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Shenanigans by Noel K Hannan
01/03/2003 . Source: Katie McGivern 
pub: Pendragon Press. 245 page enlarged paperback. Price: £ 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-9538598-0-0. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.pendragonpress.co.uk
'Shenanigans' is a short story collection by Noel K Hannan, which includes previously published stories between 1993 and 1999.
The collection covers such issues as the post-plague world, totalitarian regimes and cities with as character as the people who inhabit them.
This book is violent - violence threads through that stories but the future that Hannan depicts is dystoptian and therefore the violence is justifiable.
It is shocking when the violence happens because the characters are well-drawn, believable and likeable.
'Medical Ethics' is about a doctor who works in the condemned city of Purgatory and the retribution that he deals out to a child-killer.
It is a deeply moving and disturbing story, very powerful in its emotions, mainly through the empathy that you feel for the doctor: an essentially good man struggling against the tide of horror that overwhelms him each day.
Hannan is also skilled at writing in various styles and techniques. This is best seen in his last story 'BAD Jihad', where the story of a Muslim super-warrior is told from varied viewpoints from a British military commander to a chatty newspaper article.
This story also highlights another interesting angle to Hannan's stories. BAD Jihad was a warrior created from a dead soldier and technology, with a mission to kill Salman Rushdie.
He escaped and then proceeded on a campaign to kill anyone who is against the Muslin faith. This raises interesting questions about religion, fanaticism and supermen - but it is the individual that Hannan is focuses on and what type of man is BAD Jihad.
In 'Shenanigans', Hannan takes issues and themes that are important in Science Fiction but uses a magnifying glass effect to focus on the individual and creates empathy between the reader and the characters.
Katie McGivern
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