Smonk - Tom Franklin

If we assembled a list of our booksellers' favorite books of 2006, my guess is that Smonk would receive twice the votes of any other title.

Here's what our booksellers are saying about Smonk:

"In the town of Old Texas, Alabama, a series of horrific events is unleashed by the trial of the gruesome killer E. O. Smonk. If you can imagine the absurd but inspired styling of Cormac McCarthy mixed with Kurt Vonnegut, you are ready for an exhilarating ride that explodes from the first page."

- Dan Roubik, Bay View

"Shockingly bad people roaming Hell on Earth, committing unspeakable acts against each other. It isn't 'feel good,' but it is fantastic. At the risk of understatement, I would call Smonk a sense-shattering, soul-jarring, gut-wrenching work of profane excellence."

- Justin Riley, Downer

"Disgusting and despicable murderers and whores that you find yourself caring about - an unthinkable story that you buy into page after page. Like nothing I've ever read."

- Doug James, Downer

"There was a feverish, outlandish quality to the days I spent lost in the pages of Smonk. It's as if Tom Franklin filmed the most amazing Western imaginable and adjusted all of the settings to 'insane.' Reading Smonk forces us to recalibrate the instruments we rely upon for navigating fiction. Epic, horrific, visceral, violent, and yet somehow still aware of itself, Smonk is well crafted and believable for all its mythic monstrosity."

- Joe Lisberg, Downer

"It's dark, it's dirty, it's gritty, it's insane, it's vulgar... basically, it's fantastic."

- Taylor Rich, Bay View

"A page-turner not for the faint of heart. I read it almost in spite of myself. I lay awake after finishing it, the story's revelations not letting my brain rest."

- Colleen White, Shorewood

"Like a cross between Pulp Fiction and High Plains Drifter on an exponential scale. A bone-shattering, brain-fever trip to Hell and back. Smonk is something else."

- Carl Hoffman, Downer

"Some of the story is so violent that I found myself smiling. It's like Jesse James meets 'Bad, Bad, Leroy Brown.' I loved it."

- Jerry Kannel, Brookfield

"Read it. Loved it."

- Conrad Silverberg, Downer

"Sin City in the Old West... or at least West Alabama. Outstanding."

- Eric Gesell, Bay View

"Base, ribald, quixotic. No redeeming value other than a damn fine book!"

- Bishop Hadley, Bargain Book Buyer


Smonk is one of those rare books that gets passed from bookseller to bookseller, ending in a tattered ARC, smudged with the fingerprints and stains of intense and marathon reading sessions. I read it almost a full year ago; it's influence on the subconscious is evidenced by the bizarre dream I had a few weeks ago, in which a squat, knobby man tried to pop my eye into his mouth. Read Smonk - and you'll understand.

Tom Franklin's other works, which are similarly admired, are Hell at the Breech (available for a limited time as a $6.99 Bargain Book) and Poachers.

Justin's Geek Explosion

If you don't read comic books, you're missing out on some of contemporary fiction's best stories and writers. Don't let the wrongful stigma 'Comics are just for kids.' stop you. Today's comic books are geared for and aimed squarely at adult readers. Here's a list to get you started...

Watchmen by Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons - By far my favorite work of fiction, comic or otherwise. Alan Moore destroyed the notion of comics being "just for kids", and told an amazing story of political, social and personal upheaval to rival anything that had come before or since. Where else could you find yourself rooting for a sociopathic xenophobe but in this story?


Fables: Legends In Exile by Bill Willingham/ Lan Medina, Steve Leialoha and Craig Hamilton - Everyone knows fairy tales are deeper than Mother Goose, but Fables takes that idea and runs with it. After being driven from the Homelands by a shadowy adversary, the heroes and villains of every bedtime story ever told are forced to make a go of it among the mundane people of our world. How they create a society and the strife present when larger-than-life personalities clash is the stuff of great fantasy.

Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore/Brian Bolland - My choice for the best Batman story of all time. Between the spot-on characterization of Batman, Commissioner Gordon and The Joker, and the insanity linking them all together, this story has so much to offer. Also, it contains perhaps the best moment between archenemies ever written.

Starman: Sins Of The Father by James Robinson/Tony Harris and Wade Von Grawbadger - A look at legacies and the father/son bond set amidst a coming-of-age story involving super-science, murderous villains and inherited vendettas. That's what's so great about comics - they can be either as straightforward or allegorical as any other medium, make points regarding the deepest human ideas and conditions, and show a twenty-something antique dealer learning to pilot an energy-blasting flight rod.

Preacher: Gone To Texas by Garth Ennis/ Steve Dillon and Glenn Fabry - Garth Ennis is insane and brilliant. He's written a story about a lapsed reverend searching for God while accompanied by his assassin ex-girlfriend and an Irish vampire. Also, the preacher sees John Wayne. Did I mention his family are an ultra violent clan of hillbillies? And how about the sheriff's son who shoots himself in the face and doesn't die? And what about the single-eyed inbred childhood friend? I won't even mention the Vatican's murderous agents, or the living embodiment of Death - The Saint of Killers. Yeah, insane and brilliant sums it up.

The Terror - Dan Simmons

If you've written a complex, period-accurate adventure set in the arctic, you'd probably have a read for 'hardcore' fans only. Add to that the fact that the book is over seven hundred pages long, spans years in the telling, and follows a half dozen major characters, and you've got an intractable manuscript fit only for the diehards, right? Wrong! I'd read Simmons before, but would hardly call myself a completist. In some cases the sheer volume of his work was enough to make my eyes dart elsewhere on the bookshelf. I am now ready to admit what a mistake avoiding this fantastic author was. If he went on for another seven hundred pages I'd devour those too.

Set among the crews of two ships trying to force a northwest passage through arctic ice, The Terror drags you in with tantalizing whispers of what could go wrong. It's not enough having to navigate through tons of ice in experimental ships loaded with sailors of all stripes. It's not enough that the expedition's leader is jovially unaware at least and criminally incompetent at worst. It's not enough that all of the great arctic explorers back home called it lunacy to make the attempt. No, those warning signs should have been enough, but a combination of greed, ego and desperation have conspired to throw these considerations aside. There is however, one consideration no one thought to explore. This is where the whispers of what could go wrong turn to screams. This place is uncharted for a reason owing less to nature and more to evil. There was no accounting for the possibility that at the top of the world existed a force alien to 'civilization', malevolent in intent, and more than a match for anything human minds and hands could bring to bear against it.

If the only people to pick up this book are the author's sizable (but not nearly big enough) contingent of fans, that would be the real terror. This book is essential to any reader who loves action, adventure, iconic characters pulled from the mythic tradition and the feeling on the back of their neck as the hair raises.