Cryptozoic! [Paperback]

Brian W. Aldiss (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2001

He roamed through the dim reaches of the remote past and like a phantom, the Dark Woman haunted him at every turn. Was she a hallucination produced by the stresses of his bizarre existence? Or was she a ghost from a future more distant than his own?

Bush had been called into a totalitarian world, trained to kill, and then sent back in time – as an assassin. And still the Dark Woman pursued him, posing new questions, new possibilities, new terrors

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brian Wilson Aldiss was born in East Dareham, Norfolk, in 1925 and has written over 40 novels and over 300 short stories, making him one of the most important voices in science fiction writing today. He worked as a Bookseller in Oxford between 1947 and 1956 during which he wrote his first novel The Brightfount Diaries. His first work of science fiction was Non-Stop (1958) and he won the Most Promising New Author award at the SF convention the following year. At this time his work was characterised by innovative literary techniques and a high sexual content.

In 1962 Hothouse won a Hugo award given by the World Science Fiction Society and in the seventies he explored the experiences of a young soldier in The Horatio Stubbs Saga novels. With Frankenstein Unbound and Moreau’s Other Island he paid tribute to two founders of SF - Mary Shelley and H.G. Wells. By the time of the release of the well received Hellinconia sequence he had become one of the most prominent British SF writers rivalling such fellow authors as J.G.Ballard and Michael Moorcock

Since 1961 Aldiss has edited anthologies including SF Horizons and has regularly reviewed for the TLS as well as numerous newspapers. Other works include a history of SF, Billion Year Spree, an autobiography Twinkling of an Eye and some poetry. In 1999 he became A Grand Master at the Nebula awards given by the SF and Fantasy Writers Guild for his lifetime achievements in SF writing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: House of Stratus Ltd (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0755100530
• ISBN-13: 978-0755100538
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,572,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 star rating, January 5, 2004

By 

Paladin08 (Folsom, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Cryptozoic! (Paperback)

Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others

STORY: People are able to time travel via a method calld mind-travel. This fad has led to the economic breakdown of the future and martial law initiated. For one man, he is tasked to track down a outlaw of the state in order to save the word from further chaos.

MY FEEDBACK:
Pro: Book is a very fast read (read all 190pgs in a day). That also means the author doesn't waste time getting to the point
Pro: Very different take on the time travel idea. Believable and well delivered
Pro: In very few pages we really get into the character of the main protagonist. Regardless if you like the protagonist or not, Aldiss does some good character development here.
Con: Towards the end he goes on for about 40+ pages trying to explain some theories. It was just a little long for me especially when you consider that is 20% of the entire book
Pro: Leaves you thinking in the end

OVERALL: I liked it and it kept my interest. I thought it would have been great if it didn't get so overly complex towards the end and give me a headache. Great classic sci-fi otherwise.

4.0 out of 5 stars Chronological and Psychological mindblow, July 12, 2011

By 

M-I-K-E 2theD "2theD" (The Big Mango, Thailand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cryptozoic! (Paperback)

My eighth Aldiss book to-date and I haven't been disappointed in any of his novels yet (while the collection in The Saliva Tree was great, the other two of Last Orders and The Book of Brian Aldiss left something to be desired for). Cryptozoic is pretty trippy, more so than Earthworks. But why else would you read Aldiss? He's got BIG ideas!

Cryptozoic is hard to type out. Also, it's kind of hard to figure out. Near the end of the twenty-first century, time travel via the mind became a reality. The body would stay in 2093 but the mind would whiz back to the Jurassic era, Devonian era or even the Holocene epoch if you've got the talent. Prohibitively expensive, mind time travel is reserved for vacationers wanting to visit the mind-colony in the Jurassic era or ride their mind-motorcycles through the ages. More importantly, a research institute sends scientists or artists out to view and record the landscape of history, however, interaction with the environment is impossible.

Bush is the man we view this pan-chronological world through... from land-walking fish, to tyrannical lizards of yesteryear and to his modern day dystopia where America has crumbled and is now under leadership after leadership of tyrannical generals. Bush is a victim of Freud's oedipus complex: he's fixated on his mother and not on the best of terms with his father. When Bush learns of his mother's passing away, he joins his father in drinking binges even though he know at his father's frail age, the hooch will eventually kill him (half of the oedipus complex). Incest is a running theme though never actually consummated. This is definitely a chronological and psychological mindblow.

All goes very well for most of the book. The second half sees Bush go through military training to become a time-assassin and things get even more weird thereafter. You've really got to hunker down and concentrate on the mind time-traveling... Bush jumps to the immediate past of his own present and stops an action which is in action during his old present (umm, anyone get that?). Further into the last half, there are some more ongoings which really challenge your grip on the English language when it comes to the NOW, the PAST, the FUTURE and FATE. It's a big idea and it's pretty hard to grasp - but if you do, it's very rewarding!

5-stars for the mindblow but subtracting 1-star here for the internal logic of Bush which goes missing in the pages. Alliances change on his side and the "other" side, he was against him and now he's for him, and why exactly was he in training? Just a bit of the book is sketchy like this, but pick it up and read it for the big ideas!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is one of those rare books..., February 12, 2006

By 

Fulgour Prentice (Flora Township) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cryptozoic! (Paperback)

...that you remember forever, in a vague dreamlike way. I was in my teens when I first read it, then again in my twenties, and finally in my thrirties the original UK version. But it wasn't the book that changed so much, it was the world. Get your ticket punched with Cryptozoic and then start counting, reverse forward.