Fuzzy Dice [Paperback]

Paul Di Filippo (Author), Rudy Rucker (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2009

How badly could you screw up when granted access to infinite worlds conforming to your heart's most intimate desires? No matter how much of a disaster you or I might make of such a miraculous gift, rest assured that Paul Girard, hapless middle-aged bookstore clerk, can hilariously surpass your worst fumblings and missteps. Visited one morning by a dimension-hopping artificial intelligence named Hans, Paul is given the ability to jump instantly to any world he can envision. But without truly knowing himself, Paul soon discovers that framing a wish that gets the expected results is not as easy as it first appears. From the depths of the Big Bang to a world where hippies rule; from a land of Amazons to one where life is a video-game; from a society where cooperation means everything to one where individual chaos rules. Across these bizarre dimensions and many others, Paul races in the search for happiness, love, wealth, status and the answer to the Ontological Pickle. Acquiring comrades and enemies along the way, our feckless alternaut reaches a cul-de-sac from which the only exit is death. And then his adventures really begin.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With tongue firmly in cheek, the prolific and dependably daffy Di Filippo (Little Doors; Babylon Sisters; etc.) clowns his way through this transdimensional travelogue cut from the same cloth as Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Paul Girard, a bored bookstore clerk, is pondering the point of his directionless life (a dilemma he refers to as "the Ontological Pickle") when he is visited by Hans, a cyborg from the future. In exchange for a download of his human essence, Hans gives Paul a yo-yo on a superstring that allows him to travel effortlessly to alternate universes in the cosmic Monobloc. Paul soon becomes a dimension-hopping Gulliver, walking the dog to a succession of paratimes and places that include the cosmic void before the Big Bang, the two-dimensional world of a computer simulation template and, in the book's giddy high point, an alternate America where the hippies overthrew the Nixon administration. The picaresque plot amounts to little more than a Baedeker of vividly imagined micro- and macroworlds that Paul plunks down on, gets a crash-course history of, and barely escapes assimilation into. Though the pattern and elaboration of each new adventure grows repetitive, Di Filippo keeps the proceedings lively with satiric winks at our own world and a profusion of comically apt pop culture references ranging from Charles Dickens to Yellow Submarine. Readers will find this novel as close as SF gets to vicarious enjoyment of the class cut-up's antics.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Fantastic Books (October 28, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1604598905
• ISBN-13: 978-1604598902
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,048,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Across the Multiverse, December 17, 2003

By 

J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FUZZY DICE. (Hardcover)

First off, this isn't a typical Amazon title, rather it is the product of PS Publishing, which puts out limited, signed editions by various science fiction and fantasy authors. Specifically, "Fuzzy Dice" by Paul Di Filippo was limited to 200 slip-cased hardcovers and another 500 regular hardcover copies, and at the time of this writing, some copies were still available from the publisher. Moreover, there are copies available on the internet, and should the opportunity to acquire a copy present itself, I would strongly recommend doing so.

A relatively recent theory in physics suggest that there is not just the one universe in which we reside, but an infinite number of universes that represent an infinite number of possible variations. For example, there is a universe where aliens invaded Earth in 1492 and another where there is no Moon. Of course this represents just the tip of the iceberg, as there are an infinite number of universes that are beyond the abilities of human conception. Conversely, the very fact that one could conceive of a universe means that exists somewhere (or perhaps more accurately, sometime). So a world where a megalomaniacal Mickey Mouse rules Earth from his base on Mars is no more or less likely than one in which the Boston Red Sox never traded Babe Ruth.

So when Paul Girard was granted the ability to travel among the universes by a post-human time traveler, he was understandably pleased. Here was an escape from the everyday drudgery of his plainly wasted life. The doorway to the full spectrum of human desire and ambition was placed literally at his fingertip in the form of a yo-yo. Made of "strange matter" drawn from pre-Big Bang space, it will, with a flick of Paul's wrist and a thought of where he wants to go, take him zooming across the multiverse. Unfortunately, as Paul quickly realizes, in a continuum of an infinite number of universes, one should be exceedingly particular about where one wants to go. While you might intend to jump to a world run by the Playboy bunnies, you could very easily end up in a world run by bloodthirsty Amazons.

As one might expect, Paul does just that (although under a variety of different circumstances) and pretty much makes a mess out of what should have been the greatest gift ever given to a mortal man. Nonetheless, along the way he inadvertently, and often unwillingly, learns a little something about himself. However, he is routinely thwarted in his efforts to resolve the "Ontological Pickle" as he puts it; simply stated it is, "What started everything?" What came before the Big Bang, or in this instance, what came before all of the Big Bangs? No matter how complex space-time actually is, and no matter how thoroughly it is understood, there has to be an Alpha Point, as it were, a space-time with nothing before it. But if such a place exists, what caused it to spring from nothing into something? It is these questions that gnaw at Paul, and even as he learns more and improves his physical and mental state, he comes no closer to the answer.

However, after a catastrophically bad jump, Paul and his companions (a son, (the result of a digital data swap) and Moonbeam, his erstwhile wife (a one time militant virgin hippy transformed into a bookworm nymphomaniac)) face certain death. That's when things get really interesting.

All that sounds like pretty heavy subject matter, but in Di Filippo's able hands, it is both hilarious and fascinating. Paul's miscalculations are so obvious in retrospect, one can't help but laugh, however, at the same time, the various worlds are by no means clichés. No matter how bizarre the setting, Di Filippo manages to lend a realism that drives the story forward.

Moreover, the author's consideration of the "Ontological Pickle" is exceptionally deft. Through quantum physics, he is able to create a theory of creation and God, of "everything" really, that makes sense and applies a subtle logic to religion. Though obviously only a hypothesis, Di Filippo's distillation of science, philosophy and religion is both profound and sound.

"Fuzzy Dice" is a novel that defies categorization, as it uses humorous science fiction to explore our deepest mysteries. Moreover, Di Filippo weaves in a great deal of science, but in a manner so subtle it would make Michael Crichton drool. This is truly one of the most original novels I have ever encountered, and I am certain it will be one I revisit many times.

Enjoy!

Jake Mohlman

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is contemplating the nature of the universe fun?, April 13, 2005

By 

G Smith "stupid middle age white guy" (the library) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fuzzy Dice (Paperback)

If Paul Di Filippo is doing it, then YES it is.

All I can say is Wow! This book does a very good job of speculating the exact nature of the universe. In any other authors hands this book would have turned into a scientific/sci-fi disaster. But Paul pulls it off and with such ease that you might not notice you are actually learning while reading. It is chocked-full of great existing theories and puts them into words that even I can understand.

It is the story of Paul Girard and how he is granted the ability to travel between every conceivable dimension. What does he do? Well, for starters he seriously F's up. I may like the character because he reminds me so much of myself.

I would recommend this to anyone who has ever wondered "why are we here?" It does help if you have a little bit of scientific knowledge, but the book is so good that you could get by without it.

Why have I not heard of this guy sooner?

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, December 21, 2010

By 

mike pen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fuzzy Dice (Paperback)

The writing was a little simplistic, but it had loads of imagination in it. It was a page turner that kept me entertained for a couple of days.