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Barion & Coyul #1
Waiting for the Galactic Bus
Imagine two brothers off on an intergalatic Spring Break. When their friends leave them behind on Earth, they've got a few millenia to kill before they'll manage to get back to school. So, as an experiment, mind you, they decide to give evolution a bit of a nudge... And that's when all hell breaks loose... a little more literally than either of them planned...
244 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1988
7 people are currently reading
585 people want to read
About the author
Parke Godwin
241 books90 followersParke Godwin was an American writer known for his lyrical yet precise prose style and sardonic humor. He was also known for his novels of legendary figures placed in realistic historical settings; his retelling of the Arthur legend (Firelord in 1980, Beloved Exile in 1984, and The Last Rainbow in 1985) is set in the 5th century during the collapse of the Roman empire, and his reinterpretation of Robin Hood (Sherwood, 1991, and Robin and the King, 1993) takes place during the Norman conquest and features kings William the Conqueror and William Rufus as major characters. His other well-known works include Waiting For The Galactic Bus (1988) and its sequel The Snake Oil Wars (1989), humorous critiques of American pop culture and religion.
Parke Godwin also worked as a radio operator, a research technician, a professional actor, an advertising man, a dishwasher and a maitre d' hotel.
Godwin's short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. His short story "Influencing the Hell out of Time and Teresa Golowitz," was the basis of an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone.
Parke Godwin also worked as a radio operator, a research technician, a professional actor, an advertising man, a dishwasher and a maitre d' hotel.
Godwin's short fiction has appeared in several anthologies. His short story "Influencing the Hell out of Time and Teresa Golowitz," was the basis of an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
November 18, 2010
Re-read this and its sequel just this week and marveled sadly again about how much it still had to say about modern society, 20 years after its publication. Of course, it's also just a heck of a lot of fun.
January 10, 2011
Absurd, funny, and sometimes heartbreaking in its portrayal of the impact of organized bigotry in a clear parallel to the rise of the Nazis. The passage in which one character, a young woman who has been in a relationship with a bigoted bully, really sees the meaning and impact of his beliefs for the first time, is one of the most intense and devastating things I've ever read.
December 28, 2011
Sort of like a lost Douglas Adams book if Douglas Adams didn't like people very much.
June 15, 2018
Well, I used to like this book...
I'm guessing I bought this back shortly after it was published, and I recall that it was one of my "fun reads" during the 90's (during which I'm guessing I read it a couple of times). But, I read it after a couple of decades and failed to connect to it at all.
It's a light piece of science fiction where we learn that two slightly immature brothers from a highly advanced species were stranded on Earth and jump-started human development. They also had to do something with the energy remaining after humans died and started two hubs for the departed: Topside and Below Stairs. Most of the action of the novel takes place in one of these two locations as the two brothers foresee a ton of trouble if an energetic white supremacist marries an intelligent but uneducated woman (think baby Hitler). So they transport the couple into various scenarios in their versions of Heaven and Hell with the hopes of educating one or both of them.
I think a lot of the appeal of the book when I was younger was the transgressive nature --- the idea of two aliens being God and the Devil added a bit of frisson to a just-recently-ex-fundamentalist reader. But, years later, that appeal is gone and the whole thing just reads a bit too silly and trite.
I'm guessing I bought this back shortly after it was published, and I recall that it was one of my "fun reads" during the 90's (during which I'm guessing I read it a couple of times). But, I read it after a couple of decades and failed to connect to it at all.
It's a light piece of science fiction where we learn that two slightly immature brothers from a highly advanced species were stranded on Earth and jump-started human development. They also had to do something with the energy remaining after humans died and started two hubs for the departed: Topside and Below Stairs. Most of the action of the novel takes place in one of these two locations as the two brothers foresee a ton of trouble if an energetic white supremacist marries an intelligent but uneducated woman (think baby Hitler). So they transport the couple into various scenarios in their versions of Heaven and Hell with the hopes of educating one or both of them.
I think a lot of the appeal of the book when I was younger was the transgressive nature --- the idea of two aliens being God and the Devil added a bit of frisson to a just-recently-ex-fundamentalist reader. But, years later, that appeal is gone and the whole thing just reads a bit too silly and trite.
