Cower not, fierce reader! Ok, I'm not going to give this my normal review. I'm going to rant about this book.
This book is FUN. Yes, people are comparing it to Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. You know what? I like this much better. Oh, don't get me wrong, the former was a lot of fun to read, but I don't find it worth revisiting. Why? most comedy doesn't hold up as well on repeat visits, especially written word.
That's not the case here. First, I've gone backwards a few times to reread segments. Second, it sets up what has now been committed to, Out of the Soylent Planet. Third, (this is definitely just opinion), this has far more plot than Douglas Adam's renowned work.
Without spoiling the implementation, there's a take on the "Who's on First?" routine. Not actually that uncommon, but to actually write one that in just text will make me laugh?(delivery matters a lot) I'm impressed by the man's ability to tell jokes while advancing plot and characters. Even the set pieces like the aforementioned keep everything moving.
I've read books that amuse. Steve Martin isn't nearly as funny in text, and suffers greatly on subsequent readings. Piers Anthony devolved into making labored efforts to add more puns, and they actually took away from the story being told. Glen Cook's Garret, PI novels are solid, but don't hold up to being reread. Adams, at spots, just seemed to depart from telling a story, and some of the absurdist humour doesn't hold up; it's funny ONCE.
Robert Kroese? Made me laugh, made me guffaw, and while I could see the joke being setup, it happened seamlessly. I knew a joke was coming, maybe more than one, but the way the story flowed, I didn't care. He blindsided me with puns on multiple occasions, and it fit the plot.
I've only read one non-Grifters book by Kroese so far, and I know I need to make that up sometime. I liked this one better than Starship Grifters, and probably that was due to having more its own identity instead of being tied tightly to Star Wars.
Look, get this book. You need a laugh. 9 of 10 fell deeds
When you play Social Justice, the world loses.
Read the Mercury series. I started at the end and went back to the original trilogy, hitch I think is superb. He did the same thing to me in some of his puns there: I still laugh at his conversation where Mercury interviews Uzziel about the ongoing Flood. Even though (now) I know what's coming, and tell myself it shouldn't be that funny...it still is.
ReplyDeleteAnd, dramatically, the denouement at the end of book 3 is something like that: I should have seen it coming (but I didn't) and it's incredibly satisfying when you get to it.
People think I'm kidding when I call Kroese a neglected national treasure but I'm not. By rights he should be much better known than most of the ones who are celebrities in the SFF world.