

Not when the air smells so much of rottenness and death.A collection of 13 individual architecturally-detailed N scale building kits. You could call him a breath of fresh air, but it’s not quite the right metaphor. While they’re apt comparisons, the truth is: Bassoff is emulating no one. A lot of names got thrown around after Corrosion, comparing the author to Jim Thompson, David Lynch, Flannery O’Connor, and a slew of others. He’s taking real literary risks, and has found a singular voice. The fact that Bassoff can make the reader numb to such atrocities is a feat, though, and, I suspect, part of the point. As the depravities pile up, it’s easy to become immune to them and lose any sense of urgency. Maybe it’s best we don’t know.Ī small downside to the book is that if you’re not patient, the lack of an obvious plotline for much of the book can be difficult. We’re always trying to find out what our dreams mean. That’s what happens to Russell Carver, and it will also happen to you as you’re reading. In our own dreams, we often miss the meaning because we’re distracted by the landscape. You’ll know them, just as you recognize, say, your grandmother’s kitchen in a dream, even if it’s flooded with water and underneath the ground.

You’ll probably recognize things in Factory Town from your own dreams, though just what those are will vary from person to person: the endless corridors, the decaying hospital, the creepy theater, the parties populated by disfigured degenerates. There’s a moment in Factory Town when you’ll start to realize what these strange happenings mean, and it’s a dark moment, because it’s when you know that even the worst of the atrocities are connected to something very real - and very frightening. Where is this taking place? What’s real and what’s not? Is any of it? But then something happens. Factory Town is the new game we are looking at today with an Overview/Review of what it is and how its gameplay plays. The plot seems haphazard at first glance, like a dream that goes on and on, moving from bizarre event to bizarre event. It requires close attention to detail and a desire to figure things out. Russell Carver navigates the ruined landscape in search of a missing girl, encountering what seems like an endless parade of bizarre characters and depraved acts beyond anything ever imagined by Hieronymous Bosch-and more hellish.įactory Town is a challenge, and if that word grabs you, then you’re the intended audience. In other words, read the book.) Factory Town begins with a mysterious suicide, the who and why unclear, then moves to the eponymous town: a decaying post-apocalyptic wasteland that feels, by turns, historical and futuristic.

(If you want to know how a woman gets sawed in half, then you’ll have to peek behind the curtain yourself.

To reveal too much would be like giving away the secrets of a magic show. Reviews of Bassoff’s books, you may have noticed, never talk too much about the storyline. It’s not only different from Corrosion - it’s different from anything else you’ve ever read. Instead, he’s crafted something startlingly original. Bassoff has resisted the temptation to do what some authors do after a success, shifting around a few details and essentially writing the same book again, afraid to break the spell. Be prepared, though: Factory Town is not Corrosion 2. It’s only been one year since Corrosion became a psycho-noir hit, and those who found themselves caught up in its weird web of depraved secrets have all wondered if Jon Bassoff could do it again.