June 16, 2009
Imagine if "Job" by Heinlein was written from the immortals' perspectives.
Good, yes? Now keep that image in mind. Hold it firm and tight, and you won't have to read this book, as likely what's in your head is better than what's on the page.
It's not bad, exactly. It's an interesting look at the development of a series of beliefs based on a clumsy perception of the universe. And it works, for a time. But mostly it feels like it's a joke that's too long in the telling, and that the main characters are only going through the whole rigamarole because they're bored out of their skulls.
It's a book to pass the time. Like the erstwhile god and his cohort, while away the hours reading it without expecting too much, and it will seem like it has real potential. But like the human race, you may be left wanting at the end.
Good, yes? Now keep that image in mind. Hold it firm and tight, and you won't have to read this book, as likely what's in your head is better than what's on the page.
It's not bad, exactly. It's an interesting look at the development of a series of beliefs based on a clumsy perception of the universe. And it works, for a time. But mostly it feels like it's a joke that's too long in the telling, and that the main characters are only going through the whole rigamarole because they're bored out of their skulls.
It's a book to pass the time. Like the erstwhile god and his cohort, while away the hours reading it without expecting too much, and it will seem like it has real potential. But like the human race, you may be left wanting at the end.
June 30, 2008
An extremely funny and moving book about what happens when the beings we call "God" and "The Devil" collaborate to prevent the conception of a possible Hitler. Young, conservative Charity and Roy are snatched from a seedy hotel room and taken on separate journeys through the afterlife, with the cooperation of theatrical and historical figures recruited to play supporting roles. Meanwhile, "Judgement Day" is coming for the two puppet masters as their long-lost past catches up to them.
October 20, 2009
A decidedly irreverent look at God and the Devil that I was reminded I had read because I just finished James O'Donnell's Augustine: A New Biography. The bishop of Hippo makes a cameo appearance in Godwin's book and his personality is just as O'Donnell describes.
On the likeablity scale it falls somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars.
On the likeablity scale it falls somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars.
August 9, 2011
Hilarious!!
One of my all time favorites, and at this point, the only book I’ve read twice.
One of my all time favorites, and at this point, the only book I’ve read twice.
February 3, 2019
Very funny and disquietingly insightful at times. Two members of an advanced alien race, stranded on prehistoric Earth, get the human race started. The human race responds by labeling them as God and Satan, despite the fact that there's no real difference between them.
Flash forward to small town America in the latter half of the 20th century (although it could be set today with sadly few changes), where a petty fascist and his bored girlfriend are at risk of bringing about the next reign of terror on Earth. It'll take some serious pageantry to convince them otherwise, and so the brothers arrange for them to take a Faustian trip to "Hell," performed admirably by dead actors and other historical characters.
It starts a bit slow, but once the story gets rolling, the book is very clever and lots of fun to read. CW for lots of racially offensive language and violence from the book's would-be fascist leader and his supporters. But don't worry -- they get what's coming to them.
Quotes:
"[Humans] persisted in seeing existence in terms of this struggle between 'good' and 'evil,' producing a great deal of belief, violence and, now and then, actual thought." P 25
"His glasses were thick enough to make his eyes look like small, distant clams within concentric rings. The vague mustache added no character, merely coexisted with his upper lip. Drumm removed his beret with the care of a cardinal divesting after Mass to reveal a toupee neither subtly matched nor firmly allied with his indigenous hair." P 102
Charity: "there's no mystery between men and women, except why some poor damn fool like me ain't figured that out yet. He's just like me, spent a lot of time just wishing someone would really look at him and listen to him like he was a human being and mattered." P 205
Flash forward to small town America in the latter half of the 20th century (although it could be set today with sadly few changes), where a petty fascist and his bored girlfriend are at risk of bringing about the next reign of terror on Earth. It'll take some serious pageantry to convince them otherwise, and so the brothers arrange for them to take a Faustian trip to "Hell," performed admirably by dead actors and other historical characters.
