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plaguevacant's review
4.0
Far crazier than the previous novel, though I found this one a little more engaging, despite multiple characters jumping from one body to another and bouncing back and forth through time.
This novel sails right into Van Vogt territory: ridiculously preposterous plot contrivanvces abound amidst batshit crazy events delivered completely deadpan.
At one point the hero, intergalactic super-agent Croyd, wakes up in captivity and first decides to mark his territory by urinating around the corners of the room before escaping (by making a wall disappear with his mind, no less).
Let's not forget his jump back in time to Ephesus, where he borrows a knife from the philisopher Heraclitus (?) which he needs to effect the murder of one of his future selves.
All of this to save Earth from a drug that enslaves people to a small group of doctors led by the reincarnation of Orpheus (??) who is in turn preparing the way for an invasion of space lobsters, who need to lay ther eggs inside mammals to save themselves from extinction (???).
This stuff is CRAZIER than I'm making it sound, and Wallace pauses occasionally to expound on wacky philosophy and weird science. Like Van Vogt's heroes, Wallace's Croyd pulls a new super power out of his ass to solve every problem. In a more conventional story, this would make for some dull reading. But, as with Van Vogt, amidst all the silliness and surreality it actually works in a fun spaced-out-60s-late-late-movie kind of way.
I don't think I'll ever think about a "thrusting ovipositor" the same way again.
This novel sails right into Van Vogt territory: ridiculously preposterous plot contrivanvces abound amidst batshit crazy events delivered completely deadpan.
At one point the hero, intergalactic super-agent Croyd, wakes up in captivity and first decides to mark his territory by urinating around the corners of the room before escaping (by making a wall disappear with his mind, no less).
Let's not forget his jump back in time to Ephesus, where he borrows a knife from the philisopher Heraclitus (?) which he needs to effect the murder of one of his future selves.
All of this to save Earth from a drug that enslaves people to a small group of doctors led by the reincarnation of Orpheus (??) who is in turn preparing the way for an invasion of space lobsters, who need to lay ther eggs inside mammals to save themselves from extinction (???).
This stuff is CRAZIER than I'm making it sound, and Wallace pauses occasionally to expound on wacky philosophy and weird science. Like Van Vogt's heroes, Wallace's Croyd pulls a new super power out of his ass to solve every problem. In a more conventional story, this would make for some dull reading. But, as with Van Vogt, amidst all the silliness and surreality it actually works in a fun spaced-out-60s-late-late-movie kind of way.
I don't think I'll ever think about a "thrusting ovipositor" the same way again.
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