I first found out about D. Harlan Wilson thanks to a death screen in No Man’s Sky. That’s the best result I’ve had from dying in a video game. I haven’t read much this year, and most of it has been about becoming a dad. Picking up something like Dr. Identity felt necessary to keep my sanity, which is ironic.
Dr. Identity, the first book of the Scikungfi trilogy, is a bizarre, ultra-violent, psychedelic dystopian satire filled with piss, blood, living cigars, city-sized stores, papanazis, bounty hunters, ‘gangüers, plaquedemics, and celebrities. It follows a plaquedemic and his ‘gangüer as they go on a mass-murder spree during their fifteen minutes of fame. It starts when Dr. ———, tired of teaching his student-things, sends his ‘gangüer to replace him. Beyond that, I can’t say what the story is about. What the actual fuck did I just read?
The novel swings between feeling like a literary experiment and a rapid, ultra-violent stream of action. It reads like an unhinged story written by Deadpool. Some scenes made me laugh out loud, which hasn’t happened often for me lately. This isn’t a story. It’s surreal overload.
This book moves fast and hooks you immediately. My main gripe with it is the length of Achtung 66.799’s point of view chapters. He’s a noob papanazi who works as a statue, gets pissed on, and kills the pacing. He exists to show how Bliptown crushes the soul. I’d rather stick with Dr. Identity.
This book will not change how you see the world, and it doesn’t even try to. It’s pure, unadulterated fun. The kind of thing you read to turn your brain off. A literary action movie. Would I recommend it? Absolutely, even if only for the experience.