It starts a bit slow, but once the story gets rolling, the book is very clever and lots of fun to read. CW for lots of racially offensive language and violence from the book's would-be fascist leader and his supporters. But don't worry -- they get what's coming to them.
Quotes:
"[Humans] persisted in seeing existence in terms of this struggle between 'good' and 'evil,' producing a great deal of belief, violence and, now and then, actual thought." P 25
"His glasses were thick enough to make his eyes look like small, distant clams within concentric rings. The vague mustache added no character, merely coexisted with his upper lip. Drumm removed his beret with the care of a cardinal divesting after Mass to reveal a toupee neither subtly matched nor firmly allied with his indigenous hair." P 102
Charity: "there's no mystery between men and women, except why some poor damn fool like me ain't figured that out yet. He's just like me, spent a lot of time just wishing someone would really look at him and listen to him like he was a human being and mattered." P 205
July 9, 2017
This book is a favorite of my brother-in-law, who suggested I read it. I can see why he likes it so much. Mr. Godwin used his fantastic imagination to speculate on what mankind might look like if we were the result of experimentation of two alien brothers who were left behind on a spring break excursion. While waiting for their bus home they experimented on a young race of our forebears to hurry along our development into thinking beings. One brother became the devil while the other was God. By the time their ride home arrived, the forced too-rapid development of the humans had screwed them up so completely that things like Hitler's rise became possible.
The brothers had to face the consequences if their actions when help finally arrived. The story offers an explanation of how the human race got so screwed up. It's a fun book loaded with irony. I enjoyed reading it.
The brothers had to face the consequences if their actions when help finally arrived. The story offers an explanation of how the human race got so screwed up. It's a fun book loaded with irony. I enjoyed reading it.
June 20, 2017
I'm not entirely sure what this book is trying to be. The first couple chapters, and the cover, make it look like a Douglas Adams-esque lighthearted goofy comedy, but then as it goes on it starts to feel more like some kind of historical allegory? I'm not sure how serious it's trying to be or how much of a point it's trying to make - it seems like it's making a lot of commentary on racism and consumer culture in small town america. The plot is basically about two aliens playing god and the devil for humanity in a way that we want but isn't necessary, and how they are trying to break up a couple for the good of humanity. I'm not sure I quite get why they had to take the longest most convoluted way possible, but it does seem to undermine the tension of the different plot points that it's all a put-on.
It's still a pretty fun read and there's some clever writing and humor.
It's still a pretty fun read and there's some clever writing and humor.
October 3, 2020
It's been years since I last read this, and all I remembered was that it was a story about two aliens who were abandoned on earth and out of boredom tinkered with early-humans, creating humanity as we knew it. I remembered that it was funny. I think because it had humour, my memories opted to tinge it with a light-hearted feel.
And phew. Was that last bit wrrrrooooooong. SO wrong.
So, yes, it was about a couple of very advanced alien brothers named Barion and Coyle whose natural form is more of an energy-ball that can take solid form as they please, who got really drunk on their party-bus with their fellow graduating class, and got abandoned on the early planet earth. One of them opted to try to make an ape-like creature more intelligent, giving it the ability to know what it was and be aware of existence and death, etc.... and then he walked away. The other one seeing how miserable the poor early-human was, fixed it behind his brother's back by giving it the ability to create and express itself, and apparently be able to find wonder/joy.
Years past, and suddenly they're noticing that when humans die... they turn into little energy balls who are VERY CONFUSED. So the brothers take them in hand and help them with their after-life, really just a new phase of human evolution. With the rise of Christianity, humans are demanding hell and heaven, so one brother stays Upstairs and the other goes Below Stairs and humans go where they feel they ought to go. They can even move back and forth, if they believe they can do so.
There's the world.
