Forced to flee this last bolthole, Jack returns to the city that used to be his home. All he wants is to score a little money and disappear with the people hes trying to save. Unfortunately, hes got a talent for attracting trouble-the kind most people would run screaming from. Jack Randall isnt most people. Thats part of his problem. His escape from the Farm with six of its inmates (well, five and a half) brings him head to head with the man who destroyed everything he once held dear.

He has to make a decision: take revenge or turn away?

In a startling odyssey of fear, black comedy and the surreal, Jack Randall discovers that the choice has already been made. The demons in him take on the demons without, and all he can do is stand back and see who wins.

From the Publisher
The Overlook Connection Press is proud to bring you this novel in the authors preferred text in hard cover for the first time. With "first" publication of "The Lost Chapter" from Spares, and three short stories that relate to the novel. Guest introduction by Neil Gaiman (author of The Sandman, Neverwhere, and Stardust) and an afterword by the author, Michael Marshall Smith. Now its your turn. . . Have you been Spared?

From the Author
From an Interview With Michael Marshall Smith by Chris Smith.

"Spares is an anomaly in that I thought of the idea of cloning people as spare parts six or seven years ago, long before the current furor about cloning came up. When I started writing Spares there was no talk of Dolly the sheep. I didnt write it to be contentious, I just wrote it because it was the idea that most appealed to me at the time when I was writing a new novel. Im more interested in writing satire on the current day than necessarily trying to prognosticate the future. The idea of cloning has been around for ages and there are loads of Science Fiction writers who have gone off and done every single permutation of that idea. I tend not to read any Science Fiction, because I dont want to be influenced by other peoples vision of the future, but in terms of prognostication fine minds have already had a crack at it and failed. Im much more interested in talking about the current day through the prism of looking back fom the future."

About the Author
Michael Marshall Smiths first novel was the ground-breaking ONLY FORWARD, winner of the August Derleth Award. He has won four British Fantasy Awards, and the story which inspired SPARES, To Receive is Better (included within this edition), was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. A former comedy writer for the BBC, he currently has two feature films and a miniseries in development. He lives in North London.