Customer Reviews

The Amphora Project

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

 

 

I was excited about picking up a new book from the author who wrote great books like The Fan Man, The Exile, Dr. Rat, etc. but---

This one had promise for a while but then gets muddled in the middle and didn't really keep me interested. Characters like Oldcastle and Lizardo seem to be the heroes, but they take a backseat to others like The Observer, who, I think is the only interesting character in the story. There are others who are introduced, like Man O' War, but their impact on the story is unclear.
There's some interesting robotic encounters and other-worldly concepts that keep the reader involved, but, overall, the story is pretty anti-climatic. The theme of humans (or aliens) playing with mortality works well, but the story becomes made-for-tv and fizzles.
If you're looking for good Kotzwinkle, I'd recommend the books mentioned above as well as some earlier titles like The Midnight Examiner and The Bear Went Over The Mountain.

Oh gosh I LIKED this book.. and I was going to write a review without reading the others but sneaked a peek anyway.. so now for SURE I am gonna' write this review!

First, I haven't read any other Kotzwinkle (that sounded.. strange.. but YOU know what I mean), but after THIS book I AM because I liked this book!

I agree that there are COOL characters in this book including the Observer: a cool objective analytical even ruthless strong female lead who sneaks up on you in the book. Her Mysterious Origin adds to her allure!

But the OTHer characters are cool too, especially Lizardo and Oldcastle.. hm.. this will either put you off or intrigue you more.. but those two remind me of an intelligent "A Team" set in a future earth galaxy empire combat instead of a wwII african desert combat.. but the same "competent though irreverent" feel is there.

ANYway the backround about ancient aliens and their immortality scam was just that to me.. a fun backdrop for the main and secondary characters to play against.. especially cool to me were the individual motivations of The Combine who invested in the Amphora (Immortality) Project totally taken in by the scam but unable to see it because of their hopes and fears.. ow! that hit close to home to me (wince) but felt all too authentic!

But Hey the story ends happily, humanity remains saved and SOME of the characters hook up and learn lessons, and OTHers don't (of course!) and I am off to read more of this guy's work, he rocks!

It was the culmination of countless dreams. The Amphora Project promised to bring immortality to humans, allow them to reclaim any physical moment for their bodies, continue on as long as the stars shined. Achieving success with the project, bringing immortality has become an obsession to the planet's leaders--and nothing would be allowed to stand in its way. Even when it became obvious that something was horribly wrong--even as people began transforming into crystal rocks--the project had to be continued. And when a few people rebelled, tried to stop the project before it stopped everything, it was too late.

Aliens from another dimension threaten humanity, and all life in our own universe. Against them, the military is completely helpless, and the government isn't even interested in fighting. Instead, a motley crew of old pirates, bug-scientists, robots, and Lizardo, the navigator, offer humanity's only hope.

Author William Kotzwinkle reaches into Science Fiction's tradition of space opera to deliver a battle against energy-sucking extra-dimensional aliens, romantic robots, and has-been pirates upon whom the fate of the universe rests. It's a good effort, but Kotzwinkle doesn't quite pull it off. For me, at least, the characters never quite came to life, their romances didn't seem integral to the individuals, and it was hard to get excited about whether any of them managed to stay alive or joined the mob being transformed to crystal.

I read THE BEAR WENT OVER THE MOUNTAIN and it was one of my all time favorites. I was excited to read another by the same author, but this book was hard to follow, and it never really sucked me in. I think he should have spent more time on it, or maybe it's the wrong genre for the writer. I'm still super excited to read his other books and hope more become available on the kindle.

I've now read three William Kotzwinkle books (not counting "Walter the Farting Dog"). In each book I've read -- and "The Amphora Project" is one of them -- he creates a fantastic world out of whole cloth, and populates it with fantastic characters who behave only as Kotzwinkle characters can. In this case, it's "The Corridor..." a place somewhere in space, somewhere in the future, where refugees from doomed Planet Earth have re-established themselves, interacting with populations (and robots) from all over the known universe. We meet Jockey Oldcastle, a space pirate... an elephantine used-weapons dealer... Kitty Liftoff, who runs the Junk Moon.... all overseen by the Consortium and the Autonomous Observer. I won't get any farther into the plot than that. Only Kotzwinkle can tell the story, so I won't even try, other than to say that the quest for immortality is involved. "The Amphora Project" grabbed me and involved me immediately and didn't let go. I highly recommend it.
While I'm at it, let me also urge you to enjoy "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" and "The Fan Man," my other two Kotzwinkle tales.

This was my first Kotzwinkle book.

Despite the three stars I give this book, I give Kotzwinkle's imagination and originality a 5. The strength of his little periphery ideas were intriguing enough to keep me going through the end.
The previous posters are correct. The actual "hero" of the story, Link, was extremely flat compared to other characters like Oldcastle and Upquark. In addition to this, his personality (what little we can glean from the book) seems to change without explanation as he assumes the role of hero toward the end.
The twist in the book was interesting, but it seems to be carried out rather roughly. There is little background or foreshadowing. The storyline just abruptly changes lanes.
In addition to this, there seems to be leftover pieces of incomplete or changed subplots.
Was it a rushed deadline?
The ideas were fantastic, and this could have been a 5-star book with more development.