Customer Reviews

Cortez On Jupiter (Ben Bova Presents)

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Wading through the madness of Ernest Hogan's CORTEZ ON JUPITER is like taking a stroll through the mind of a mad Mexican Hunter S. Thompson--and damn me, that's a GOOD thing.

With its narrator and main character, the crazed freefall painter Pablo Cortez, spewing autobiography and Spanglish stream-of-conciousness as he takes you through a future world of painting, stardom, sex, and the exploration of spaces both inner and outer, CORTEZ ON JUPITER grabs hold of your literary huevos and just doesn't let go. Freefall splatterpainting, guerrilla artworks, artpolitik, alienation, alien cultures, a spaceride into Jupiter's Big Red Spot that has become a trip promising certain death to all who attempt it--a spaceride/deathride that has also been turned into a Systemwide televisual phenomenon; the show everyone watches ... CORTEZ ON JUPITER holds wrapped in its pages more ideas than a shelf stacked with books, yet Hogan weaves them all together in a web spun by his unreliable narrator/hero to climax and beyond. A great, rollicking read of a book.

Add Ernest Hogan to the "whatever happened to..." list of up and coming young writers who disappeared without getting the widespread recognition they deserved. This book is a minor sci-fi masterpiece that is definitely worthy of rediscovery, and someone should bring it back into print. The story revolves around hyperactive artist Cortez, who goes from guerilla murals in a dreary future metropolis to being the first human to make contact with aliens. His artist's mind makes him perfect for communicating with sentient energy beings around Jupiter, the deep thoughts of which have melted the brains of every other human who made the attempt. Ernest Hogan's writing style perfectly captures the gonzo personality of Cortez, with fascinating philosophical and artistic explorations and a great infusion of Aztec mythology. The narrative zooms along at a rip-roaring pace with Cortez speaking in a hilarious Spanglish hybrid, and Hogan makes great use of language and wordplay. (Let's face it, any book containing the word "cyberpsychoautonomelectromagneticneuroextrasensorywhatchamacallit" has just got to be a riot.) This book is well worth tracking down for fans of fun and offbeat science fiction. [~doomsdayer520~]