Customer Reviews

The Twiller

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

 

 

David's 3rd book promised to be a fun romp through the galaxy reminiscent of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I really did enjoy it and am looking forward to a sequel.

I was reminded somewhat of HGG but not all that much. There are some similiarities but the differences are far greater. Instead of the Arthur Dent's smarter friend, Ford Prefect, our hero, Ian Harebungler has a small floating marshmallow-like alien whose vocabulary consists of the single word, "Twill" (hence the name, Twiller). A few of the events in this book are just silly and didn't strike me as that funny yet there were some other instances where I was totally taken off guard and was chuckling out loud. As the book goes on, there were other circumstances that revealed a very rich satirical look at our own society making me think of what Jonathan Swift did in his classic unabridged version of Gulliver's Travels. These circumstances were superbly crafted.

In HGG, Arthur Dent was given a babble fish to put in his ear so he could understand everyone. In Twiller, Ian doesn't need such a contraption. Ian briefly wonders why he can understand everything but then decides not worry about it. The author advises the reader not to worry about this either.

What is a Twiller? Well, it's a small, yellow being resembling a marshmallow that floats, but doesn't say much aside from, "Twill." It's from some place other than Earth, and it has made a friend--a hapless American named Ian, who has been snatched from the mundane comforts of his home world and thrust into the dangerous, and often hilarious, rat race that is the Universe. On his journey, Ian encounters places that seem eerily familiar.

No matter how far away from home Ian gets, the more things stay the same, and the better his cell phone reception seems to get. Author David Derrico follows up on his more serious space epics (Right Ascension and Declination) with a sci-fi comedy of that is fun and funny from start to finish.

There is not "4th wall" in this book, the author freely takes you along on Ian's hapless wandering through the galaxy and describes everything to you as if the whole book were one long conversation. I found the story to be kind of let's poke fun of all these places in the USA, and having lived in many of them, I loved it. Thank you Mr. Derrico for poking fun at our stuffiness.

Science fiction can be profound, using a speculative framework to show us the deepest secrets in our collective psyche, and to perhaps serve as a warning of what our worst natures may bring, and an inspiration as to how the human imagination can bring about a better existence.

Or, you know, it can be silly and full of puns. ;)

The Twiller, by David Derrico, is very solidly in the second camp.

While the author claims in his foreword to have "stolen" the funny parts from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I'd say it is more of a Gulliver's Travels for the 21st Century.

While there are certainly elements in common with Adams (an odd fascination with terry cloth, for one), the book's hapless hero (Ian Harebungler) travels to a variety of "lands" (planets, in this case), each a parody of a part of the United States. They also all have social commentary, although presented in a thoroughly inoffensive, whimsical manner.

For example, an alien society has political candidates whose political favor is openly purchased by special interest groups: to the extent of wearing corporate logos in "some bizarre combination of a business suit and a race-car driver's outfit" and working commercials into their speeches.

When our nominal hero confronts an alien (who has been paid by its employer to be at a rally...in fact, its entire job is to support candidates on behalf of the corporation), they argue about the relative benefits of openly purchased politicians and the kinds of donations we see in American elections.

The alien exclaims:

"Your planet must be backwards if the purchasing of favorable legislation isn't even all out in the open!"

It's that sort of thought (and discussion) that moves it more into Swiftian territory for me. Oh, perhaps not with the universal themes of the classic work, but there is that flavor.

Whimsy, though, is also a key element. Here's a description of a hostile spaceship:

"The ship looked as if it were the sort of ship that was perpetually ready to pounce at any other starship, asteroid, or planet it saw, and as if it very much desired to do a wide range of not very nice things to whatever it pounced upon. It always looked as if it were at the end of a very bad day, the sort of Tuesday afternoon that just dragged on with no redeeming qualities whatsoever."

I think that gives you a good feel for it.

It reminded me of some of the Oz stories (where they wander from one punny land to another), some of Arthur Byron Cover (the Platypus of Doom came to mind), and Daniel Pinkwater (The Snark-Out Boys).

Speaking of Pinkwater, who writes books classified as children's stories, this book is also listed in the children's category...but I can't imagine it appealing very much to a ten-year old. I doubt the Sisyphean task of reviewing commas in contracts is going to amuse your average kid.

However, it is nice to note that there isn't anything inappropriate for ten-year olds. You could probably hear all of the language on the Disney Channel (cr*p is as bad as it gets), and except for the unfortunate use of the word "retarded" as an insult (I'd say "stupid" could have served just as well), there really isn't anything offensive. Snarky, perhaps, but the overarching goal seems to be the production of mirth.

One other point: I know some of you are reluctant to try self-published books because of a concern about proof-reading and such. Relax: The Twiller is as error-free as any novel from a traditional publisher that I've read. The author also understands formatting for e-books: the clickable Table of Contents is in the back (and reachable through the menus), which is also where you'll find the author bio. Why is that better? So you can get a better sample. You can also flick right (on any Kindle except a Kindle 1) to move forward through the parts of the book...a convenience many large publishers seem to ignore.

The paperback lists this as Volume 1, so perhaps we'll see more of Ian Harebungler and his companion, The Twiller. I'm sure that will depend in part on you, the reading public, and how well-received it is.

So, if you are looking for a light and airy entertainment, a popcorn book with an intergalactic setting, The Twiller is a button-pusher that will keep you smiling.

Full disclosure: I was given a review copy to read by the author. Outside of that, we've never met, except for a few comments exchanged electronically.

