Neutrino Drag by Paul Di Filippo  (1)
$15.95
|
This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are. Join Amazon Prime today. Already a member? Sign in.
|
|||||||||
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With tongue firmly in cheek, the prolific and dependably daffy Di Filippo (Little Doors; Babylon Sisters; etc.) clowns his way through this transdimensional travelogue cut from the same cloth as Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Paul Girard, a bored bookstore clerk, is pondering the point of his directionless life (a dilemma he refers to as "the Ontological Pickle") when he is visited by Hans, a cyborg from the future. In exchange for a download of his human essence, Hans gives Paul a yo-yo on a superstring that allows him to travel effortlessly to alternate universes in the cosmic Monobloc. Paul soon becomes a dimension-hopping Gulliver, walking the dog to a succession of paratimes and places that include the cosmic void before the Big Bang, the two-dimensional world of a computer simulation template and, in the book's giddy high point, an alternate America where the hippies overthrew the Nixon administration. The picaresque plot amounts to little more than a Baedeker of vividly imagined micro- and macroworlds that Paul plunks down on, gets a crash-course history of, and barely escapes assimilation into. Though the pattern and elaboration of each new adventure grows repetitive, Di Filippo keeps the proceedings lively with satiric winks at our own world and a profusion of comically apt pop culture references ranging from Charles Dickens to Yellow Submarine. Readers will find this novel as close as SF gets to vicarious enjoyment of the class cut-up's antics.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
How badly could you screw up when granted access to infinite worlds conforming to your heart's most intimate desires? No matter how much of a disaster you or I might make of such a miraculous gift, rest assured that Paul Girard, hapless middle-aged bookstore clerk, can hilariously surpass your worst fumblings and missteps. Visited one morning by a dimension-hopping artificial intelligence named Hans, Paul is given the ability to jump instantly to any world he can envision. But without truly knowing himself, Paul soon discovers that framing a wish that gets the expected results is not as easy as it first appears. From the depths of the Big Bang to a world where hippies rule; from a land of Amazons to one where life is a video-game; from a society where cooperation means everything to one where individual chaos rules-across these bizarre dimensions and many others, Paul races in the search for happiness, love, wealth, status¨ and the answer to the Ontological Pickle. Acquiring comrades and enemies along the way, our feckless alternaut reaches a cul-de-sac from which the only exit is death. And then his adventures really begin¨. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
With tongue firmly in cheek, the prolific and dependably daffy Di Filippo (Little Doors; Babylon Sisters; etc.) clowns his way through this transdimensional travelogue cut from the same cloth as Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Paul Girard, a bored bookstore clerk, is pondering the point of his directionless life (a dilemma he refers to as "the Ontological Pickle") when he is visited by Hans, a cyborg from the future. In exchange for a download of his human essence, Hans gives Paul a yo-yo on a superstring that allows him to travel effortlessly to alternate universes in the cosmic Monobloc. Paul soon becomes a dimension-hopping Gulliver, walking the dog to a succession of paratimes and places that include the cosmic void before the Big Bang, the two-dimensional world of a computer simulation template and, in the book's giddy high point, an alternate America where the hippies overthrew the Nixon administration. The picaresque plot amounts to little more than a Baedeker of vividly imagined micro- and macroworlds that Paul plunks down on, gets a crash-course history of, and barely escapes assimilation into. Though the pattern and elaboration of each new adventure grows repetitive, Di Filippo keeps the proceedings lively with satiric winks at our own world and a profusion of comically apt pop culture references ranging from Charles Dickens to Yellow Submarine. Readers will find this novel as close as SF gets to vicarious enjoyment of the class cut-up's antics.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
How badly could you screw up when granted access to infinite worlds conforming to your heart's most intimate desires? No matter how much of a disaster you or I might make of such a miraculous gift, rest assured that Paul Girard, hapless middle-aged bookstore clerk, can hilariously surpass your worst fumblings and missteps. Visited one morning by a dimension-hopping artificial intelligence named Hans, Paul is given the ability to jump instantly to any world he can envision. But without truly knowing himself, Paul soon discovers that framing a wish that gets the expected results is not as easy as it first appears. From the depths of the Big Bang to a world where hippies rule; from a land of Amazons to one where life is a video-game; from a society where cooperation means everything to one where individual chaos rules-across these bizarre dimensions and many others, Paul races in the search for happiness, love, wealth, status¨ and the answer to the Ontological Pickle. Acquiring comrades and enemies along the way, our feckless alternaut reaches a cul-de-sac from which the only exit is death. And then his adventures really begin¨. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
See all 3 customer reviews...
Citations
(learn more)
3
books
cite this book:
- The Thackery T. Lambshead Pocket Guide to Eccentric & Discredited Diseases by Mark Roberts in Back Matter
- Creature From The Black Lagoon: Time's Black Lagoon (Universal Monsters (Dh Press)) by Paul Di Filippo in Back Matter
- The Mammoth Book of New Jules Verne Adventures: Return to the Center of the Earth and Other Extraordinary Voyages, New Tales by the Heirs of Jules Verne by Mike Ashley in Back Matter