Each story in i-o describes another facet of Logan's burned future, a building of a vision piece by piece. In "coaxial-creature [above]," we are introduced to the workers that labor in the cables and pylons far above Reykjavik, who hide in a rubber ball when electrical storms rack their workplace, until one of their number creates a pair of goggles that allows them to see into the storms. In "partofit," we are taken inside a nightmarish factory, where the production line takes on new meaning:

And, as I have done seventeen thousand eight hundred and seventy six times before, I reach into the pocket of my plastic bib, withdraw a small hollow pipe and peel back a layer of flesh from the part before me as if it were a mutated onion.

In "Ignition," one of the most effective stories in the collection, Logan introduces a pair of nihilistic anarchists, one a bomb-maker, the other a bomb-carrier. "Ignition" is a tour-de-force down the rusty well of loneliness, self-loathing, madness. As in J.G. Ballard's Crash, the reader becomes an unwilling participant in the unrelenting spiral between life and inevitable death. Dragged along by the protagonists, and prodded along with Logan's straight-razor prose digging into our backs, we witness the destruction of two lives in an explosive climactic blink of an eye. It's effective, riveting storytelling.

And Logan has a lot of Ballard in him, lurking in his poetic flair and his fascination with industrial ruin and rusted decay. But like Ballard, Logan's work is elevated by style; his atmospheric slices soar when they could have sunk into repetitive, dismal ruination. Within i-o, the setting is half the story, more than just a backdrop; as in Ballard's work, the wasteland becomes an active character.

i-o is not a flawless collection. In particular, it could have used a rigorous editing. But the slipshod production lends character to the collection as well, giving it a found-art depth that contributes to the overall package. And while a couple of the stories read like snippets from a whole, Simon Logan is nonetheless a talented newcomer that is relentlessly carving a new genre for himself, paying no attention to established genres.

If you're brave enough, pick up Simon Logan's i-o. And the next time you drive past an industrial park, you'll find yourself looking over, expectant, braced for an explosion....