NOTE: This review was originally posted on Red Adept Reviews on May 12, 2011.

Overall: 4 3/4 stars

Plot/Storyline: 4 3/4 stars

The Twiller followed the misadventures of Ian Harebungler (an ordinary American and a very unlikely hero) and his marshmallow-like companion, the Twiller, on a comic romp around the galaxy. If this storyline sounds a bit familiar, it should, and I'll give the author an "A" for honesty. He said upfront that this was a blatant rip-off of Douglas Adams' classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It was, but it didn't matter. It's funny, really funny. Ian was reminiscent of Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker, except instead of hitchhiking a ride on a spaceship, Ian was abducted. Once he was aboard the spaceship, he met his new companion, the Twiller, and they proceeded to travel throughout the galaxy to strange and exotic places.

Coincidentally, many of the places that Ian visited during his long journey were remarkably Earth-like except for the bizarre aliens who inhabited these places. The Twiller lampooned cities like El Leigh, Bez Erkeley, and Wosh Mington Deecee. The climactic scene occurred on an island named Westerly Key in a state where many sports fans cheered on the Fleur Ida Gate Tors. Even the U.S. Constitution got a bit of ribbing - and I'll bet you never knew there were four branches of government, not just the three that you learned in school!

There were no sacred cows in The Twiller, with just about anything and everything we're familiar with being fair game. I even noticed a rip-off of one of the late Senator Everett Dirksen's quotations.

This was a fun book to read.


Characters: 4 3/4 stars

The main characters were Ian Harebungler, just an average American fellow (although on the short side) and his trusty companion, the Twiller. The Twiller was basically a pocket-sized marshmallow with two eyes whose vocabulary consisted of one word - "twill." Granted the Twiller wasn't as loquacious as Marvin, the manic-depressive robot in Hitchhiker, but he did save Ian's life a few times with his prescience and his warning "twill.".

In the Epilogue, it turned out that the Twiller was not at all what he appeared to be, but that's for the reader to find out.


Writing style: 4 3/4 stars

Author David Derrico came very close to matching Douglas Adams' farcical, achingly funny style of writing that fit the story so perfectly. I hate to keep comparing The Twiller to the epic Hitchhiker, but the author made no bones about trying to emulate Hitchhiker, so that's the standard I expected this story to meet.


Editing: 4 3/4 stars

There were very few grammatical or spelling errors, and the Kindle formatting was very good.

The Twiller is lighthearted and easy to read. I found reading the satirical observations of Ian Harebungler's adventures cathartic, as it reflects many of the frustrations I contend with in the non-fictional world, but am unable to put into words. As many have pointed out before, the style of story telling is reminiscent of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide. Additionally, I have also found the transition between chapters akin to that of Robert Heinlein's Job: A comedy of justice, which makes the storyline easy to refer back to for someone always on the move.

How much can one find oneself caring about a title character described as a big yellow marshmallow with eyes? Well, if it's the Twiller, it doesn't matter what he looks like, the humor that supports was powerful enough to make me almost miss my subway stop. Even though the Twiller is the title character of the book, Ian Harbungler is the main character. Abducted by aliens, Ian finds himself stranded on a series of worlds that should seem somewhat familiar but skewed, with the above mentioned yellow marshmallow as faithful companion. Derrico does a great job of spoofing various cities, and I found myself looking forward to the next one. And I wanted more. It felt as if the author ran out of ideas and just ended the book. But in his defense, he admits his ending might be a bit anticlimactic. So, Dave, how about, Twiller 2, The Return of the Gideons?

I finished this book looking for a laff or two, and find a interesting story. The story is just plain stupid. The main character was not interesting and just plain boring. I am glad that I did not spend any more for this than I did

I have purchased more than 175 books for my Kindle. This is the first eBook I felt I should maybe save someone $3.00

An unexpected-but-cool disruption of the eBook revolution is the ability for independent authors to get broad exposure and distribution without needing a publisher. It was with this in mind, and a recommendation on the web, that I tried "The Twiller". In the first dozen or so pages I laughed a few times, and was about to settle in for a Douglas Adams meets Dave Barry tongue in cheek romp. Then the trouble began. The romp isn't through well-imagined places with subtle commentaries on human nature, but instead through various cities in the US, subtly renamed as planets - El Leigh, Bez Erkeley (I started skimming at this point), Huh why E, and Wosh Mington Deecee (abbreviated WMD). Each planet's inhabitants are shallow, obvious stereotypes of each city. Unlike the fiction I enjoy, which sets out interesting, new situations and lets me learn and draw conclusions from them, I get a two-by-four like this one: "But Ian was too badly shaken; the nightmarish world of WMD was based all too clearly on the same document that served as the foundation of his own government back on Earth. Some perverted, parallel universe version..." I guess the author expects his readers to not have that thought on their own. That's unfortunate for the rest of us.

If this is your cup of tea, go for it! The book has no obvious typos, flows reasonably well, and seems to be one long set-up for a reasonably cute ending. It just isn't what I look for in a pastime.

I got about half way through and gave up.

I really hate to trash anyone, but David is working way to hard. The jokes are obscure and not particularly funny.

I like the concept and think David should take another crack at it, but he should read a whole lot of Piers Anthony books before he does. Humor is very difficult, and good humorists are rare. David could probably make something work in this genre, but this is not it.

Sorry, David, go back and try again.

Robert H. Cherny