Dead Girls
 |
|
| Author | Richard Calder |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | 'Dead' trilogy |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
|
Publication date
|
1992 and 2014 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback & Graphic Novel) |
| Pages | 208 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 28446528 |
| Followed by | Dead Boys |
Dead Girls is the début novel by British science fiction author Richard Calder, and was first published in the UK in 1992 (HarperCollins) and 1995 in the US (St Martin's Press).
The novel is the first in Calders 'Dead' trilogy, and is followed by the novels Dead Boys (novel) and Dead Things.
The novel was written in 1990, soon after Richard Calder had taken up residence in Thailand. He was living in Nongkhai, a small town on the Mekong River, overlooking Laos. He was also making frequent trips to Bangkok. Nongkhai, Bangkok and London are the story's most important locales.
Dead Girls is a science fiction novel set in the year 2071 telling the tale of a virus that turns pubescent girls into vampiric gynoid dolls called Lilim, and the doomed love affair between 15-year-old Ignatz Zwakh and a Lilim assassin called Primavera.
The idea for the quantum clockwork Cartier dolls comes from the story of Coppellia, a mechanical doll in one of the Tales from Hoffmann. Richard Calder cites Jacques Offenbach's opera version of the tale in which Hoffmann falls in love with Olympia as being particularly influential.
Another influence was the doll sculptures of Hans Bellmer
Ignatz Zwakh, former escort of assassin Primavera Bobinski, is tracked down in Thailand by the half-robotic Pikadon Twins, with a demand from Primavera's half-robot boss Madame Kito that Ignatz return to the Big Weird to work with Primavera. Primavera is a Lilim - a vampiric living dead girl.
Ignatz returns to Nana, Bangkok, and is reunited with Primavera. They go to a restaurant that uses gynoids to mimic the English vogue of killing Lilim. The Cartier automata were invented by a Dr Toxicophilous with robotic consciousness that harnessed 'quantum magic', and this quantum-mechanical seat of consciousness is situated in the womb of their descendents, the Lilim. The pair are in the restaurant on a job from Madame Kito, but while Primavera is engaged in assassinating one of Kito's rivals Ignatz is rendered unconscious.
...
Wikipedia