book data
416 ratings,
3.88
average rating, 60 reviews
(more data...)
edit
published
September 10th 2004
(first published 1994)
by Grove Press
binding
Paperback, 464 pages
isbn
0802141552
(isbn13: 9780802141552)
description
Sewer, Gas & Electric is the exuberant follow-up to Matt Ruff's cult classic and critically acclaimed debut Fool on the Hill.
High above Manhattan andr...more
High above Manhattan andr...more
Sign in to Goodreads to see your friends' reviews of this book.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SciFi and Fantasy...: Recommendations? Funky/weird/fun | 18 | 86 | 12/17/2008 10:57PM |
friend reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
other reviews (showing 1-20 of 598)
All ratings
|
5 stars (130)
|
4 stars (149)
|
3 stars (101)
|
2 stars (30)
|
1 star (6)
|
avg 3.88
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Has a copy to sell/swap
—
Read in November, 2007
recommended to Dan by:
igtrtsootbcrecommends it for: nobody I like
I had to stop. I'm sorry. I hate not finishing books but this one increasingly felt like a waste of my ever precious reading minutes.
Yeah, this book is crap.
This book was very bad. It is not genius, clever, or even that interesting. The characters are not developed in any real way and the premise and plot situations are sophomoric and trite. This reads like a college student who had just read some philosophy and other literature decided to write a novel based on what he'd...more
Yeah, this book is crap.
This book was very bad. It is not genius, clever, or even that interesting. The characters are not developed in any real way and the premise and plot situations are sophomoric and trite. This reads like a college student who had just read some philosophy and other literature decided to write a novel based on what he'd...more
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comment
Read in November, 2008
recommended to Jillian by:
Corprewrecommends it for: everyone
This book is FanTasTic, and so fun to read. It combines mind-bending, wacky ideas with neat characters in the setting of New York City in 2023. There's some sci fi and some mystery and Lots of hilarity, I laughed out loud every 10 pages or so. Included in this book are environmental warnings, conspiracy theories, artificial intelligence, and some very interesting ideas about how Americans really feel about black people. All of this is wrapped up in a clever package that you should read.
Like this review?
yes
(1 person liked it)
1 comment
Read in September, 2008
recommends it for:
Bored sewer rats/objectivist scum.
Sewer, Gas and Electric is an interstate pileup of absurdity of insurmountable proportions. Anyone familiar with science fiction will be on intimate terms with this brand of humor, especially if they have encountered Terry Pratchett or Neil Stephenson. Where Stephenson's novels are accelerated by propulsive narrative/action in the manner of Tom Clancy, and Pratchett at his best is a chaotic slapstick self-referential tornado, S,G&E falls a bit short of humor in an uneasy middle-ground between ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in May, 2009
The last sentences of this book in the acknowledgments are:
"Thanks also to the New York Times, newspaper of record, for confirming that even in a rational universe, 'far-fetched' is a relative term. In an article dated February 10, 1935, the Times recounts the story of a group of teenagers who found a seven-and-a-half-foot alligator in a Harlem sewer, dragged it up onto the street, and beat it to death with shovels. Public works officials have since denied the existence of any reptile...more
"Thanks also to the New York Times, newspaper of record, for confirming that even in a rational universe, 'far-fetched' is a relative term. In an article dated February 10, 1935, the Times recounts the story of a group of teenagers who found a seven-and-a-half-foot alligator in a Harlem sewer, dragged it up onto the street, and beat it to death with shovels. Public works officials have since denied the existence of any reptile...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2009
This book was outstandingly fun to read. Come on, a robotic safety device in the form of a beaver with the voice of Ralph Nader; what's not to like here? An environmental activist group on a polka dotted submarine that throw giant whipped cream pies at whaling vessels. I really really enjoyed reading this book and recommend it for a light-hearted read for just about anybody; but especially for people saturated in pop culture and political news junkies.
However, I did have some prob...more
However, I did have some prob...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in March, 2009
This is my third book of a 12 month Book Circle. Every month, a book arrives for me and I have to read and annotate it. Inside are the names and annotations of everyone who has gotten it before me.
This book... honestly, it bugged the crap out of me. From other reviews, I'm getting that it's pretty standard for the sci-fi genre, but I'm not a big sci-fi reader to begin with. I will absolutely admit that some of the humor is pretty good, though, and I was definitely laughing and dr...more
This book... honestly, it bugged the crap out of me. From other reviews, I'm getting that it's pretty standard for the sci-fi genre, but I'm not a big sci-fi reader to begin with. I will absolutely admit that some of the humor is pretty good, though, and I was definitely laughing and dr...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in February, 2009
S, G & E reminds me of a funny, lighthearted action flick that's been fleshed out with interesting characters, a full world history, a believable backstory for the characters, and all the scenes that are important to the narrative but end up getting cut out of the film.
