The Emperor of the Last Days

by Ron Goulart

Meet Barney , a computer you can love - in a battle against tyranny on future Earth

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Fiction

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Pseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner.
Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award.

In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).

Reviews

[Snood · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very quick and fluffy sci-fi adventure. I love the premise of assembling a team of strange experts and watching their personalities clash along the way, but the book was too short to properly flesh out all seven protagonists. Professor Supermind was fun, but the rest felt very archetypal or generic.

I’m not sure if it was poor writing or a satire of that kind of writing, but I got a laugh out of nearly everything having some sort of futuristic prefix. The characters ate soy dogs and neosherbet in buildings made of flexglass in Reconstituted Brooklyn. It just got the the point of absurdity.

Nice to hear I’ll have flying cars within my lifetime though, even if we have to regress back to fax machines in the process. Woody Woodpecker apparently sees a resurgence as well. 🤔

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

A near-future wild romp in the classic Goulart tradition, with the humor perhaps just a bit darker than his usual. A murder investigation leads a bright scientist and a beautiful young lady reporter and their friends, Professor Supermind and the cyborg Tin Lizzie, to the realization that computers have already started to take over the world.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts out great, with the protagonists witnessing a mysterious suicide and deciding weather to investigate, with a touch of dark humor. Keeps moving with interesting characters (though most of them don't have time to grow more than 2-dimensional) investigating an apparent conspiracy, and I wished it kept a slightly more serious tone instead of getting almost silly at some points (a little humor goes a long way). It was a fast, easy read; could have been great.

[Regis Philbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like these breezy, campy, pulpy Ron Goulart sci-fi books. I first knew Goulart as one of the great comic book historians (The Adventurous Decade is tops) and only came to his fiction late in life. This one is about a saintly A.I. computer and his human operator assembling a team of operatives to derail a worldwide conspiracy and rescue a damsel in distress. The quirky group feels like a superhero team, and the book feels like the first of a series, but I think it's a one-off.

[Jack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Classic Goulart

[Charl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goulart's known for humorous science fiction, and he holds up his end here. An entertaining little "save the girl and save the world" story with characters broad enough to be amusing. I enjoyed it.

[Bart Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quick read, in that one should be able to finish this book in a single evening. Not particularly deep,just a fun read.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, I read this book a while ago and have reread it several times enjoying the bond built by a computer and a few talented individuals. The story, set in the near future, is full of fun twists and turns with a great deal of thought put into the flow of the plot. The fun part for me was this books addition of new culture, and new slang that fits the way the time should be. Like X-Men and similar stories, this book falls right in to the same genre without going to over the top.
A fun read for all.