Red Dwarf

Red Dwarf, 1992, by Grant Naylor is one of my favorite books of all time. This is the first science fiction/humor novel that I ever read that managed to capture the hyerbolic plots and fish-out-of-water humor of Douglass Adams, and the absurdity of Terry Pratchet, and actually makes sense.

Whereas with these other writers, I accept some loss of logic for the sake of satire, Grant Naylor does an exemplary job of writing a book with a plot I can believe. There are no random gods playing dice or sudden ability to fly by deciding to flip the bird at gravity. Everything that happens in this book actually makes sense within the context of the story.

It makes sense the Lister ended up on a self sustaining space ship travelling eternally in one straight line, three million years from when he started. It makes sense that even though he is the only human left on this enormous vessel, there are other human-ish characters; a hologram with an attitude, a moody computer, and a highly evolved cat.There is a logical explanation for everything, and I laughed out loud countless times while reading it.

The characters are well-developed and rich. The prose is interesting, witty, and professional.

Red Dwarf is on of my biggest inspiration for my book, Substitute Gods. Particularly in my efforts to make everything make sense, and not just be a flippantly random satire that excuses itself from logic now and then.

Red Dwarf went on to become a very popular (in England) sit com that lasted nearly a decade. I saw it one time, and it was very funny. It also had many characters on it that I did not know, and I have no idea how they plugged in the extras.

Grant Naylor is a pseudonym for two writers who wrote this collaboratively. They were contracted for two sequels, but could never agree with each other enough to pull it off. Eventually, they each wrote one sequel, each of which took a very different path than the other. I understand neither was well received, and I have never read either.
Red Dwarf gets 100 from me. It achieves in all the categories I analyze. It is the epitome of the kind of novels I mean to write.

The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic is Terry Pratchett’s second book in the Discworld series. Compared to The Color of Magic, TLF comes a lot closer to making sense to those of us with an IQ less than 170. The story continues with the main two characters of the first book. This is an interesting phenomenon because nowhere else in the Discworld series does Terry Pratchett write in serial. Any other books can be read in any order and yet they are all about the lives and tribulations of the people of Discworld, and Pratchett uses many recurring characters. The central character is Rincewind, the Wizard who never learned any magic. He did read a magic spell in a book once, and the spell invaded his head, and has been trying to get out ever since. And of course, he partner in confusion, Twoflower the traveler. Twoflower, the man on an endless vacation, and entirely oblivious to any hazards in the world.

The plot flows well, and humor is rich with hyperbole and absurdity. Absurdity and irony are Pratchett’s special gift. He also like to play with subtle, or sometimes not-so-subtle puns. I imagine he must be a hilarious person to have over to a cocktail party.

Where Pratchett grows weak is in character development. His main characters are interesting and quirky, and you want to see them fair well, but you don’t really learn as much about them as you would in a book by Jim Butcher or Carl Hiaasen, writers who develop characters with such depth I think they must be people the writers actually knew. His minor characters are even less well developed, and rely a little on the traditions of the fantasy genre for you to understand them.

But I do think that TLF accomplished what Pratchett intended. It is very funny. He uses his special brand of ludicrous to poke fun at humanity. I liked the book a great deal, and give it a 98. 2 points loss for lack of character depth.

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

Adams is clever an original, as always. There are plenty of good laughs in this book. It is good to see the return of earth to the universe for the first time since the opening chapter of the first book. Conrary to the movie, the earth remains destroyed for a good long while in the book serie.  It is good, in Fish, to see Arthur more richly developed.

For the first 80% of this book, I am struck by how this is Adam’s best literary quality so far. The story actually makes sense without any loss of humor or his usual twisted views on life, humanity and the universe. There is nice prose, realistic dialogue, richer character development.

Then Adams blows it by stepping out of voice for a two-page chapter, commenting on the book itself and the chapters to come. It just didn’t see the point in that, Doug. And shortly after, Arthur flies again. Arthur flies on earth, and his technique is simply ignoring of the laws of physics.

