Customer Reviews

Sewer, Gas and Electric: THE PUBLIC WORKS TRILOGY

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Having devoured "Fool On The Hill," I moved on to "Sewer Gas And Electric: The Public Works Trilogy" expecting more of the same. I didn't get the same, I got better. Ruff is a man who knows how to weave a plot around a multitude of characters, and give each their own distinctive voice. The voices of Abbie Hoffman and Ayn Rand can be clearly heard through their technological doppelgangers (if you know either character, or both, you will collapse laughing during one scene where Abbie is desperately trying to tell Ayn a joke). I read most of this novel during a vacation at Walt Disney World (which is ironic since Disney plays a pivotal part in the plot) and found the book more engrossing than some of the activities we undertook in the park. But be warned: if you worship Ayn Rand (there is a scathing attack on "Atlas Shrugged" within the book), believe that the environment will take care of itself, or are a racist, you will hate this book. You have been warned. Everyone else should give it a try.

Well, let's see. How can you possibly describe a book featuring a 181 year-old female U.S. Civil War veteran, a book gleefully unwilling to explain how such a person could end up still alive in the year 2023? A book detailing an extremely selective plague, wiping out the world's black population, only to be replaced by jive-talking Amos and Andy robotic equivilents? A book following the exploits of a submarine-based eco-terrorist team, floating through the world's oceans in a home-brewed high-tech submersible, hunted by the world's nicest billionaire industrialist? A book featuring the arch-conservative musings of author Ayn Rand's holographic likeness in a jar?

Wait a minute, I just did. At any rate, think of this book as a demented Neal Stephenson on acid. On top of a bedrock of solid characterizations and a fully coalesced storyline, Ruff constructs some of the strangest situations, oddest segues and wackiest future forcasts in recent memory. It may get a bit confusing at times, and Ayn does tend to grate on about the glories of U.S. mass consumption, but trust me...it's a G.A.S.

Ruff doesn't hide his politics. This in of itself would normally be cause for dread; after a recent painful reading experience (Bill Fitzhugh's "The Organ Grinders", I have a review posted), it's a relief to read a writer who can be political without being, well, annoying about it.

It's this very thing that lets Ruff be gut-bustingly funny where other authors tend to fall flat. Where others just make one side saints and the other side demons, Ruff allows that us liberals aren't the only people capable of being decent human beings. Of course, a rat is a rat is a rat, and under the surface, Ruff has some rather sharp observations about America, especially when it comes to commerce and race.

But first and foremost, this book is FUNNY. The "Mr. Science" scene alone, which involves a salami as a high-velocity projectile, is worth the seven bucks. Toss in Meisterbrau (read the book), Ayn Rand in a lamp, the darker side of Walt Disney, and an industrialist who finds creative sabotage of his enterprises as funny as everyone else, and you've got a great cocktail. Highly recommended light reading.

This novel defies classification. It is part SF, part satire, but all very readable and enjoyable. It is thought-provoking but doesn't beg to be taken seriously, and certainly not literally.
For the objectivists in the crowd, I recommend it for those who thought *Atlas Shrugged* was gospel when they read it in college, but who are now ready to begin questioning Ayn Rand's philosophy.

Matt Ruff is a talented bartender, mixing interesting characters with cultural references both obscure and hip into a delightful cocktail that will satisfy your thirst and leave you wanting more. If Ayn Rand had a sense of humor and some perspective, she might have wanted to write a book like this. A warning; at the end of this book, you might find you don't take philosophy as seriously as you used to. I think that is a positive step, and it makes reading this book an imperative.

I tried to describe this book to a friend of mine. It came out something like this: "Well, there's this woman and a lamp with the spirit of Ayn Rand, and her car has Abbie Hoffman's -- well, just read the book." When pressed, I described the first chapter. A young man from the sticks, comes to the big city. He's got a fresh new start, a blank slate of optimism, and gets a job for the New York Sewer System's Zoological Division. One his first day of work, he meets his new teammates, makes friends with them. Gosh this guy is nice! They hand him grenades and gas masks. They go by boat into the sewer with an android on the front sniffing the air. The farm boy, which by now you've come to like a lot, shows his new watch off -- plays 60 different orchestrations. He's playing Bolero for the crew. Suddenly he's eaten by a great white shark. End of chapter, but the begining of a marvelous read. Keep an open mind, remind yourself of the willfull suspension of disbelief, and enjoy the ride

This book is a fast-paced, hard-to-put-down, edge-of- your-seat comic thriller. With tangled plot line weaving a mulitutude of characters from a goofy billionaire to an eco-terrorist to Ayn Rand, and featuring a mutant shark and a genocidal computer, Sewer Gas & Electric is a very bizzare romp through an imaginary 21st century. Matt Ruff has lost none of the brilliance that made Fool on the Hill such an enjoyable read, an he has combined that with a stricking vision to creat a wonderful tapestry of confusion and deviance. Highly reccomended

Brilliant! Genocide, electronic slaves, eco-crusaders, the politics of power, social responsibility...how do you construct a novel with all these elements without frightening or boring your reader to death? Matt Ruff knows: a true artist. He extends reality to the point of what is seemingly fantastic; but, is it really? Probably not; however, the flow of Ruff's lyrical writing style and excellent comic relief empowers the reader with a sense of hope. All I can say is... WOW!!! This is a must for anyone's personal library. A rating under 4 doesn't do this book justice. I've given it a 5.

PS: FOTH is a very different book but another great example of Ruff's amazing talent.

update: 6/20/06
I originally wrote my review in 2002 and just realized this book is no longer available on Amazon. Although I still have my old copy, I wanted another clean, unhandled copy for safekeeping. This was an amazing book and I simply can't understand why everyone does not have a copy of it.

As probably many readers, I read this book after having been swept away by the Fool on the Hill. This book is quite different, so a word of warning to anybody looking for more of the same. And a word of encouragement, too, because this is an imaginative and very funny book that's (at least in my opinion) much more accessable than the works mentioned in some other reviews (Illuminatus comes to mind). I even may have learned a thing or two...

A humorous and entertaining story that captures ones attnetion and continues to engage until the last page. I was turned on to Ruff's books with Fool on the Hill which I enjoyed so much I had to buy this one. This story provides great charcter development, and tells a story that is unbelievable, yet makes one wonder how far away from reality it really is. A wonderful tale of adventure, comedy, and fighting for fairness, the environment, and big business.