From Publishers Weekly
Barnes (
The Sky So Big and Black) has created a gonzo piece of metafiction that cleverly blurs the line between reality and fantasy. Private detective Travis Bismark turns up on the doorstep of his old friend, the science fiction writer John Barnes, spouting a bizarre story about prostitutes with degrees in physics, pills that facilitate telepathy and great sex, and a mysterious technology called Gaudeamus that people are willing to kill for. Oddly enough, Barnes himself is already addicted to a complex, hypertextual Web cartoon, also called Gaudeamus, that seems to contain a number of references to Bismark's adventures. The detective disappears soon thereafter when Barnes's pickup is attacked by a cybernetically enhanced elk, but shows up repeatedly over the next year with increasingly wild tales of industrial espionage, alien entrepreneurs and Native Americans who dress in clown suits and travel in flying saucers. What's most fascinating about the novel is the way in which Barnes entangles real autobiographical material, including appearances by his wife, fantasy writer Kara Dalkey, with an increasingly outlandish and highly improbable plot. Also interesting is that Barnes makes little attempt to portray himself sympathetically and is very open about his dislike for hardcore SF fans. This fascinating book is quite unlike anything else on the market today, but it's hard to know how the author's regular readers will react.
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From Booklist
In his latest inventive novel--part detective thriller, part mind-boggling speculative fiction--Barnes casts himself as narrator and the protagonist's best friend. Barnes is absorbed in writing one morning when old friend and corporate espionage specialist Travis Bismarck appears on the front porch looking frazzled and afraid. What follows is Bismarck's increasingly bizarre story, involving a revolutionary teleportation device invented by his latest corporate client, the device's theft by a competing corporation, and a breakneck pursuit to recover it at any cost. Along the way, Bismarck tangles with Lena, a prostitute turned drug dealer turned corporate spy, whose only ware is a sex-enhancing, telepathy-inducing pill. Not coincidentally, the teleportation gizmo, the telepathy pill, and a Web-based animated cartoon, which may or may not be Lena's brainchild, all bear the mysterious moniker Gaudeamus. Sprinkled with wry humor and colorful plot twists, Barnes' ingeniously imaginative yarn should garner a nomination or two during the next round of sf awards.
Carl HaysCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
