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vasha's review
Well, this was one of those rare occasions where I read through a whole book and wound up having no idea what went on. I may be beginning to sort it out a bit, here's my attempt:
One day in 1988(?), there was a blackout in Coomey, TX, and a fundamentalist preacher, for reasons I don't understand, told everyone in town it was World War III -- and everyone believed him. And as they huddled terrified in basements, their act of collective belief caught the attention of the Torku, aliens skilled in manipulating parallel universes. The Torku decided to create a pocket universe containing the town: "outside", the citizens went home in the morning feeling silly; "inside", other versions of the same people spent six years thinking the world had really ended, as the Torku kept them in comfort. The Torku's motives for doing this, apparently, were as follows: parallel universes are related to each other by pattern. (So six years equalled six months, the same people died but in different ways, and there were the same emotional entanglements.) Thoughts and beliefs are part of the pattern. The Torku think that it's a moral imperative to try to make the pattern a positive one, by not only doing what they can to improve things, but also thinking and saying positive possibilities. And they decided to try to convince one set of humans of this moral good, by having them be a captive audience in the pocket universe.
So I still haven't doped out a lot of things. I suppose I may re-read this one day; it certainly was entertaining.
One day in 1988(?), there was a blackout in Coomey, TX, and a fundamentalist preacher, for reasons I don't understand, told everyone in town it was World War III -- and everyone believed him. And as they huddled terrified in basements, their act of collective belief caught the attention of the Torku, aliens skilled in manipulating parallel universes. The Torku decided to create a pocket universe containing the town: "outside", the citizens went home in the morning feeling silly; "inside", other versions of the same people spent six years thinking the world had really ended, as the Torku kept them in comfort. The Torku's motives for doing this, apparently, were as follows: parallel universes are related to each other by pattern. (So six years equalled six months, the same people died but in different ways, and there were the same emotional entanglements.) Thoughts and beliefs are part of the pattern. The Torku think that it's a moral imperative to try to make the pattern a positive one, by not only doing what they can to improve things, but also thinking and saying positive possibilities. And they decided to try to convince one set of humans of this moral good, by having them be a captive audience in the pocket universe.
So I still haven't doped out a lot of things. I suppose I may re-read this one day; it certainly was entertaining.
toastx2's review
4.0
Back in the summer of 2010, I decided to see about curbing my book spending, and instead work on reading books already on my shelves. This was an obvious failure, when I was on the Powells Books website and found a bargain Sci-fi bin of books for about a dollar. I bought seventeen books and have been slowly working my way through them.
Patricia Anthony’s ‘The Happy Policeman’ was in that pile of books. I am not sure how this ended up in the dollar bin. Turns out, this book was incredible, worth far more than the dollar I paid for it. I bought it sight unseen, had no idea what the novel was about, but the cover art painted by Mark Smollin caught my attention, the title was unusual and the book became mine.
THIS BOOK WAS NOT ACTUAL SCI-FI. Do not auto-ignore this book if you are a genre snob, you may be missing out. Likewise, do not pick this book up thinking it will be handed to you on a platter, Patricia Anthony did a great job in obfuscating the end game and (as in my case) it takes some analysis to fully grasp the outcome. I actually sat for ten minutes after finishing this and thought to myself “What the hell was that?”. Once it sunk in, I found I had been presented with a confusingly brilliant story that is very recommendable.
The novel opens with DeWitt Dawson, police chief, riding his horse down Main Street, Coomy Texas. He has no gasoline for his police cruiser, the Torku have no trouble providing everything they need, but for some reason, gasoline takes them far longer than other supplies. DeWitt investigates some broken glass at a convenience store, wonders why anyone breaks into a store when the Alien Torku give people whatever they ask for.
Just outside town, DeWitt is called to investigate the body of Loretta Harper, naked-mutilated-never reported missing. She was found close to the plaid/paisley/rainbow colored dome that protects their town from the horrible radiation killing the world; Again, courtesy of the Torku. For six years, the Torku have helped the towns folk survive post ‘Bomb Day” when the world died. The Chief must determine if this murder was caused by a human survivor, or by one of the alien saviors who up this point have been hospitable and welcoming.
Labeled alternately as either Fiction or Science fiction, I believe it does this novel a disservice to pigeon hole it as SciFi based on the alien element or other “less tangible” aspects. It is more fringe than that. The Happy Policeman rides the cusp of multiple genres and is a potential read for any number of individuals. It is an investigative crime drama starring a pothead policeman. It is a human nature piece, showing the human desire for independence, the intrinsic need for self reliance that drives rebellion. It has cheating wives, and secret perversions; over-protective fathers and guilt laden decision making. It gives a shout out to ’12 Angry Men’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. And, because a number of the characters are aliens, it could loosely be considered Science Fiction,.
Based on the ending: I would consider this Speculative Buddhist Fiction (does the genre exists?).
The Alien Torku are a metaphoric plot device. Read the book, then read this review again. Afterwards we can fist fight over the details..
By fist fight, I mean drink beers..
By details, I mean discuss it’s awesomeness…
--
xpost RawBlurb.com
Patricia Anthony’s ‘The Happy Policeman’ was in that pile of books. I am not sure how this ended up in the dollar bin. Turns out, this book was incredible, worth far more than the dollar I paid for it. I bought it sight unseen, had no idea what the novel was about, but the cover art painted by Mark Smollin caught my attention, the title was unusual and the book became mine.
THIS BOOK WAS NOT ACTUAL SCI-FI. Do not auto-ignore this book if you are a genre snob, you may be missing out. Likewise, do not pick this book up thinking it will be handed to you on a platter, Patricia Anthony did a great job in obfuscating the end game and (as in my case) it takes some analysis to fully grasp the outcome. I actually sat for ten minutes after finishing this and thought to myself “What the hell was that?”. Once it sunk in, I found I had been presented with a confusingly brilliant story that is very recommendable.
The novel opens with DeWitt Dawson, police chief, riding his horse down Main Street, Coomy Texas. He has no gasoline for his police cruiser, the Torku have no trouble providing everything they need, but for some reason, gasoline takes them far longer than other supplies. DeWitt investigates some broken glass at a convenience store, wonders why anyone breaks into a store when the Alien Torku give people whatever they ask for.
Just outside town, DeWitt is called to investigate the body of Loretta Harper, naked-mutilated-never reported missing. She was found close to the plaid/paisley/rainbow colored dome that protects their town from the horrible radiation killing the world; Again, courtesy of the Torku. For six years, the Torku have helped the towns folk survive post ‘Bomb Day” when the world died. The Chief must determine if this murder was caused by a human survivor, or by one of the alien saviors who up this point have been hospitable and welcoming.
Labeled alternately as either Fiction or Science fiction, I believe it does this novel a disservice to pigeon hole it as SciFi based on the alien element or other “less tangible” aspects. It is more fringe than that. The Happy Policeman rides the cusp of multiple genres and is a potential read for any number of individuals. It is an investigative crime drama starring a pothead policeman. It is a human nature piece, showing the human desire for independence, the intrinsic need for self reliance that drives rebellion. It has cheating wives, and secret perversions; over-protective fathers and guilt laden decision making. It gives a shout out to ’12 Angry Men’ and ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. And, because a number of the characters are aliens, it could loosely be considered Science Fiction,.
Based on the ending: I would consider this Speculative Buddhist Fiction (does the genre exists?).
The Alien Torku are a metaphoric plot device. Read the book, then read this review again. Afterwards we can fist fight over the details..
By fist fight, I mean drink beers..
By details, I mean discuss it’s awesomeness…
--
xpost RawBlurb.com
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