Disciple of the Dog - Hardcover

R. Scott Bakker

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752898310 ISBN 13: 9780752898315

Publisher: Orion, 2009

Synopsis

Imagine being able to remember everything you've ever experienced. This is the lonely world inhabited by Disciple Manning. He is able to recall every conversation, meeting and feeling he has ever had, making him an extremely dangerous private investigator.

About this title

About the Author

R. Scott Bakker is the son of a tobacco share-cropper, and spent his youth either exploring the wooded bluffs of Lake Erie's north shore or working in hot summer fields. He left the countryside to study English language and literature at University of Western Ontario, and from there moved to Nashville to pursue a PhD in philosophy. He now lives in London, Ontario with his fiancee, Sharron, and their cat, Scully.

From Booklist

Newark private eye Disciple Manning has total recall of every conversation and experience he’s ever had. “Kind of like TiVo, without the monthly fees,” he says. In this series debut, Disciple replays elements of his investigation over and over again, looking for nuances of meaning as he searches for 21-year-old Jennifer Bonjour amid the followers of an apocalyptic cult in a desiccated Pennsylvania town that is also home to a white supremacist church. Fantasy author Bakker (The Judging Eye, 2009) has an appealingly glib style, and his cult leader and white-supremacist preacher respectively radiate an otherworldly charm and a manic menace, but the character of Disciple needs some work. Narrating the story, Disciple explains at great length that his gift/curse of recall—as well as being “too clever, too arrogant, and too damned good-looking”—makes him superior to, well, just about everyone. Other than quoting an ex-girlfriend, who called him “pathologically self-centered,” Disciple fails to acknowledge his own limitations in any way (though the unlikely denouement of his search for Jennifer speaks for itself). Still, Disciple deserves another chance to shape up. --Thomas Gaughan

Edition details

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0752898310
• ISBN 13: 9780752898315
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320