The Voyage of the Proteus: An Eyewitness Account of the End of the World [Hardcover]

Disch; Thomas M. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2008

Subterranean Press is proud to present an original novella by one of speculative fictions most original voices.

Not since the Odyssey by the Greek poet Homer has there been such a rousing adventure on the high seas, not since the celebrated comic book 300 such noble torsoes and dashing deeds, not since Scarlet O'Hara such an intrepid heroine as the Trojan princess and pythoness Cassandra. Abducted from her ravaged homeland by the cruel warlord Agamemnon, Cassandra needs all her beauty and guile to survive the perils of the Aegean Sea, but she is able to do so with the help of a modern-day Ulysses--the Author Himself, an aged writer transported back into an Age of Pagan Rites!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This offbeat and somewhat self-indulgent novella from Disch (The Businessman) seeks to draw some parallels between the current Bush administration and the ancient Greeks (Agamemnon was the George Bush of 1100 B.C.), but his political message is lost in a muddled plot. A fictional version of the author travels back in time to the post–Trojan War era and becomes a passenger on the boat Proteus. While cruising the Mediterranean, Tom encounters Cassandra, Homer and Socrates and solves a riddle familiar to anyone who knows the Oedipus story. Tom holds forth to Cassandra on the technological marvels of modern life and the crassness of commercialism, but the resulting satire is mild at best. (Dec.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 100 pages
• Publisher: Subterranean (January 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596061502
• ISBN-13: 978-1596061507
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,206,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eternal returns, February 13, 2008

By 

L. Stearns Newburg "LSN" (CA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Voyage of the Proteus: An Eyewitness Account of the End of the World (Hardcover)

It has been quite some time since Disch's last novel, _The Sub_, so I looked forward to this book, although the page count made it clear in advance that _The Voyage of the Proteus_ was really more novella than novel. Still, Disch is Disch (tautologically speaking), and I generally find all of his fiction worth reading.

Disch's characteristic irony is here in abundance, as well as his poet's talent for the incisive sentence. The set-up uses the machinery of an historical/mythic/time-travel story, but the work seems more a meditation on our penchant for self-destruction -- perhaps that's too strong, and one should say, "penchant for shooting ourselves in the foot, repeatedly," with the implication that this probably qualifies as madness or stupidity or both.

The book juggles elements of Greek myth and our present and future in a playful fashion, seeming more like poetic reverie than the ham-fisted political-satiric fiction that PW seemed to expect. As the Publisher's Weekly review points out (however tediously), the book draws parallels between the destructive actions and cognitive deficiencies of rulers (Priam, Agamemnon, GWBush) and cultures (Trojan, Mycenean, Knossos, the USA today and in the near future). To read it as political satire is, I think, a mistake. It is not that simple to reduce such a book to the formula of satire. It's a poet's book, and feels more "personal" and "lyrical" than any of Disch's more recent fiction.

I liked it a lot, and recommend the book, but want to caution that it's not a conventional story of the sort expected by (for example) sf readers. The Publisher's Weekly review of this book is bestial, but devoted readers of Disch and admirers of intelligent fiction should not let that deter them from seeking it out.

This book could also be thought of as teaser: Disch's first full-length novel since _The Sub_ is due out later this year: _The Word of God_. We may reasonably expect some of the same elements in that book.

Welcome back, Tom.