Clever story about a bomb

Polish Publisher: E-BOOKOWO
Będzin 2014
Translated by Nina Wagner
E-BOOK

Any kind of conflicts – military or between people – is very often incongruous. We usually find out about it only after some time when we cool down and begin to make their analysis. Marcin Brzostowski describes these senseless and illogical causes of conflicts in a rather unusual way in his novel titled “Sweet Bomb Silly”. The title of the book indicates that while reading it can be very explosive. If you want to see whether it is true, you have to read this book. The storyline does not give readers a clear answer to the questions about some of the issues. It is up to each individual reader to decide how they will be perceived by the readers. In my opinion this is one of those clever books which are not so easily forgotten and which encourage the readers to reflect.

I have already found out several times that the volume of the book – in the traditional version or as an e-book – is not evidence of its quality. Because after all you can write a story using hundreds pages and really write about anything. You can also create a short story with a deep and meaningful moral which will be in the memory of the readers for a long time. Marcin Brzostowski chose the second option and created an original story where the main character is… a bomb. The air force S6-X02 series bomb called “Silly” is not as silly as her name could indicate. This is a very resolute and curious bomb which loses her best friend in quite dramatic circumstances. Silly’s best friend was a K8-0 series hand grenade. Both Silly and her companion were brought to life in the Bombs and Grenades Factory ltd. in Czernievo. Since their “birth” they are soldiers, and their purpose is to participate in the armed conflicted. Silly orphaned by the friend is the first year group soldier of the intelligent army of mass destruction.

The bomb works almost as a man. She has hands, feet, eyes and of course her own unique brain and even feels hungry like any normal person. But this is not only the fighting hunger. Silly is extremely proud of its destination. The bomb considers herself a soldier who sooner or later will be killed in the battle. If you want to imagine Silly, you can identify the bomb with a classic cartoon character. Although our Silly is a soldier, she does not really know much about the war. Her knowledge is based only on what the bomb learned during the training. Certainly Silly does not see what is happening in the army between people who command it. Silly cannot understand many things, but the lack of knowledge is not troublesome for her. The bomb asks a lot of different questions. At a certain moment our sweet Silly is implicated in the showdown between the two opposing armies that try to fight each other. How does our resolute bomb behave in this situation? Does she come out unscathed from this conflict?

Now I should write the standard sentence that most readers repeat: “Generally I do not read e-books, but this time I like it very much.” Yes, that’s right. I do not read e-books as often as I would like to read, but not because of their poor quality or something, but because of the lack of the e-book reader. However, I am sure that the quality of e-books is not worse than the quality of traditional paper books. I think that it is high time we began to overturn this stereotype and stop thinking that e-books are much more worse than paper books. Nowadays many respected authors also publish their novels both as traditional books and electronic ones.

Talking about “Sweet Bomb Silly”, as I mentioned above, I think that Marcin Brzostowski created a really original fictional story. While reading any book I pay special attention not only to the technical side, but first of all to the uniqueness of the idea and the storyline. And what can I say? I like our Silly. The bomb really gives the impression of a much more wiser than people who command the army. She sees many issues completely different than people do it. While reading this book we can smile from time to time, but under the sense of humour the author hides the bitter truth about the people and their doings, and generally about the world around us. Many issues taken by people do not make sense to only satisfy their own ambitions or to fulfill some ridiculous desires. This kind of absurdity about making various decisions accompanies by the reader practically during the whole time of the book reading. 

Marcin Brzostowski’s book is by no means strictly a war novel as some of the readers may think. In my opinion this book is a rather science fiction novel with the elements of psychology. I think that anyone who would like to read this small volume of the novel will not be disappointed and first of all from the very first pages will feel sympathy for the main character. Because it is really impossible not to like Silly. 

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