Read this a century ago but I remember liking it.Similar in vein to Blade Runner, Destroying Angel is a cyberpunk tale set in mid-twenty-first-century San Francisco.It's got cyborgs, serial murders, sexy vixens, and a gritty world not all that removed from our own. Here's a description from the back cover of my edition. A KILLER BEYOND HUMAN IMAGINATION IS STALKING THE STREETS OF THE CITY...The bodies were found in pairs. Planted on the bottom of the Bay. Chained together in a death embrace. Tattooed with angel wings. It was the kind of sleazoid crime that made Tanner leave the force years ago. It was also the kind of sleazoid crime that would drag tanner back. ON the beat. Into the streets. Straight to hell. I was obsessed with Blade Runner growing up and owned the most expensive laserdisc player on the planet - of which I still own but need to get fixed! - not even legally able to be sold in America at the time, just so I could play movies from my laserdisc collection, like Blade Runner, of which I own the Criterion Collection version, and probably watched it every week with my friends for years. I can quote just about every line from the movie.I wanted to read everything even remotely similar to it so I picked up several books in the cyberpunk genre.Destroying Angel was one of them. And since it takes place in San Francisco, where I live, there was an added element to why I wanted to read this. Richard Paul Russo is a Philip K. Dick Award-winning author.I remember his writing being tough, very realistic, gritty but down-to-earth, with a touch of oldschool film-noir. Louis Tanner, ex-cop turned detective sets out to solve the mystery of a group of corpses found chained together at the bottom of the Bay. It involves him collecting info from street folk, drug dealers, and murderers, and is a well paced novel I had to read to the end.I loved the world, and the story created a lot of imagery that stuck with me over the years, namely the angel tattoo sequences and the grimy nearly post-apocalyptic world itself. This story was made flesh by Richard Paul Russo's skillful creation of a strong speculative premise, believable characters, while incorporating very interesting ideas throughout.Back when I read it, I thought the ending could have been a bit more fantastical in the suspension-of-disbelief department as it ended almost too realistic and put a little hole in my over-inflated space opera balloon I was more accustomed to then.I probably wouldn't think so now on a re-read.I just re-read this and while the ending seemed more appropriate this time around, I still would've liked a bit more fantasy to end it all.This is the first book in Russo's Carlucci trilogy, though this first book centers around Louis Tanner more than it does Detective Frank Carlucci, the main character of Carlucci's Edge (book 2), and Carlucci's Heart (book 3). I'd really like to read both. I recommend it!!!!
Ho hum. There's absolutely nothing special about this book, which bears some of the sadly typical flaws of much of the genre, including wooden characters and a plot that's going nowhere. A lot of the "action" revolves around the main character going out to eat, with poorly made coffee as an ongoing theme. If I had a dollar (quarters don't amount to much anymore) for each time one of the main characters utters the following lines--"I don't like it at all. But what the hell else are we going to do?" I could retire. Also, while I realize this book was published in 1992, but there's nothing to really warrant calling it a "cybershock thriller." It's not even thrilling. I apologize to all the Russo fans, but I can think of four books off the top of my head that I'd recommend instead: if you're into disaffected youth and futuristic urban decay try Samuel R. Delany's Dhalgren. If you're looking for an "exotic" futuristic thriller, try George Alec Effinger's When Gravity Fails or David Mack's graphic novel Kabuki Vol 1 Circle of Blood. And if you want to read a more original suspense thriller set in San Francisco's Tenderloin, try The Magician's Tale by David Hunt.
What do You think about Destroying Angel (1992)?
a friend lent me his copy of the Carlucci trilogy because he knew i liked sci fi. i've only read the first and in my opinion it's hardly sci fi. i mean, not in the truest sense of the word. the plot is as old as the hills isn't it? wacked-out serial killer. cop and ex-cop team up to try and find him. sure it's set in the future .... but it's hardly an original one. the future Russo describes in Destroying Angel is one a lot of writers predict for us. still. it was a easy and engaging kind of read. a break from more serious stuff. i enjoyed it well enough to try the next one. but i have to say, more than anything it's whet my appetite for a 'real' sci fi.
—Sooz
tMr. Tanner used to be a detective with the drug squad for San Francisco PD. In this story, the world has not collapsed, yet. The very wealthy have moved off planet to satellites, leaving the pollution and crime for others to deal with. There is a lot of pollution and crime, and people just make the best of it. It is unclear how Mr. Tanner makes his living, but some of his money comes from smuggling drugs from satellites above in return for exotic food. He tries to pass on as much of the drugs to needy hospitals and ER's as he can, hoping to help those who can use them.tThe clinker in this mess is a serial killer. The killer has been quiet for a couple of years, so when he reappears, and starts killing again, it is a surprise.tSookie is a thirteen (13) year old homeless girl who sees Mr. Tanner on the day the first two new bodies are pulled from a slough. They both watch and are not involved, but that changes. As a cop, Mr. Tanner got information that the police can use to catch the killer, even though he is not on the squad, he gets to help. Sookie gets an eyeful by accident and eventually helps solve the crimes.tThe location is San Francisco. The society has fallen into disarray, but there is some order even in the most untamed parts of the city. I liked this story as much for the plot as the romance and growth and development of Mr. Tanner.
—Joey Brockert
