The Gorgon Festival

by John Boyd (Pseudonym), Boyd Bradfield Upchurch

Cover by Fred Pfeiffer.
Was the youth elixir the panacea that mankind dreamed of--or a bitter and ironic joke? To Alexander Ward, his discovery could have meant fame, wealth, the Nobel Prize. But his 70-year-old lab assistant stole it and turned herself into a teen-age sex kitten, a nursing home into a brothel--and the world into a madhouse.

Genres: Science Fiction

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

John Boyd was the primary pen-name of Boyd Bradfield Upchurch, an American science fiction author.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

John Boyd was the pseudonym of Boyd Bradfield Upchurch, who wrote some very good science fiction novels between 1968 - '78. This isn't one of those. It's a kind of racist and very sexist story about an elixir that reverses the aging process so old people can enjoy listening to loud music, riding loud motorcycles, and having lots and lots of (presumably) loud sex. It's a youth/California satire with little point, and not much humor. Some of the slang terms are wince-worthy. The Bantam paperback replaced the nice Paul Lehr cover from the hardback first edition with a really unpleasant Fred Pfeiffer painting, which the story deserved. If your favorite movie is Wild in the Streets from 1968 you might give it a shot, but otherwise try one of his other books first.

[Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

De-aging, bikers, hippies, a white guy impersonating a black guy, infertile sex goddesses... it all climaxes with an orgy that contains the unforgettable phrases, "Bad trip... Get my guru, I'm freaking out."; "Save me, Filmore. My Virginia's a werewolf."; and "Grandmother, you!"

How can you pass this one up?

[amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

a long, strange trip of a book with quite a bit of psychedelic/pleasantly non-graphic euphemisms for sexual encounters
the trippiest part for me? one of the *character's* names is 'Ruth Gordon' so, naturally, I couldn't picture anyone other than 'Maude' (as played by Ruth Gordon in 'Harold & Maude')

[SciFiOne]

Cover author John Boyd. Grade X.

[Brett]

Author - John Boyd