Now, one day, Barion hears voices of humans standing out and he goes to look into it. There's a man, Roy Stride, a nasty little racist, a rather enigmatic leader, leading a group of white supremacist's called the White Paladins. He's dumb and on his own won't achieve much. The problem is the woman he's decided to marry... Charity Stovall. She's brilliant, and while most of her intelligence is currently locked off gathering cobwebs since it's not being used or needed in her tiny little city, they see in her the possibility of one of Roy's children taking all the talents of the father and combining it with the intelligence of the mother... and new Hitler. Barion believes it could even be doom for humanity on a whole. They need Charity to choose someone else, so they hash up a plan to make them think they're dead so that they can show Charity what kind of man Roy really is, and hopefully get her to choose someone else. So, yeah, not very light-hearted, and yet still manages to be funny at times. It's dark. It's light. It was wonderful to see Charity realize how problematic the things she'd been told to believe were.
Disturbingly, despite being set in the 1980's... it was like reading some of the things going on in 2020. It did not seem all that dated. Hard not to see Trump in Roy.
Some brilliant quotes I'll have to add to the quotes section when I get a chance.
And phew. Was that last bit wrrrrooooooong. SO wrong.
So, yes, it was about a couple of very advanced alien brothers named Barion and Coyle whose natural form is more of an energy-ball that can take solid form as they please, who got really drunk on their party-bus with their fellow graduating class, and got abandoned on the early planet earth. One of them opted to try to make an ape-like creature more intelligent, giving it the ability to know what it was and be aware of existence and death, etc.... and then he walked away. The other one seeing how miserable the poor early-human was, fixed it behind his brother's back by giving it the ability to create and express itself, and apparently be able to find wonder/joy.
Years past, and suddenly they're noticing that when humans die... they turn into little energy balls who are VERY CONFUSED. So the brothers take them in hand and help them with their after-life, really just a new phase of human evolution. With the rise of Christianity, humans are demanding hell and heaven, so one brother stays Upstairs and the other goes Below Stairs and humans go where they feel they ought to go. They can even move back and forth, if they believe they can do so.
There's the world.
Now, one day, Barion hears voices of humans standing out and he goes to look into it. There's a man, Roy Stride, a nasty little racist, a rather enigmatic leader, leading a group of white supremacist's called the White Paladins. He's dumb and on his own won't achieve much. The problem is the woman he's decided to marry... Charity Stovall. She's brilliant, and while most of her intelligence is currently locked off gathering cobwebs since it's not being used or needed in her tiny little city, they see in her the possibility of one of Roy's children taking all the talents of the father and combining it with the intelligence of the mother... and new Hitler. Barion believes it could even be doom for humanity on a whole. They need Charity to choose someone else, so they hash up a plan to make them think they're dead so that they can show Charity what kind of man Roy really is, and hopefully get her to choose someone else. So, yeah, not very light-hearted, and yet still manages to be funny at times. It's dark. It's light. It was wonderful to see Charity realize how problematic the things she'd been told to believe were.
Disturbingly, despite being set in the 1980's... it was like reading some of the things going on in 2020. It did not seem all that dated. Hard not to see Trump in Roy.
Some brilliant quotes I'll have to add to the quotes section when I get a chance.
Read
October 26, 2012This book was published in 1988. My guess is that it was written when Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984, after Godwin's head (like mine) nearly exploded. I just learned about it recently, when Jo Walton reviewed it on Tor.com. Godwin writes excellent novels. This is something rather different. He's ranting and raving about politics fueled by fear and hate, and the ways that fundamentalist religions (of every variety) feed into that. I think I'd have found it a bit quaint in 2000, but in 2010 with Glenn Beck foaming at the mouth on television, it's quite fresh again.[return][return]He's writes beautifully, and it's very funny. A favorite quote:[return][return]"'I don't like actors,' Grubb complained in a voice like a damp sock. 'I don't like writers. They're never as nice as their books. All they do is get drunk and arrogant and sick all over the furniture.'"
May 16, 2007
Quite possibly one of the best books I've read this decade. Hands down.
A bold statement? Possibly. But also very true. Waiting for the Galactic Bus is a both a hilarious look at humanity from the outside in, a thought-provoking journey into the dark parts of human emotion and mental processes, and a new take on the theme of God, religion, and the madness that seems inheirent in the human psyche.