An extra nod for the humorous Ayn Rand references, I was thinking about giving this one 5 stars, but it just isn't my preferred genre. In addition, while I liked the storytelling technique, I found that between the sc...more
An extra nod for the humorous Ayn Rand references, I was thinking about giving this one 5 stars, but it just isn't my preferred genre. In addition, while I liked the storytelling technique, I found that between the sc...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in June, 2007
Matt Ruff has created a novel entirely intent on pulling the crazed insanity from within each of us. There is nothing normal about this novel; it will leave you in hysterics if you allow it and it will definitely leave you wondering how you managed to pack so much wonderful nonsense into your mind. Each page brings new characters and plots which lead you to the cliff of disbelief and leave you there to teeter over the edge and debate whether it can possibly get any more absurd. Well, yes it can.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
If really mind-bending science fiction is the main course then this would be dessert. It's a meta-science-fiction mash-up which wins your heart with its witty, if unlikely plotline and hilarous characters. A Gibson-esque omniscient supercomputer owned by a megacorporation wreaks havok on the world. Only this time. . .it's the Disney corporation, and the computer is trying to force the world to obey cartoon logic - obeying misheard dinner orders from it's creator as final commands. The protago...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2004
New York im Jahre 2023. Philo Dufresne, ein Schwarzer mit grünen Augen (und gerade diese Augenfarbe rettete ihn vor der Ausrottung 2004), kämpft mit seinem U-Boot als Ökopirat gegen Harry Gant. Dieser wiederum ist wie in kleiner Junge, der immer höher hinaus will. Sein Ziel: einen Turm namens Babel zu bauen. Harry's Exfrau wiederum kämpft zuerst in der Kanalisation gegen einen mutierten Hai und geht danach der Frage nach, ob es vielleicht ein Roboter war, der Amberson Teaneck - einen Typ de...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in September, 2008
recommended to Vanessa by:
Monicarecommends it for: non-Objectivists
I had a hard time deciding how many stars to give this book. Overall, I thought the book was kind of stupid and ridiculous, but eventually it charmed me, and I ultimately ended up liking it. Everything about the story is overly complicated—plot, characters, and definitely the jokes. I think the best analogy I can come up with for this book is that it's like one really long, goofy joke that the person telling it thinks is really funny and they're so enthusiastic that you end up laughing (or at ...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in September, 2007
This is now the second book by Matt Ruff I've read. He has a gift for madcap chaos and incorporating literary and historical references in a way that is more amusing than exclusive. Sewer, Gas and Electric is a crazy ride through an imagined future where mutant sharks roam the sewers of New York City, an enthusiastic industrialist is building a new Tower of Babel, Ayn Rand is resurrected in a hurricane lamp, and all the dirty work is done by androids known as Electric Negroes.
Ruff...more
Ruff...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Like so many humor-based works, this came hot out of the chute funny as hell. At some point the funny became the mildly amusing. Eventually I stopped caring. Oh sure, there were good bits strewn throughout, but in my opinion, it was downhill after the first couple chapters.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in January, 1998
This is one of my favorite books of all-time. Ruff is hilarious, smart, funny and historically/culturally aware of the past. I'm afraid to say anything that would give this wild ride away, but if you haven't read it, pick it up!
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2009
Amusing, but perhaps a bit too weird and far-fetched for me - lots of different characters to keep track of.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
"Sewer, Gas and Electric: THE PUBLIC WORKS TRILOGY (Public Works Trilogy) by Matt Ruff (1998)"
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2009
Great comedy sci-fi. Similar in tone to the Illuminatus! trilogy, but with fewer of the levels.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in April, 2008
This book is Zany--with a capital Z. Whether that's good or bad depends on your perspective. Ruff seems to have tossed every wacky idea he's ever had into one book. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. Because he focuses so much on his ker-razy ideas about the near future, there's no real character development or even differentiation. Most of the main characters seem like platforms for Ruff's various ideas rather than people in their own right. It definitely could have used an editor's stronger...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
Read in October, 2008
This book is a fantastical science fiction novel that tries to be funny, mainly by being wacky. Does it succeed? Not for me, most of the time. A lot of the humor comes from incongruous situations -- but there's nothing really funny there, so it gets old quickly.
The actual story takes place largely in New York in the year 2023, which is an ecological disaster and has mutants running around the sewers. There's more, but honestly, it doesn't really matter.
There were some...more
The actual story takes place largely in New York in the year 2023, which is an ecological disaster and has mutants running around the sewers. There's more, but honestly, it doesn't really matter.
There were some...more
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
A bit disapointing after "Fool on the Hill", but still readable.
Like this review?
yes
add a comment
groups with this book
