This book was recommended to me by my good friend Jim, who said it was his favorite novel of all time. While I'm not sure it's my favorite novel of all time, it definitely has lots of the marks of something that could easily be a person's favorite book.The back of the book talks about Rucker making his living as a mathematician, and I think this comes across in the tone and perspective of the book. Very little in this book is seems to be treated as "natural" or "organic" including the characters' motivations and emotions. The tone throughout, even at the heights of the book's climax, is that of detached curiosity and slight amusement. And throughout the adventure you can see how much the author loves analyzing absolutely everything: the construction of the universe, human sexuality and the nature of sexual desires, gender theory, subconscious human desires, particle physics, chaos theory, and on and on. I won't really give a plot summary, because as one of the blurbs on the cover says, "almost anything I tell you will ruin the surprise" but it's pretty interesting, and the whole book is a super-quick read. I finished it in three days, and it usually takes me much longer to get through books that aren't graphic novels or audiobooks. Highly recommended for those who like their sci-fi to work more as "speculative fiction", as a way to try to think about the world around us in new ways, than as a character drama or space opera.
This was a completely satsifying light and entertaining read infused with some heavy science bits that i personally, really enjoyed. There is no waiting for the action to happen it's right there in the 1st few pages. This novel reminded me of Steve Aylett's work but it is considerably more fluid with loads less wandering in the plot. Classified as science fiction,this book felt equally bizzaro with its numerous oddities and social satire. It was pleasantly bizzare without trying too hard to be.Written in '84 the novel takes place sometime after '98 and the U.S is in a depression,(pretty good call). There are 2 great religions- The First Church of Scientific Mysticism and Gary Herberism. Time travel, a godzilla-like attack, porkchop and tater trees, sex change and so much more! I really enjoyed this book and look forward to my next chance to read something from Rucker
What do You think about Master Of Space And Time (2005)?
"Old school Science fiction story" Time traveling is my biggest passion along with parallel universes, so just once glance over the title made me pick it up without further thinking. what I liked the most in this book is scientifically explaining how the process of time travelling can actually work. Moreover, tying it to the common fairy tales of three wishes. Other than that, I couldn't find a single likable character. They felt like old movies' characters(of course!! it was written even before I was born): Shallow.P.SThis book has been dropped and picked up again many times in the course of the year.
—أثير
A surrealistic, slapstick journey through time and space. A madcap mix of Lewis Carroll, physics, scif b-movies and Japanese monster movies, Vonnegut, Looney Tunes, and a fairy tale. The “heroes” fight off mind controlling slugs, giant lizards, enter other dimensions, create the universe, change sex, grant wishes, start religions, solve world hunger, and go to jail. Sadly Gondry and Dan Clowse will not be adapting this for the big screen as their sensibilities would translated this well. Along with Di Fillipo, I see Rucker as the court jester of the cyperpunks. To resort to clichés, my mind is thoroughly blown and I laughed my ass off the whole way through.
—Adam
It's fair to say that I liked it. I remember the colored gluons or something made an impression on me and I thought it was cool how the characters used otherworldly circumstances to act out sexual desires that we might not have expected. However the characters themselves seemed pretty flat to me except to the extent that they might resemble the author. My objection to the characterization here doesn't ruin my appreciation of Rudy Rucker's work generally. I feel the same way about some of Asimov's characterization, but I have been knocked out by lots of things that each of Rucker and Asimov have done.
—Aaron
