the ageold tale of boy meets alien abductor, Boy meets stungun. Boy learns hes the only one in the Universe who can save the Earth from extreme world makeover by interstellar landlords.
Yeah: he thinks its a bit much, too,
Like everyone else on his planet, Bertram Ludlow hasnt paid much attention to fluctuations in the intergalactic real estate market.
But as a cognitive psychology grad student, he has given some thought to what a complete mental breakdown looks like.
And this is pretty close,
Now hes discovering space is a mad and mindboggling place where interspecies communication rests on the power of a gumball.
Where androids demand better work/life balance, Where crime is Art, technology still has its bugs, and lasers dont go “pyewpyew, ”
Its also surprisingly easy to get on the Universes Most Wanted list,
So with the weight of the world on his shoulders and the cosmic law on his tail, can Bertram outrun, outwit, and outbid to save the Earthling squatters from one spacedout redevelopment plan Up till I dropped it, this book was a badly written copy of Hitchhicker guide to the galaxy.
It isn't too often that one gets to read a humorous scifi novel these days and Jenn Thorsen has written such a book.
The book describes the travels of two adventurers, One is Rolliam Tsmordlood, an alien and Bertram Ludlow, an Earth inhabitant, Rolliam snatches Bertram from his apartment and the action begins, Before long, Bert and Rollie have bounced around the galaxy, met up with a number of bizarre folks and found out how determine the Reg Force could be in tracking down fugitives, which Rollie and Bertram had become without even breaking a sweat.
Ludlow has to find out who is bidding to buy Earth and turn it into a moneymaking operation with or without the inhabitants.
But first he has to find who owns the planet,
The ending is a bit inconclusive so I expect a second book is in the works
The book has a convoluted and very enjoyable plot.
The plot and characters indicate that a warped mind is behind this book, I think the world needs more warped minds, This is a great first stop on the There Goes the Galaxy trilogy by Jenn Thorson, Jenn is a fantastic writer, she has the best sense of humor and after you read her book, you want to go out with her to enjoy a glass of winejust to hear her witty repartee.
I rarely laugh out loud at a book but this one made me do it, And this book is not exactly in my wheelhouse, I do like Sci Fiand I love humorbut it's not the major type of book I read, I normally read mysteries and biographies but this first book hooked me on the entire series, The second book is The Purloined Number and the last is Tryfling Matters, You can see by
the titles that this writer doesn't take herselfor the worldtoo seriously,
This kind of book is a breath of fresh air after all the depressing news every day but I shan't get into that.
Instead, I recommend you start with There Goes the Galaxy and then enjoy the other two in order.
Oooooh, and I also have a secret, A little bird tells me this may be a series rather than a trilogy but heck, my lips are sealed.
Highly recommended. Jenn Thorson is a terrific writer and deserves much successand I don't say that kind of thing lightly.
A very fast, very fun read in the tradition of Douglas Adams,
In fact, it's a pretty darn direct descendant of Hitchhiker's Guide, right down to the very humanlooking alien who comes and snatches away a hapless earthling, who must now save his planet.
It's loaded with terrible, TERRIBLE puns and a fairly standard "run around trying to save things while being Intergalactic Fugitives" plot, and yet it's lighthearted and funny enough to really work.
Hell, the awful puns just keep things ticking along, and keep you reading a few passages out loud to get the aural humour that's going on.
There's a LOT of extraneous hyphens, and some fairly unfortunate homophone mixups in this selfpublished novel, but all in all, they don't really detract.
The characterizations are strong, the aliens are suitably alien, the alien SOCIETY is plausible, and Translachew Gum and various infopills are a very clever bit of technology suggestion and fixes for looming plot holes.
Even the slightly selfindulgent side plot about the literal death of print is amusing,
Fast, fun, and more enjoyable than scarfing down a case of DiversiDine's finest snacks while being made Sun Slushes at a LibLounge.
Scifi is not my favorite genre, But I like good writing, good humor and an engaging plot and this book delivers on all counts.
Bertram Ludlow has been kidnapped by alien Rolliam Tsmorlood, because he is the only one who can save Earth and “life as we know it”.
Theres only one problem he has no idea what hes doing and neither does Rollie,
The resulting story is a hilarious romp through the GCU Greater Communicating Universe as we discover its complexities and incongruities along with Bertram.
The story is well paced and speckled with humor, For the first half of the story, Bertram thinks that he has finally lost it and he keeps analyzing what he thinks is his delusion which leads to very funny inner dialogue.
The characters could have used a little bit more development but it does not really take anything away from the story.
It could be a personal preference on my part, It certainly didnt stop me from falling in deep like with Rollie, the badass alien outlaw who becomes Bertrams sidekick or vice versa, depending on the situation they find themselves in against his will.
A solidstars. I will definitely be reading the rest of this series,
Great characters
I liked all the characters, their personalities and their weird but firm friendships.
ROLLIE is my favorite character along with the Protostar I got this as part of a Kickstarter package for Robert Kroese's Distopia.
I've read and enjoyed several of his books, so I thought I'd give this a shot it being free was also a plus!.
It starts out with an American graduate student, Bertram Ludlow, who's kidnapped, taken offworld and told that only he can save Earth.
He reacts rationally, by assuming that stress from the end of his degree has caused him to have a break with reality.
This unusual turn makes for an interesting start, but the book felt overfilled with ideas, Large portions of the book are given to parodies of modern marketing amp corporate speak, which is often repetitive beyond the point of diminishing returns.
Starbucksian coffee shops, reality tv, the endless churn of pop, unwanted personal gadgets all get their turn in the snarky sun.
Most are funny, there's just too much of it, Add to that an EXTREMELY rushed ending I assumed there was at least anotheron my ebook when I "turned" the last page, and it was a clever premise that didn't live up to its promise.
Funny, but it rarely rises above that, There Goes the Galaxy was a lot of fun, At first, I tried highlighting the funny parts but quickly realized the whole book was going to be yellow so I gave up and just enjoyed the ride.
The author does an excellent job of keeping the humor and word play going nonstop, I'll be looking for more from Jenn Thorson, .