Post by Chicago Jake on May 12, 2008 15:12:49 GMT -6
"Doorways In The Sand" by Roger Zelazny.
An excellent science fiction book from 1976.
This is a story about Fred, a 30-something undergrad at a University. Yes, that's right, he's in his early thirties. His rich uncle died, and left him a sizable stipend, as long as he was a full-time undergrad in good standing. The uncle's intention, obviously, was that Fred get a good education. Fred, however, figured that he would never earn a salary as good as his stipend, so whenever he was in danger of graduating, he would just ch-ch-change majors and start over again. This had the unintended affect of providing him with a unique, and very complete, education.
The story is set in the near future, and mankind is just starting to have contact with alien races. When a priceless artifact on loan from another planet comes up missing, Fred becomes inadvertently involved. Suddenly, his overindulgence in undergraduate courses begins to pay dividends: whatever he needs to know in any particular predicament (electrical engineering to counteract a burglar alarm; chemistry to figure out how certain chemicals will react; geology to survive in a desert, etc.) he turns out to know. His uncle has (inadvertently?) turned him into a perfect secret agent.
Not only is the story interesting, as Fred tries to elude death and find the missing artifact, but the prose is addictively funny in a playful, circuitous manner, full of references and subtle jokes. It helps to have a good knowledge of Lewis Carroll. God only knows how many jokes I missed because of references that fell outside my range of knowledge!
Also of note is how most every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger. But the cliff-hanger is not resolved at the beginning of the next chapter! The next chapter will begin in the midst of some future predicament, and will eventually flash back to the resolution of the previous issue, before plunging into a new one and, yet again, another cliff-hanger. At first I found this annoying, but eventually it was all part of the fun. I imagine it is a consequence of the novel being originally published in serial form in a magazine.
If you like classic, 1970s era science fiction, well crafted prose, and subtle humor, I recommend this book highly.......Jake
An excellent science fiction book from 1976.
This is a story about Fred, a 30-something undergrad at a University. Yes, that's right, he's in his early thirties. His rich uncle died, and left him a sizable stipend, as long as he was a full-time undergrad in good standing. The uncle's intention, obviously, was that Fred get a good education. Fred, however, figured that he would never earn a salary as good as his stipend, so whenever he was in danger of graduating, he would just ch-ch-change majors and start over again. This had the unintended affect of providing him with a unique, and very complete, education.
The story is set in the near future, and mankind is just starting to have contact with alien races. When a priceless artifact on loan from another planet comes up missing, Fred becomes inadvertently involved. Suddenly, his overindulgence in undergraduate courses begins to pay dividends: whatever he needs to know in any particular predicament (electrical engineering to counteract a burglar alarm; chemistry to figure out how certain chemicals will react; geology to survive in a desert, etc.) he turns out to know. His uncle has (inadvertently?) turned him into a perfect secret agent.
Not only is the story interesting, as Fred tries to elude death and find the missing artifact, but the prose is addictively funny in a playful, circuitous manner, full of references and subtle jokes. It helps to have a good knowledge of Lewis Carroll. God only knows how many jokes I missed because of references that fell outside my range of knowledge!
Also of note is how most every chapter ends with a cliff-hanger. But the cliff-hanger is not resolved at the beginning of the next chapter! The next chapter will begin in the midst of some future predicament, and will eventually flash back to the resolution of the previous issue, before plunging into a new one and, yet again, another cliff-hanger. At first I found this annoying, but eventually it was all part of the fun. I imagine it is a consequence of the novel being originally published in serial form in a magazine.
If you like classic, 1970s era science fiction, well crafted prose, and subtle humor, I recommend this book highly.......Jake