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Sacred Locomotive Flies
"If you have any interest at all in satire, science fiction's new wave, the '60s, pop music, comic books, or the picaresque tradition of literature, this book is for you...32 years after its composition, this roaring tiger of a book still has the capacity to shock, amuse, enlighten, and provoke, more so than many a "bold, experimental novel" published just yesterday to waves of praise by the short-sighted and historically illiterate. This is a book that spits in the face of death and despair." -- Paul Di Filippo
- GenresScience Fiction
170 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Richard A. Lupoff
219 books39 followersRichard Allen "Dick" Lupoff (born February 21, 1935 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American science fiction and mystery author, who has also written humor, satire, non-fiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he has also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He is an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice Burroughs and has an equally strong interest in H. P. Lovecraft. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1970 he worked in the computer industry.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 7, 2024
This short novel was written in 1970, and it’s very much of its time. It’s mostly set in 1985 (15 years in the future), but the protagonist (Freddie Fong Fine) and indeed most of the other characters are mainly preoccupied with sex, drugs, and rock music.
Freddie is an agent of a strange organization called WAIT SOME, and is investigating a possible grave threat to the security of the USA; but he’s amateurish, easily distracted, and often high on something.
Now and then we get news items and samples of what life is like in the imagined future year of 1985. On the whole it’s an exaggerated version of 1970. Partway through, I realized that I was slightly reminded of Stand on Zanzibar (published in 1968), although that’s a better book and three times the length of this one.
I initially found this book so tedious and unappealing that I was planning to give it one star. It’s not immediately obvious that it has any plot at all. Later on, a slender and implausible plot gradually emerges. I decided that maybe I could be generous and give it two stars: which means that I could tolerate reading it once, but I don’t plan ever to read it again.
There were some creative works from the years around 1970 (books, music) that I still much appreciate. The best seem almost timeless; some are dated but still good; this is very dated and not much good.
There’s an introduction by the author written some 30 years after the novel, in which he says he intended it as absurdist, comic satire. Well, it’s absurd, but it doesn’t strike me as effective, either as comedy or as satire. And Richard Lupoff died in 2020 at the age of 85, so nothing I say will bother him in the slightest.
Freddie is an agent of a strange organization called WAIT SOME, and is investigating a possible grave threat to the security of the USA; but he’s amateurish, easily distracted, and often high on something.
Now and then we get news items and samples of what life is like in the imagined future year of 1985. On the whole it’s an exaggerated version of 1970. Partway through, I realized that I was slightly reminded of Stand on Zanzibar (published in 1968), although that’s a better book and three times the length of this one.
I initially found this book so tedious and unappealing that I was planning to give it one star. It’s not immediately obvious that it has any plot at all. Later on, a slender and implausible plot gradually emerges. I decided that maybe I could be generous and give it two stars: which means that I could tolerate reading it once, but I don’t plan ever to read it again.
There were some creative works from the years around 1970 (books, music) that I still much appreciate. The best seem almost timeless; some are dated but still good; this is very dated and not much good.
There’s an introduction by the author written some 30 years after the novel, in which he says he intended it as absurdist, comic satire. Well, it’s absurd, but it doesn’t strike me as effective, either as comedy or as satire. And Richard Lupoff died in 2020 at the age of 85, so nothing I say will bother him in the slightest.
February 13, 2020
To say that this book was a trip would be an understatement. The writing was quick and pulled me along on what I can only describe as a crazy adventure.
November 24, 2010
Why is there almost never a real summary of the story, only a blurb expounding its merits?! Probably because Sacred Locomotive Flies was written in a bold, new way, exciting in the year it was published.
It is 1985. Freddy Fong Fine hijacks a plane with a deadly plastic gun and kidnaps a World War I veteran pilot, the naked hostess Pat Plaf, and the psychedelic band Sacred Locomotive. He has them play his favorite songs while he canoodles with Pat Plaf, filling the cabin with wholesomely trippy tunes and fumes. The ensuing adventure unearths a world shattering secret in which the protagonists find themselves embroiled at the direct center of it all.
Who is Freddy Fong Fine? Is he the terrorist he makes himself out to be? Will the world wrenching disaster be averted?
Unconventional, psychedelic, completely 70s (even though it's 1985). Richard Lupoff is a prolific writer who excels in pastiches of genres, skilled in piecing together historical figures, themes, and a whole wide array of factors. In Sacred Locomotive Flies, it is a hit and miss. Evidently borrowing the formula established in Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories, there are some really groovy scenes involving, naturally, psychedelia and rock n roll.
Previous readers of Lupoff's fiction, or those looking for something different would enjoy this novel, but for most, it would be like watching static on the telly. Me, I really like the idea of a Jewish red-headed Jerry Cornelius.
It is 1985. Freddy Fong Fine hijacks a plane with a deadly plastic gun and kidnaps a World War I veteran pilot, the naked hostess Pat Plaf, and the psychedelic band Sacred Locomotive. He has them play his favorite songs while he canoodles with Pat Plaf, filling the cabin with wholesomely trippy tunes and fumes. The ensuing adventure unearths a world shattering secret in which the protagonists find themselves embroiled at the direct center of it all.
Who is Freddy Fong Fine? Is he the terrorist he makes himself out to be? Will the world wrenching disaster be averted?
Unconventional, psychedelic, completely 70s (even though it's 1985). Richard Lupoff is a prolific writer who excels in pastiches of genres, skilled in piecing together historical figures, themes, and a whole wide array of factors. In Sacred Locomotive Flies, it is a hit and miss. Evidently borrowing the formula established in Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius stories, there are some really groovy scenes involving, naturally, psychedelia and rock n roll.
Previous readers of Lupoff's fiction, or those looking for something different would enjoy this novel, but for most, it would be like watching static on the telly. Me, I really like the idea of a Jewish red-headed Jerry Cornelius.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews