The Soft Machine : The Restored Text : Part 1

'Smash the control images-Smash the control machine-Burn the books-Kill the priests-Kill! Kill! Kill!' With a very dangerous blend of chemistry and magic, secret agent Lee has the ability to change bodies with anyone he chooses. When he finds himself forced to use his skills to defeat a team of priests, who are using mind control to produce their own private slave race, he encounters dead soldiers, African street urchins, evil doctors, corrupt judges and mythical monsters in this terrifying, funny and surreal space odyssey. The Soft Machine is the first book in Burroughs' innovative 'cut-up' Nova trilogy - followed by Nova Express and The Ticket That Exploded. Now in a new, revised edition based on Burroughs' original manuscripts, it is a ferocious assault on hype, poverty, war and addiction in all its forms. Edited with an Introduction by Oliver Harris 'The voice in The Soft Machine is talking about time . . . It slips deliberately and frequently, sometimes ironically and sometimes not . . . rattles off elliptical allusions, throws away joke after outrageous joke, shifts gears in midsentence, never falters. It is precisely this voice-complex, subtle, allusive-that is the fine thing about The Soft Machine and about Burroughs.' Joan Didion