It's a lot for one book to cover, but in true Douglas Adams style the author manages to tie everything in together by the end for a dramatic finish. There is, I must add, a sequel that I have not been able to get my hands on yet, titled The Snake Oil Wars. Expect a review of that to follow ASAP.
~~Lexicon
A bold statement? Possibly. But also very true. Waiting for the Galactic Bus is a both a hilarious look at humanity from the outside in, a thought-provoking journey into the dark parts of human emotion and mental processes, and a new take on the theme of God, religion, and the madness that seems inheirent in the human psyche.
It's a lot for one book to cover, but in true Douglas Adams style the author manages to tie everything in together by the end for a dramatic finish. There is, I must add, a sequel that I have not been able to get my hands on yet, titled The Snake Oil Wars. Expect a review of that to follow ASAP.
~~Lexicon
July 6, 2009
A strong start, but it gets confusing toward the middle.
January 28, 2022
This is one of those books I find hard to rate. On the one hand is the wonderful premise and the kind of mad, manic inventiveness that is on a par with the best of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. It starts with a couple of teenagers from a ridiculously advanced civilization who get stranded on prehistoric earth following an epic intergalactic joyride. They get bored and decide to make a teeny-tiny adjustment to the brain of an early ape: the rest, as they say, is history.
This is the framing device for the main story, which concerns a pair of impoverished, twentieth-century working class Americans. This part of the story is tonally different from the rest, being bleak and brutal and depressing. More importantly, Godwin uses this narrative as a rather bitter polemic against Western in general and religion and consumer capitalism in particular.
In the end, it's rather like reading two different books rolled into one, and I would not give the two elements that same rating by quite a long shot. So I've opted for a neutral 3 stars, although I may read parts of it again, just for the sheer fun of it.
This is the framing device for the main story, which concerns a pair of impoverished, twentieth-century working class Americans. This part of the story is tonally different from the rest, being bleak and brutal and depressing. More importantly, Godwin uses this narrative as a rather bitter polemic against Western in general and religion and consumer capitalism in particular.
In the end, it's rather like reading two different books rolled into one, and I would not give the two elements that same rating by quite a long shot. So I've opted for a neutral 3 stars, although I may read parts of it again, just for the sheer fun of it.
January 12, 2025
FINALLY FINISHED. The concept of this was super interesting, but the execution did not live up to it in any way. It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book so confusing! Most of the time I didn’t understand what was happening and it was impossible to picture the scenes and interactions because things were so sparsely explained? I had no clue what physical form (they’re aliens kind of?) some of the main characters had until basically the end of the book. It also includes a lot of racism and anti-semitism, most of which is part of a critique of modern American fascism but some of which was not and was just not addressed!
This was very hard to get through. There were some interesting parts and I definitely liked a few of the characters sometimes, but they kept making weird and questionable decisions or the narrative would become so confusing I couldn’t be sure it was the same character. It’s readable, but I would never recommend it to anyone.
This was very hard to get through. There were some interesting parts and I definitely liked a few of the characters sometimes, but they kept making weird and questionable decisions or the narrative would become so confusing I couldn’t be sure it was the same character. It’s readable, but I would never recommend it to anyone.
June 22, 2021
A genuinely fun book that seems to have a surprise around every corner. At its most base, it is a book about two very powerful aliens playing wingmen to a couple in order to prevent another incident like Nazi Germany. It's a bizarre premise that kind of takes you back when you first start reading. Once you get into it though, you really can't stop.
John Wilkes Booth is a rather prominent character and I feel that's all you really need to know about the novel. But if you want more, Jesus is hiding from Emperor Augustine and there's a grumpy guard dog that used to be an embezzler.
And that's all fairly mild.
Definitely fun and entertaining to read.
John Wilkes Booth is a rather prominent character and I feel that's all you really need to know about the novel. But if you want more, Jesus is hiding from Emperor Augustine and there's a grumpy guard dog that used to be an embezzler.
And that's all fairly mild.
Definitely fun and entertaining to read.
