The Imago Sequence - Laird Barron
Novella
Number of words : 20000
Percent of complex words : 11.6
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 10.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 8.7
Flesch : 62.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.0
PEOPLE
Marvin Cortez
An ex-con and ex-wrestler. Did a stretch for running over a pimp.
Jacob Wilson
Party host and art collector, old university friend of Cortez.
Theodore Wilson
The old, dead Wilson, playboy millionaire and spook.
Bing Crosby
A singer.
Carol
Marvin's girlfriend.
Sun King
A French monarch.
Anselm Thornton
An art collector. An ex-student of Maurice Ammon's.
Chuck Shepherd
Or Shep. The Wilson's pet investigator.
Maurice Ammon
Aphotographer attached to the Royal University of London back in the '40s and '50s. Creator of the Imago Sequence.
Seth Eaton
A Texas oil baron.
Stanley Renfro
Director of the Weston Gallery.
Rudolph King
A West Side loan shark.
Robespierre
A dead furrier.
Dean Martin
A singer and actor.
Mrs. Florence Monson Chin
Previous owner of Parallax Alpha. Heiress to the estate of a naturalized Chinese businessman who'd made his fortune breeding rhesus monkeys for medical research.
A sex addict in hospital.
The Monkey King
Chin's husband.
O'Keefe
An artist.
Bosch
An artist.
Roy Fulcher
Anselm's friend.
Earl Hutchinson
A friend of Cortez. A bad seed from Iowa.
Clarke
Acting director of the Weston Gallery.
Damocles
Ancient Greek man who didn't fancy being under a sword.
Fidel Castro
Cuban dictator.
Clint
A redhead at the Colony.
Reverend Jones
A killer cultist.
Escher
An artist of weird angles.
Huxley
An author.
CONCEPTS
Rorschach
Ink blot shape.
Paleolithic
A geologic age.
Teutonic
Of Germany.
NFC
National Football Conference of the American professional football league.
Instar
Developmental phase of an insect.
Trephination
Skull drilling.
PLACES
Seattle Art Museum
A place to see such in this major city in Washington State, USA.
Capitol Forest
Outside Olympia, Washington State.
Black Hills
Outside Olympia.
Nairobi
Kenyan City.
Weston Gallery
Houses Parallax Beta.
Walla Walla
A local prison.
Capitol Theatre
A show place.
The Aladdin
A Las Vegas hotel.
Grable
A looney bin for rich people.
Spokane
A city in Washington State.
Grand Tetons
A mountain range.
Mt. St Helen's
A volcano.
Purdon
A failed mill town several hours northeast of San Francisco.
Hardpan Cafe
In Purdon.
Pine Valley Motel
In Purdon.
Rod
Clerk at the Purdon post office.
The Imago Colony
The bad place where Anselm is to be found. End of the Sequence, and of the line.
ORGANISATIONS
UW
The University of Washington.
Happy Tiger
A prestigious lounge in the basement of the Sheraton, three blocks from the Capitol Dome.
Union 76
A petrol station chain.
MEDIA
Casablanca
A movie.
Parallax Alpha
A photograph of Wilson's, first in the Imago sequence.
Parallax Beta
A photograph, second in the Imago sequence.
Imago
A photograph, last of the Imago sequence.
Art News
A collector's publication.
TECHNOLOGY
Vicodin
A painkiller.
Quonset Hut
Fast to build basic structure used on sites.
Mescaline
An organic psychedelic drug.
PLOT
Marvin and Jacob went to university together. One low-rent legbreaker, the other a wealthy scion. Both have a liking for art. At his xmas party the former tells the other about his strange photography acquisition, Parallax A.
Cortez ends up caught up in looking for the student and now hermit of the man who took this strange photography sequence, Anselm Thornton. People coming into contact with him don't get off easily. Now he is at the site of the Imago Colony, a similar fate awaits Marvin.
