Something Beyond Excess
08/02/2006
Waggoner, Tim. Pandora Drive. New York: Leisure Books, 2006. 370 p.
Tim Waggoner can really write. In fact, in his latest novel, Pandora Drive, there are certainly moments of brilliance on display.
The story concerns a young woman who has the ability to enable those around her to realize their most bizarre fantasies. Well, actually the word “curse” is more appropriate, since the fantasies that come true may have morbid and even lethal consequences. The first half of the novel reminded me, in part, of some of the better early Stephen King works, but with a much more liberal bent in regard to gore, scatology and sex. Actually, given some of the more surrealistic aspects of the writing, the feel is somewhat more akin to Stephen King meets Steve Rasnic Tem, if one can picture that.
To put it another way, there is very little authorial self-restraint on display here. This is, in some respects, a good thing. But about a third of the way through the novel, there is a point at which the story comes to a climax (no pun intended) with its shocking sex and black humor. There is really no way to top this moment, and the pacing of the novel up until then worked well. One world think that it is therefore time to pull back and regroup, perhaps focus on character or some clever plot twists…
Instead, Waggoner goes even further over the edge, pushing the envelope between horror and fantasy, to the point that this horror novel begins to become somewhat of a parody. This, I am sure, is intentional. However, given the sense of anti-climax invoked by the structure Waggoner has chosen, Pandora Drive winds up being about a hundred pages too long. By the end it reminds of some of the less (in my opinion) successful ‘80’s efforts by Stephen King and Peter Straub, books like It and Floating Dragon—stories that just seemed to go on and on. And on.
Having said this, I still think you should run out and buy the book. Even the parts that tend to drag on are somewhat interesting. In addition, the ending has some very clever moments. To be quite frank, some of the better parts of the final one-hundred pages are GREAT.
That, and oh, Tim Waggoner can really write.