I can suspend a lot of disbelief in SciFi, and even more when it is satire. But this whole flying bit just pushes it too far for me.

If it were not for these two problems, I’d probably give the book 100, it is good for what it is; SciFi satire. So I’ll give it a 95.

Fool Moon

Fool Moon (2001) is the second book of the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. The book opens up in McAnalley’s pub. Mac, the owner of the pub, has no magical abilities of his own, but somehow he ended up with this pub which has become neutral territory for various factions of magical and other mythical (or thought-to-be-mythical) entities. (after all, it is hard to call a creature mythical if he is sitting at a table drinking a beer with you.) Even warring factions agree not to fight in the pub. It is like Switzerland with beer. Oh yeah, I guess there is beer in Switzerland, too.

Harry meets with a young woman who should oughta know more about magic, given the depth of trouble she is about to get herself into. As soon as this unsuccessful meeting ends, Karrin Murphy arrives. She is the head of the Special Investigations unit of the Chicago Police Department. Murphy hires Dresden as a PI more than anyone else does, since her unit gets stuck with cases involving supernatural explanations, and the CPD doesn’t really want to acknowledge the supernatural.

Of course there is a murder spree, and of course there are supernatural forces behind it. Harry and Karrin set off to solve another case together.

Butcher continues to build his main characters and the relationship between Dresden and Murphy. Butcher is a strong writer in that his characters and their relationships are never static. Things change, for better or worse, in every book. Murphy is one of the most important characters in the series.

One of Butcher’s more amusing bits is this concept that wizards of great power and technology do not get along. The magical fields around the wizard just natural disrupt nearby technology. Sometimes Harry can use this to his advantage. Often it is an incontinent and unplanned event. Most of the time, it is humorous.

Bob the Skull’s role grows in Fool Moon. Bob is a spirit that inhabits a skull, and has been around for millennia. He knows more about the supernatural world than one human can comprehend. Harry may not be able to use the internet, but Bob stand in – and is actually better than the internet, because his info is reliable. Bob is also horny (don’t ask me how that works since he lacks a body), opinionated, not always cooperative, self-indulgent, and tends towards laziness. Aside from that, he is a perfect assistant.

As always, Butcher’s plots are complex enough to keep you reading, but not so much as to cause confusion. This book is probably a little slower to get going than all the other Dresden novels but the further you get into the book, the harder it is to put it down. Predictability factor is low – which is a good thing, of course.

Characters are rich. Humor is genuine; deriving from situations, foibles, irony, and Harry’s persistent wit and sarcasm. Fool Moon gets a 99 from me. I’m giving it a 99 for two reasons.

1. A bit of a slow start up on the plot, early on.
2. Having already read the entire series, I’m pretty sure this is the only one that is not getting 100 from me, and I want to appear to be at least somewhat unbiased. At least one of the Dresden novels has to get less than 100.

L!fe , the Un!verse and Everthing

The process by which Adams un-stranded Ford and Arthur from Earth, two billion years in the past was a little weak. Not unlike the rescuing of Captain Jack Sparrow from the netherworld in Pirates of the Caribbean III. There could have been a lot of better ways to do it.

But after that, the book really improves. Adam’s cleverness is at its best in this book. His description of Somebody Else’s Problem as a phenomenon is a dead on parody of real human nature. I was very happy to see Slartibartfast back again, and this time in a major role. I didn’t feel like we saw enough of him in the first book. Slartiblartfest’s ship operates on Bistromathics, a concept which, as far as literature and humor goes, is almost as good as the Improbability Drive (although according to Slartibartfast it is better as far as ship drives go).

The entire story of Krikket, and the involvement of the Krikket wars in the Heart of Gold actually ties in multiple aspects of the plot, the characters, and the story lines from all the book quite well. Much better plot and subplot cohesiveness than book two.