4 out of 5
Number of words : 20000
Percent of complex words : 11.6
Average syllables per word : 1.6
Average words per sentence : 10.0
READABILITY INDICES
Fog : 8.7
Flesch : 62.5
Flesch-Kincaid : 7.0
PEOPLE
Marvin Cortez
An ex-con and ex-wrestler. Did a stretch for running over a pimp.
Jacob Wilson
Party host and art collector, old university friend of Cortez.
Theodore Wilson
The old, dead Wilson, playboy millionaire and spook.
Bing Crosby
A singer.
Carol
Marvin's girlfriend.
Sun King
A French monarch.
Anselm Thornton
An art collector. An ex-student of Maurice Ammon's.
Chuck Shepherd
Or Shep. The Wilson's pet investigator.
Maurice Ammon
Aphotographer attached to the Royal University of London back in the '40s and '50s. Creator of the Imago Sequence.
Seth Eaton
A Texas oil baron.
Stanley Renfro
Director of the Weston Gallery.
Rudolph King
A West Side loan shark.
Robespierre
A dead furrier.
Dean Martin
A singer and actor.
Mrs. Florence Monson Chin
Previous owner of Parallax Alpha. Heiress to the estate of a naturalized Chinese businessman who'd made his fortune breeding rhesus monkeys for medical research.
A sex addict in hospital.
The Monkey King
Chin's husband.
O'Keefe
An artist.
Bosch
An artist.
Roy Fulcher
Anselm's friend.
Earl Hutchinson
A friend of Cortez. A bad seed from Iowa.
Clarke
Acting director of the Weston Gallery.
Damocles
Ancient Greek man who didn't fancy being under a sword.
Fidel Castro
Cuban dictator.
Clint
A redhead at the Colony.
Reverend Jones
A killer cultist.
Escher
An artist of weird angles.
Huxley
An author.
CONCEPTS
Rorschach
Ink blot shape.
Paleolithic
A geologic age.
Teutonic
Of Germany.
NFC
National Football Conference of the American professional football league.
Instar
Developmental phase of an insect.
Trephination
Skull drilling.
PLACES
Seattle Art Museum
A place to see such in this major city in Washington State, USA.
Capitol Forest
Outside Olympia, Washington State.
Black Hills
Outside Olympia.
Nairobi
Kenyan City.
Weston Gallery
Houses Parallax Beta.
Walla Walla
A local prison.
Capitol Theatre
A show place.
The Aladdin
A Las Vegas hotel.
Grable
A looney bin for rich people.
Spokane
A city in Washington State.
Grand Tetons
A mountain range.
Mt. St Helen's
A volcano.
Purdon
A failed mill town several hours northeast of San Francisco.
Hardpan Cafe
In Purdon.
Pine Valley Motel
In Purdon.
Rod
Clerk at the Purdon post office.
The Imago Colony
The bad place where Anselm is to be found. End of the Sequence, and of the line.
ORGANISATIONS
UW
The University of Washington.
Happy Tiger
A prestigious lounge in the basement of the Sheraton, three blocks from the Capitol Dome.
Union 76
A petrol station chain.
MEDIA
Casablanca
A movie.
Parallax Alpha
A photograph of Wilson's, first in the Imago sequence.
Parallax Beta
A photograph, second in the Imago sequence.
Imago
A photograph, last of the Imago sequence.
Art News
A collector's publication.
TECHNOLOGY
Vicodin
A painkiller.
Quonset Hut
Fast to build basic structure used on sites.
Mescaline
An organic psychedelic drug.
PLOT
Marvin and Jacob went to university together. One low-rent legbreaker, the other a wealthy scion. Both have a liking for art. At his xmas party the former tells the other about his strange photography acquisition, Parallax A.
Cortez ends up caught up in looking for the student and now hermit of the man who took this strange photography sequence, Anselm Thornton. People coming into contact with him don't get off easily. Now he is at the site of the Imago Colony, a similar fate awaits Marvin.
4 out of 5