it.
scheu's review
3.0
I tried SO HARD to get into this book. The concept was great. It felt like a really sinister Tom Robbins kind of story. The problem for me was this: the funny parts were never particularly funny, and the sinister parts were never quite sinister enough. Also, the blurb (feature in the GR description) does not represent the book very well. I think that I will go back to Jonathan Carroll now.
rpcroke's review
5.0
Loved this book! It's in the realm of "weird" fiction - somewhere between fantasy and horror. Hell of an opening scene and hell of a finish. Filled with fantastic prose and some mind boggling imagery, the story begs the questions of what's real and what's not. For a good time, read Zod Wallop.
jelundberg's review
5.0
WOW. Loved this book from start to finish. It reminded me of the best books by Jonathan Carroll and Tim Powers. I'm quite keen to find the rest of Spencer's books now. Why on earth did it take me so long to finally read this novel?
tabandvelcro's review
this is one of those books that just looking at the cover reminds me of the dark musty aisles of my childhood library. does anyone else imagine a physical place in real time when you listen to a song or read a book? a visual of some place in your history will kind of just play in the background of your mind...just me? anyway, I have no idea if this book is good and I can barely remember it. But it really seemed to strike a chord with me as a preteen and looking at the cover kinda gives me the nostalgia chills.
the_mighty_quinn's review
3.0
Firstly, this book has maybe the worst name that a book has ever been named. Do not let that prevent you from reading the book, it is much better than the title suggests. I try not to judge books by their covers (or names) but if I hadn't been recommended this book I would have never picked this book up in a million years. That's me being judgmental, I know, but it's the truth.
This book was a bit all over the place. It is very funny and heartfelt, and the best parts of the book were the parts where it felt real. Little legitimate observations that Spencer seemed to truly make about humanity and depression and the loss of a child. I laughed out loud at some of the things that Spencer came up with (like for instance, in the second chapter, where the main character Harry is looking around his room trying to figure out if he's depression has made him look like "a lunatic.") I would describe the book's genre as magical realism. It gets really wacky and zany, which is not a bad thing at all, just that the vibe isn't quite what I was expecting going into the book (but what can you expect from a book with a title like Zod Wallop??). Despite that I really did like the book quite a bit and I am glad that I read it!
This book was a bit all over the place. It is very funny and heartfelt, and the best parts of the book were the parts where it felt real. Little legitimate observations that Spencer seemed to truly make about humanity and depression and the loss of a child. I laughed out loud at some of the things that Spencer came up with (like for instance, in the second chapter, where the main character Harry is looking around his room trying to figure out if he's depression has made him look like "a lunatic.") I would describe the book's genre as magical realism. It gets really wacky and zany, which is not a bad thing at all, just that the vibe isn't quite what I was expecting going into the book (but what can you expect from a book with a title like Zod Wallop??). Despite that I really did like the book quite a bit and I am glad that I read it!