Book Review: The Raw Shark Texts

A man wakes up on the floor at the foot of a double bed without any memory of who or where he is. He finds a wallet in his pocket with a driver license that says "Eric Sanderson" -- but the name doesn't ring any bells. He wanders into the hall down the stairs and spies a small table with an envelope and a phone. From the envelope he pulls out two sheets of paper and reads,

Eric,
First things first, stay calm.
If you are reading this, then I'm not around anymore.

The pages direct him to press speed dial one on the phone and to not explore the house. Signed by The First Eric Sanderson.

The Raw Shark Texts follows the Second Eric Sanderson as he tries to piece together what happened to his memory. His trek takes him across England, deep into the Un-Space in search of Dr. Trey Fidorous who may hold the key to his memory loss and to the strange creature that's hunting him -- the Ludovician, a shark created from words, concepts and ideas but is all too real.

Steven Hall creates a fantastic world -- the Un-Space -- in which words and ideas take form in what resembles sea life: lampropini, flatwolds, jarhaphish, and ludovicians (what would be great white sharks in the real world). Words also can protect, such as by repeating a mantra, stacking books around you so the ideas confuse predators or gathering a bunch of old typewriter letters into a ball and using them as a word bomb. His characters are very well drawn from the woman Scout who assists Eric on his quest to find Dr. Fidorous and somehow resembles a woman he should know, to Eric Sanderson as a man with nothing to loose and everything to gain, to the Ludovician and Mr. Nobody, creatures of the Un-Space, made of words but teeming with life.

The Raw Shark Texts is a fast-paced thrill ride that anyone who loves words and ideas and what can be done with them will definitely enjoy.