Autumn Angels [Paperback]

It's very, very odd; very, very imaginative and until this edition returned it to print, it was very, very hard-to-find.

Arthur Byron Cover's AUTUMN ANGELS is set in an Earth of the far, far future where, in the wake of some crisis that nearly wiped out humankind, the survivors were granted godlike powers by an alien race called the "bems." Through a lack of imagination (or possibly through the Machiavellian machinations of the Other Fat Man; see below), most of the residents have taken on archetypal identities culled from popular fiction. You might recognize some of them... for example, the fat man in his white suit seems reminiscent of a certain character played by Sydney Greenstreet in THE MALTESE FALCON; the lawyer has a loathing of pigs and a sword cane, just like Theodore Marley Brooks, better known as "Ham" from the Doc Savage novels; and the other fat man and his witty leg man could have stepped out of one of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe stories.

There are some wonderful literary games and joyful riffs on these pop archetypes... and there are wonderfully bizarre and imaginative journeys. You'll meet the Crawling Bird, the Cigar-Smoking Frogs, the green-furry ball creatures of the dullest planet in the universe, and the fish-with-legs who merely long to dance the night away.

It's all nailed together -- just barely -- by the story of the unlikely alliance of the lawyer, the fat man and the demon as they desperately attempt to rediscover Depression -- a state of mind long banished from the minds of godlike men, and one which the triumvirate believes is vital if the race is to ever rediscover a sense of purpose.

The book is filled with whimsical inventiveness and it frequently smash-cuts between phantastical fancies and more deeply thought, deeply felt moments. It's a wild trip, if one that has its flaws. (An artifact of the early '70s, it's filled with very peculiar little jokes and moments that must have seemed much more logical to a deeply stoned reader and/or writer.) But nonetheless, its mix of philosophy, fantasy and just plain fun makes it a natural fit for fans of books like GOOD OMENS (by Gaiman & Pratchett) and devotees of Douglas Adams' HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY books. (Its literary fun-'n'-games should also appeal to Philip Jose Farmer readers and fans of Alan Moore's LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN.)

The book has two "kind of" sequels by Arthur Byron Cover -- THE PLATYPUS OF DOOM & OTHER NIHILISTS (a collection of 4 novellas set in the same far future of AUTUMN ANGELS); and a more directly connected sequel, the truly excellent and deeply haunting AN EAST WIND COMING, which presents a darker vision of the world of godlike men: a reincarnation of Jack the Ripper stalks the Golden City, adding to a growing sense of malaise and despair, while the consulting detective slowly stirs from his torpor...

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