The Red Tape War

by Jack L. Chalker, Mike Resnick, George Alec Effinger

In designing their book as a round robin, Chalker (The Return of Nathan Brazil), Resnick (Second Contact) and Effinger (When Gravity Fails) seem to have been more interested in presenting the next author with a challenge ("Write your way out of this!") than they were in continuity, plot or character.

Millard Fillmore Pierce (most names are pseudo-significant, such as the battleship Mahatma Gandhi, captain Nathan Bolivia) appears in five different guises, each a member of a different species from a different parallel universe; all of them speak English and most of them intend to take over the human Pierce's galaxy. That none succeeds is largely due to red tape: so many forms must be filled out in order even to fire a shot that battleships carry hundreds of bureaucrats to support each soldier. - Publishers Weekly

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Humor

Hardcover

First published April 1, 1991

About the author

Besides being a science fiction author, Jack Laurence Chalker was a Baltimore City Schools history teacher in Maryland for a time, a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association, and was involved in the founding of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Some of his books said that he was born in Norfolk, Virginia although he later claimed that was a mistake.

He attended all but one of the World Science Fiction Conventions from 1965 until 2004. He published an amateur SF journal, Mirage, from 1960 to 1971 (a Hugo nominee in 1963 for Best Fanzine).

Chalker was married in 1978 and had two sons.

His stated hobbies included esoteric audio, travel, and working on science-fiction convention committees. He had a great interest in ferryboats, and, at his wife's suggestion, their marriage was performed on the Roaring Bull Ferry.

Chalker's awards included the Daedalus Award (1983), The Gold Medal of the West Coast Review of Books (1984), Skylark Award (1985), Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award (1979), as well as others of varying prestige. He was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award twice and for the Hugo Award twice. He was posthumously awarded the Phoenix Award by the Southern Fandom Confederation on April 9, 2005.

On September 18, 2003, during Hurricane Isabel, Chalker passed out and was rushed to the hospital with a diagnosis of a heart attack. He was later released, but was severely weakened. On December 6, 2004, he was again rushed to hospital with breathing problems and disorientation, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a collapsed lung. Chalker was hospitalized in critical condition, then upgraded to stable on December 9, though he didn't regain consciousness until December 15. After several more weeks in deteriorating condition and in a persistent vegetative state, with several transfers to different hospitals, he died on February 11, 2005 of kidney failure and sepsis in Bon Secours of Baltimore, Maryland.

Chalker is perhaps best known for his Well World series of novels, the first of which is Midnight at the Well of Souls (Well World, #1).

Reviews

[Dennis Caswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, in that it is a round robin book. Here, each author would write a chapter (or so) sticking the next person in line with a near insolvable situation in which that person would have to continue writing. The authors (Jack L. Chalker, Mike Resnick, and George Alec Effinger) obviously had a lot of fun writing this one.
One interesting thing about my copy of this book. I have it signed by all of the authors, and the cover artist (Kelly Freas). When I was getting Mike Resnick to sign it, he being the second person to sign it, he commented that he rarely would see a copy signed by George Alec Effinger. My reply was that George was a regular at a small SF convention that I would go to-so I would see him every year.
Too bad the publishers let it go out of print.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quirky little farce of a novel, quite a bit of fun piled on silliness and parody and all of the in-jokes and craziness the three authors could shoe-horn into it. The nature of many of the references has dated it quite a bit (one of the ships is named the Pete Rozelle, for example), and some familiarity with the works of authors would seem to be necessary (one of the characters is named Nathan Bolivia), but it's still a bundle of laughs. You could almost picture the authors writing a section just to paint their collaborators into a corner before passing it along. The fourth wall is broken at will, as are any other literary rules... the authors obviously had such a good time writing it that it's impossible not to laugh along, even when you're not sure exactly what's so funny.

[Walt Crawford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collaborative novels are tricky. So is humorous SF&F--some of which I love (Spider Robinson's Callahan, the Discworld novels, Redshirts, Space Opera...). And, of course, this particular effort is 30 years old, with all three authors having died in the meantime. So perhaps I shouldn't speak ill of the dead.
But...what a mess. I find it hard to believe Tor actually published this thing, apparently cooked up during a Worldcon (presumably over or after a few adult beverages) and completed nearly a decade later. Although "completed" may be the wrong word.
I encountered this at my public library and took a chance. I am painfully aware that my library has a habit of weeding aggressively, including early books in continuing series. And yet this was on the shelf. I should have left it there.
Two stars out of respect for three dead authors who probably wrote much better works during their lifetimes--or at least had the awards to suggest the possibility. On its own merits, a one-star.
No spoilers, but then how could I spoil it?

[Timo Pietilä · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave up at a quarter way through. Stupid, confusing, rambling and very badly written, at least where I gave up. The beginning which was written by some other author was a bit better, but then it took a turn to much worse, unreadably worse.

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing meta-fiction.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Farsical to the point that it ties itself into knots!

[colleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

read 10.29.04

[Jeff Crosby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Resnick and enjoy Chalker, but I found this book incredibly difficult to read. It is quite humorous in spots.

[Deidre · Rating 2 out of 5]

read long ago, as I recall, it wasn't any of there best work

[Howard]

12

[Kevin Driskill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really like the collaborative concept of the book, it was very interesting and fun to read.

[Daniel Borochovitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

started bad went to ok and ended bad
i personally didn't like the slapstick sifts in the plot