The mattresses that grow on Sqornshellous Zeta is one of the best bits in the entire series. One that I actually remembered from when I read the books twenty years ago. It is another example of how, in Adam’s twisted world of parody and ludicrous concepts, there is an element of plausibility behind much of it. In an infinite universe with infinite possibilities, it certainly would be reasonable to think that there is a planet somewhere that grows mattresses and screwdrivers. We are talking about infinity, after all, so why not? To say it isn’t so places limits on infinity, which is itself oxymoronic. So while the entire concept is a joke, then again, there is some kernel of logic behind it all.

Life the Universe and Everything is at least as good as the first book, and in some ways even better, because of the nice subplot tie-ins and the further development of certain characters, such as Sartibarfest. The humor is impeccable, deriving from characters, situations, irony, and poking fun at humanity.

There are a couple of points in the book where logic in the plot is sacrificed for the sake of a joke.  Okay, I know the entire series is a satire, and it's purpose to poke fun at human dogmas and our own flaws in reason. I'm okay with bizarre events and marathon-lenght stretechs away from reality. In fact, that is part of the funl
But, there are a few stretches that are beyond reasonable maladjusment that become a part of the plot.  And that is what bothers me. If it is too bizarre to be acceptable even for me, and my standards are pretty low for accepting the ludicrous, then don't let plot-dependant events rely on these silly abberations.

For this, I take away only 2 points. He made a good recovery in book 3 from his marginal mediocrity in book 2. I'll give L!fe a nearly perfect -- 98

Phule’s Company

Phule’s Company (1990) by Robert Aspirin is a pleasant three hours of mental escape. It’s better for your brain than drugs, and easier on your liver than alcohol. Set well into the undetermined future, Phule is a self-made billionaire and a military officer failure. The races are predominantly human, but like any respectable science fiction look into the future (i.e. that which does not contradict the principles of Star Trek), we have mutli-planetary federation.

Captain Phule commands the Omega Crew of the Space Legion. All of the soldiers under his command are failures, too. This story is about his recovery from failure. This is about how Phule leads the men and women under his command, and how he inspires them. It is his leadership that brings them all back from the role of failure. Phule is a commendable character. He has his weaknesses and foibles, but don’t we all.

One can’t make a blanket statement about Aspirin’s character development. The primary characters are dynamic, complex and imperfect, which is of course, what we want. But his secondary characters trend towards stocks and stereotypes. I guess you cant have it all, and Phule has such a large cast of characters, it would have to be a much deeper and thicker book if everyone were well developed. He is also good at setting up a story for laughs; humor from situations, from quirky characters. Phule’s Company is compelling enough to keep you reading, although the plot is somewhat predictable and drags on now and then.

With the caveat that this is brain candy, I'll give Phule's Company a 96. Losing points for the weaknesses in plot and secondary characters, it is a fun read, and I reccommend it in spite of minor flaws.

Robert Aspirin

Robert Aspirin was a very clever and creative Fantasy/SciFi writer. None of his books were brilliant, but they were mostly entertaining. He is most well known for three series: Myth-adventures, Phule, and Time Scout.


Aspirin consistently starts out each series with great humor, wit and creativity. They are full of quirky characters, pleasant surprises, interesting notions. His characters are mostly dynamic.

Aspirin’s biggest weakness is failure to plan ahead. Invariably, the first three books of a series are clever, creative, humorous. They are worth the read. They are light fun. They are not deep. But when you continue to read any of his series, he obviously begins to confuse himself. It appears he never really thought he would sell more than three books in any given series. He writes himself into a corner every time, in terms of character evolution and plot. As the publishers offer him more contracts to continue these series, we find Aspirin writing convoluted and uncompelling plots to force a story to happen.

My advice in regards to Aspirin: read the first three novels of any of his series, then stop. Expect the entertainment level to be on par with a very good sitcom, like Seinfeld or That 70s Show, but not on par with a philosophical discussion with last year’s valedictorians from half a dozen Ivy-League schools.