Customer Reviews

Ruby: The Adventures of a Galactic Gumshoe

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ha ha ha! I remember this radio series by ZBS! I was in college in the early 1990s, and our college radio station used to play this radio sci-fi comedy. It was hilarious! I was lucky enough to tape a few of the episodes off the air. Oh boy! I didn't know I could get this series on CD!

For those not in the know, this radio series centered on the adventures of Ruby, a galactic gumshoe. She's a trigger-happy, wise-cracking space detective who was on a quest to search for something (The Ultimate Game, I think?). She meets all sorts of scumbags and colorful characters along the way like Rodant Kapur, And/Or, Enana, Professor Theru, the And/Or Sisters, the Mole People, etc (excuse any mispellings). The series was rapid-paced and ultra-funny with great sound effects. Imagine Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell from "His Girl Friday" set in outer space, and you can imagine the great humour.

Unfortunately, I only got to listen to half of the story, so I don't know how it started or how it ended, but now I get to find out! Highly recommended!

Originally produced in three minute daily episodes for drive-time radio, Ruby is the ZBS foundations most popular story they've ever created. This audio adventure is very smart, with some good thinking interlaced with a witty story.

It's full of clever characters such as And/Or, the technician with an illegal love for a very special android, Angel Lips, the special android whose programmer gave her free will with mixed results, TJ Teru, the archeologist with a taste for plastic, and Ruby, the tough talking galactic gumshoe with the psychic power to stop time. Ruby is hired to find out who is controlling the media on Suma Nulla, and becomes mixed up with the mole people and The Tookah, a creature with four tentacles, three eyes, a blue mustache and red fez.

Fast-paced, funny, and highly recommended

This audio book is beyond anything I have had ever heard, or have heard since. Not only is it fantastically written, wonderfully acted, and beautifully visualized, it also has a certain wit about technology and the future that is refreshing. The android sisters 'OnOffOn' and 'OffOnOff', the mole people, the fantastic Ruby, with her sly wit and kick-... attitude, this is an audio book for the whole family.

I personally guarantee, if you don't like it, somebody else will give you $5 for the CDs on e-bay. Please treat yourself and give it a listen.

This story is hilarious! Great characters, good story line with some interesting sociological statements included, too. A must for those who love a good science fiction story -- or a good comedy.

If you are familiar with regular audiobooks, you may find this one annoying (and rather goofy).

The good: Full cast of voice actors, excellent sound production, music and sound effects. Some good turns of phrase and clever ideas.

The bad: Constant repeating of lines and facts, bad puns, and all around goofyness. But if you like groan-inducing puns and "wacky" humor, this is probably good news also.

The constant repeating of lines and facts seems to be due to the fact that this was originally meant to be broadcast as a set of short episodes (maybe 5 min each?). So if you only heard one segment per day or week or something, the repetition was probably a good thing and the jokes wouldn't get on your nerves so much.

But when you listen straight through, the repetition and constant dumb jokes (I guess they needed at least one per segment) are just annoying.

After the first half hour I had to switch it off and listen to something else, but I do plan to go back and listen to the rest... a little at a time.

Just a quick reminiscence... It's been 25 years and Ruby still haunts my memories with all the nostalgia of the waning days of radio theatre. It was my university radio station that played full episodes and not the 3 minute cop-outs that so many other stations played which first reintroduced me to the dying art of radio theatre. Tulane University station WTUL regaled us with eclectic music, gave us The Smiths and the Psychedelic Furs in all their "across the pond" glory, and replayed Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide original radio show in full installments. Where have the minds of youth gone today? The anti-cultural era of the late 20th Century, with it's sound bites and gratifyingly predictable dénouements served up in sit-coms and processed TV, gave way to computer games and the internet and has killed the last vestiges of imagination and patience of mind required to be swept away to other places by well crafted radio theatre or God forbid a good book.

My pro-cultural, anti post pop culture diatribe aside, I wish only that people in their browsing here will rediscover Ruby, Moon over Morocco and all the other fine ZBS productions which I believed were long lost. You see, the haze of illicit substances though long past, haven't affected my memory. Angel Lips, the Frankie and OffonOff and OnoffOn and the hubba-hubba tree and all the rest are still alive for me.

I give Ruby to a new and one hopes enchantable generation. Learn to explore the infinity of the mind by taking the time to listen and be swept up. Learn again how to truly read not just to process information, but to exercise the mind and derive pleasure from it.

I GIVE YOU ALL RUBY!!! But not before I buy my copy. My pirated cassettes from my buddies in the control booth at TUL are gappy and stretched out from over playing.

If you like science fiction & have a sense of humor ... or you're into twisted radio theatre (like Firesign) ... or just like trippy stories full of unexpected twists, clever sound effects, funny funny characters ... and 'specially if you like bad BAD achingly BAD puns ... try a shot of Ruby. It goes down smoooooooooooooooooth!

Warning: If you listen late at night, you will have *weird* dreams if you fall asleep.

It's that simple. I have all the Ruby's from 1-7 and Tired of the Green Menace. I love them all!