#18 Rudy Rucker: Frek and the Elixir

[bellinghman]

Rudy Rucker: Frek and the Elixir

Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; Reprint edition (February 1, 2005)
ISBN: 0765310597
Category(ies): Science Fiction/Fantasy

I'm damned if I know what to think of Rucker. He writes with a mad invention, but it's not a madcap invention. He plays with weird mathematical ideas, and layers on top the sort of story that is distinctly his. And that means that although there's a pell-mell adventure going on, it's far from your standard SF Space Opera. (Though he does play with a 'bloater drive' as one way to get across the universe — just inflate till you're the same size as the universe, shift an insignificant amount, and re-shrink down to somewhere now a vast distance away.)

I'd almost say that this is Huckleberry Finn written by a collaboration of Sheckley and Dick, except that's not fair on any of them.

If you like Rudy Rucker, you'll like this. If you don't, then you won't. And if you don't know Rucker, then prepare to be confuzzled.