The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman
A war fought with illusions rather than weapons, as one doctor's machines dissolve the boundary between desire and reality.
Angela Carter’s novel drops a young clerk into a war fought entirely with illusions, as Doctor Hoffman’s machines dissolve the line between what is desired and what is real, and reality itself becomes contested ground. It is the most unrestrained of her early books, picaresque and deliberately excessive, and it is the one later writers reach for when they want the version of Carter that had not yet been tidied into a classic.
Recommended by 1 Person
Alan Moore
Carter is another favorite London author, and although her later work includes tremendous novels that are situated in the capital, it's in earlier books like this, with their unrestrained exoticism, their delirious sensuality, and their steaming orchid forest writing, that I find the new flavor of fantasy my current offerings are aiming for.
Source · June 2026
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