Spaceman Blues: A Love Song (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Spaceman Blues, Brian Francis Slattery, Church of Panic (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Editor/writer/musician Slattery's chaotic debut takes readers on a headlong trip to the end of the world. Manuel González, a legendary New York City party animal, has disappeared and his apartment has exploded, leaving behind only the memories of his thousands of friends and enemies. His lover, Wendell Apogee, is determined to find out what happened. So are police inspectors Herman Trout and Lenny Salmon, who uncover a web of bizarre characters, from Lucas Henderson, former Lunar Temple cult member, and Arturo El Flaco Domínguez, González's worst enemy, to a washed-up '80s pop band the Marsupials. As Wendell tracks González through Darktown, the place where you find lost things, the prophecies of the apocalyptic Church of Panic begin coming true: aliens threaten to invade Earth, and Wendell must become superhero Captain Spaceman and save the planet. The story itself doesn't make much sense, but Slattery has a grand time showing off the colorful underground culture of cockfights, raves and endless intoxication that keeps things moving in his hallucinatory vision of New York. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Manuel Rodrigo de Guzmán González disappears, his apartment is consumed by an explosion, and most of the city mourns as though he's dead. The police aren't convinced, and after they question Wendell Apogee, Wendell decides to find out for himself. He doesn't foresee the madhouse things he then proceeds to do—asking questions during a cockfight that gets raided, finding an apocalyptic cult based on valid scientific evidence, going to an underground city in which the best bar is a train car hung from a cavern ceiling. He is changed forever. When aliens come for him wielding weapons from Manuel's apartment, Wendell has to shake up his ordinary life and become someone able to fight such seemingly unstoppable foes. And, wouldn't you know it, the aliens are just forerunners of something bigger and far more devastating than anyone suspected—anyone, that is, except a few who stumbled on certain evidence and created an apocalyptic cult. Spaceman Blues is a mad ride related by a pulp sensibility filtered through the nonstop freneticism of New York's subcultures, real and imagined. Schroeder, Regina --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765316145
• ISBN-13: 978-0765316141
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #234,848 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wild Ride of Words, March 16, 2008

By	Zinta Aistars "Writer & Editor" (Portage, MI United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

An apartment explodes, and, supposedly, Manuel González is blown to smithereens along with it. Or is he? Brian Francis Slattery's debut novel, "Spaceman Blues: A Love Song," is an explosion of words, all in bright sparks, in all directions, a flaming sky of beautiful chaos. Even when I had trouble following this surreal story, I loved reading it. It almost didn't have to make sense. Sometimes the joy of literary paint splashing on walls, Pollack if this were visual, Monk if this were musical, is enough to enthrall the audience:

"He could find another man, sweet and kind; they could retire to a house upstate with flowing windows, where the roads are framed in green and there are only the assured rhythms of farm equipment, occasional guests, the piling and melting of snow, mud in the spring, angry summers mollified by shade and wind. He could let this rage cut wrinkles into him and dissipate. He could let solace in.

"But he is here now. Subways mumble above his head, the tugboat shudders on its cables. Children swing from spindly walkways, singing songs over the thrum of music and machinery. Every second is another escape from death: it swings by, brushes your clothes, and then wheels around, cheated and livid, and you plant your feet on the crumbling rock, curl your hands into fists. Come and get me." (pg. 111)

As authorities and Wendell Apogee, González's gay lover, track him through Darktown, an underlayer of New York that serves as the dryer to lost socks, the scenes become ever more surreal, wheeling in every direction, mixing with alien life (forms and style), swimming in apocalyptic madness toward the final days on earth. No matter if you lose track of this wild path. Enjoy the dizzy ride.

Slattery is a new voice, and we have too few of those in these cautious days of publishing. Tor, the book's publisher, is to be commended for giving platform to a literary spaceman, singing his literary blues in fresh style.

~Zinta Aistars for "The Smoking Poet," Spring 2008 Issue

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spaceman Blues - WOW, March 29, 2008

By	L. Jordan Bickel "Technomonk" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Spaceman Blues: A Love Song (Hardcover)

There are many good reviews for this book already - they helped me decide to buy this book in the first place. Check them out. The best praise I can personally give this book (that hasn't already been said) is this: After reading Spaceman Blues I bought two more hard back copies and gave them to my friends.

This book is good stuff and if it signals a trend in the genre then I am officially stoked about our reading futures.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing!, December 22, 2008

By	S. Duke "SMD" (Placerville, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's not often that one comes in contact with a truly literary-style piece of science fiction with superheroes, trench coat aliens, and underground floating cities, let alone a literary-style piece of science fiction that works. Slattery's Spaceman Blues is a stunning, if not astonishing piece of fiction; the kind of book you want to read over and over, because each time you do you'll find something new that you missed before; the kind of book that reigns in the pulpy goodness of the Golden Age of science fiction and comics with a style that will draw in readers of Thomas Pynchon and E. L. Doctorow (in my opinion and based upon a limited exposure to those writers).

Spaceman Blues takes off with the disappearance of Manuel Rodrigo de Guzman Gonzalez, the boyfriend of Wendell Apogee. Wendell isn't willing to accept that Manuel is simply dead and sets out to find out what happened. But in doing so he finds himself chased by alien assassins and the unexpected hero to an underground society stricken with fear by the destructive force of beings that have more in store for the Earth than they are letting on.

With a diverse cast, each with their own stories and connections, Spaceman Blues is a rather unusual and exciting read. Every sentence seems packed with important information and Slattery's style manages to wander into the lives of his unique characters while still pushing the story forward; that wandering rarely harms the overall integrity of the story. For such a short novel, Spaceman Blues does so much: it takes our main character from being just a man to a superhero, digs into the lives of a multitude of characters, each with unique back stories and personalities, and gives respect to the pulp literatures of the last century by taking them to a new level while still engaging with their "classic" nature.

Readers of Spaceman Blues may see interesting mythological parallels, too. The plot itself feels like an allusion to the story of Orpheus, with Wendell descending into an underground world in search of his lover in much the same way as Orpheus had. There are interesting parallels to Biblical figures too, particularly the four horseman. These elements add to the depth of the work, giving it the sort of multi layered narrative not often found within inherently "popular" forms of literature, particularly because the way this work is written intentionally draws one to the language, to the writing itself and what Slattery is actually saying rather than what the basic points of the plot are.

Spaceman Blues is not without flaws, though. While I enjoyed the ending of Slattery's 219-page novel, I expect some readers will dislike the lack of a significant conclusion, and perhaps may find the pessimistic view at the end to be too literary, or unsatisfying (or depressing?). To add, Slattery's style is not an entirely approachable one in the sense that it is not written like the novels that embrace the "popular literature" style. He writes with a certain fluidity, if that is the proper term to use here, with sentences that would generally be considered run-ons, but work precisely because of the type of book Slattery was writing; occasionally his style works against him when he wanders too far in the narrative. If you want to read this book, go into it understanding that it is written in a long, literary style, rather than the style you might be more familiar with.

Despite its flaws, Spaceman Blues is a fast-paced (and short) read. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different, because this work is certainly different, if not unique--a character story more than a plot story. It's also an example of why Tor is one of the pioneers of science fiction publishing: Slattery has an interesting vision that I'm glad to see get the attention it deserves. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to read more of Slattery's work in the future, because if Spaceman Blues is anything to go by, I expect he'll have a long career ahead of him.

Go check it out!