Axis Mundi Sum [Paperback]

D.A. Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2003

Brainwashing! Computer hacking! International intrigue! Psychedelic drugs! Female secret societies! Fringe science! Chinese beer! Walking corpses! The Goddess of Confusion!

All the staples of fun and conspiracy meet, shake hands, and get into fistfights in Axis Mundi Sum, a novel where conspirators of all stripes try to further their own ends and make sense of existence. Would-be journalists, freelance criminals, monomaniacal monarchists, dead Taoist sages, sci-fi speedfreaks, computer code fascists, Discordian potentates, lazy college students, Egyptian gods, and more engage in gunplay, mind control, phone phreaking, sexual coercion, disinformation, and other dirty tricks in order to gain the upper hand over anyone they can— with mixed, but always hilarious, results.

In a world where someone is pulling everyone’s strings, and it seems there is no escape from the hidden hand of shadowy powers, the only thing that might set you free is good old-fashioned absurdity, and Axis Mundi Sum is the place to find it.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

...over the top, drug-addled, paranoid, conspiracy theory anarchy that's the natural successor to Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! Trilogy

About the Author

D.A. Smith was born in Virginia, and after living all over the place, decided that Texas is where it’s at. He somehow got a B.A. in English from Sam Houston State University a couple years ago, and now lives in and around Houston with an ever-changing assortment of people and a ferret. Someday he’ll make it to Antarctica.

Product Details

• Paperback: 484 pages
• Publisher: Invisible College Press, LLC; First Printing edition (July 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931468168
• ISBN-13: 978-1931468169
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,645,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an entertaining first novel, October 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Axis Mundi Sum (Paperback)

I have completely enjoyed reading this book. The prose crackles with the sly, sometimes arrogant wit of the author, and the plot (well, I use that term loosely) is engaging and the characters intriguing. Pop and subculture references abound, and some of the more obscure references are worth a snicker to the reader with eclectic tastes. One of the more amusing facets of the book is the way the author inserts himself into the story with a nod and a wink (or perhaps a raised glass) to the reader. One of the things I liked most about this work was the blend of supernatural and conspiritorial elements; Did they combine into a cohesive plot? Well, this writer is perhaps not qualified to say. Buy it and read it, even if you decide you hate it, I challenge you not to be entertained.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I feel dirty and wholesome at the same time, September 15, 2003

By 

James Carlson (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Axis Mundi Sum (Paperback)

This is probably one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time. It's got the same drug addled absurdity that Robert Anton Wilson is so skilled at creating. When one character is haunted, harrassed and cursed by ancient egyption gods, I felt certain that this disturbed author was on copious amounts of marijuana and alcohol. This is a good thing! There's an edge that makes it unique.

If you like Robert Anton Wilson, Umberto Eco or Flann O'Brian you will probably dig this book. It's also loaded with Discordian refrences so if you're into that it adds considerable depth.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Madcap!, January 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Axis Mundi Sum (Paperback)

If your sense of humour tends to run to the anti-social, or at least weird, this is a book worth reading. It moves pretty quickly and smoothly, so you barely notice that the novel is almost 500 pages long, and the characters, while all over the place (in more ways than one), range from amusing to downright absurd. Not that that's an insult, since I got the impression this book is supposed to be absurd, and not in a highbrow sense.

All in all, if you enjoy manic writing and plenty of strange characters and plots, you should do what Joe Bob Briggs used to recommend on Monstervision: "check it out."