For those of you who don't know, Warren Ellis is a VERY accomplished and prolific comic book writer. Having written graphic novels such as FreakAngels, Transmetropolitan and RED (yes, the one that got turned into the Bruce Willis movie).

Having said that...this book is phenomenal, but not for the faint of heart. What starts out as your typical detective noir story quickly turns (within the first chapter) into a wild, rollercoaster-like downward spiral into the depths of human depravity that I can only describe as a sort of diseased poetry slam hosted by GG Alin that is equal parts "Naked Lunch" and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", mixed in with a montage of clips from old James Cagney movies.

Of course I mean this in the most endearing way possible.

At the end of the day though, if you can stomach the myriad perversities the main characters are constantly being put through, there's actually *gasp!* a charming old chestnut of a love story buried within all the muck, and aside from that, this book REALLY makes you think.

Ellis uses the backdrop of human depravity and exploring the extremes of human experience as a sort of beat up, shit-stained canvas with which he draws out in detail his vision of modern society and the sociological quantum leaps we as a race have taken as the result of the advent of mass media and the Internet, and the implications of these drastic changes that, in a sense, many of us are still just waking up to.