September 30, 2024
This is both fantasy and science fiction and it’s odd. When two galactic beings—brothers—after getting roaring drunk at a galactic party, fail re-join their transportation home, strange things happen. Somehow they end up on Earth and, deciding to play around a bit, fiddle with the brains of some primates. The primates then evolve to the humans of today. On earth, tow friends, a Good Guy and a Jerk, both are interested in the Good Girl. The tw galactic brothers realize the Jerk might just win the Good Girl, while the Good Guy is too shy to speak up, so the brothers fiddle about some more…and that’s the book.
July 25, 2023
Clever and absurd, Waiting for the Galactic Bus is a great read, if you can find it. It's been out of print for ages. This book doesn't hold your hand too much, either. It's packed with historical and religious references and gives even the likes of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth a post-mortem redemption arc.
In the years since I first read this book, I've had many people give me their ideas for how some alien race may be like, only for me to instantly think of this book. It's not a unique idea anymore, but for a book written in the 80's, it was groundbreaking.
In the years since I first read this book, I've had many people give me their ideas for how some alien race may be like, only for me to instantly think of this book. It's not a unique idea anymore, but for a book written in the 80's, it was groundbreaking.
January 16, 2022
I had this book recommended to me after I read Heinlein's job and came away from it disappointed. A friend lent me their copy of this and while it was definitely even more misanthropic than Job, AT LEAST it was funny. The jokes might be lost in translation if you weren't raised in a conservative Christian environment but I thought for what it was it got the job done. The humor could be a little too on the nose for me, so that's why I'm only giving it 3 stars.
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April 13, 2024Currently rereading this. It's been like 34-35 years since I first read this, and all I could remember was that I enjoyed it, and that it was about a couple of aliens that got stuck on Earth and they experimented on humanity's predecessors, kinda jump-started our evolution. I didn't remember anything about what happened in the story, and hoo boy! reading this now, in 2024, wow. This is feeling extra prescient right now.
August 18, 2020
alien origin story for human race. implausible characters. early 1980s paranoia about rising fascism in the united states. many historical figures (augustine, judas iscariot, and inexplicably, a large role for john wilkes "wilksey" booth) made for fun reading. this obscure little book was alright.
May 8, 2017
Oh I can never resist a book with both humor and references to less famous but note-worthy historical figures. I found this book fresh, fun, and entertaining.
July 15, 2017
A humorous take on the Chariots of the Gods idea that gods are actually advanced aliens, this credits human evolution and development to two aliens who are stranded on the primitive Earth as a joke, then not rescued for millennia because their companions can't remember where they were. They pass time by speeding up the advancement of the local apes, and end up being thought of as God and Satan despite not really promoting those identifications. Barion runs Topside and Coyul Below Stairs, two realms of human post-life existence, and interact quite frequently with such historical figures as Jesus (who goes by Yeshua and tends not to be accepted by Christians expecting a tall white guy), Judas Iscariot, St. Augustine, and John Wilkes Booth. Much of the plot involves Barion and Coyul's attempts to break up white nationalist Roy Stride and his naive but actually fairly intelligent girlfriend Charity Stovall, fearing that any offspring might bring on the apocalypse. To this end, Coyul recruits the help of actors to create a scenario in which Roy succeeds in his takeover attempt, and I don't think this part works quite as well as when Godwin focuses on aliens and historical figures, but there's definitely a message in it that's still quite valid today.
April 3, 2014
=== Shallow characters indulging in the frivolous ===
I tried to like this book from the beginning. The concepts were good, having great potential for satiric play between two mischievous “creator” beings, cosmically out-of-bounds, and their interventionary “evolved” humanity populated by stereotypically frivolous, shallow, fanatical or violent characters. But, as is true with so many science fiction novels, the character development is artificial and shallow; there is no one for readers to like, at least not for very long. Cynicism seems a more apt a tone to describe this work than satire. The criticism of Christianity is certainly farcically cynical. I could tolerate this book up until it was four fifths complete. My tolerance ended with Chapter 33. Seldom do I read a book that close to the end without finishing it but I could no longer put up with the author manipulating the characters to act like crazed robotic caricatures with no hint of humanistic values. Too much chaos, too much nonsense, no hope for redemption from the outrageously ridiculous. I will not be reading the sequel ‘The Snake Oil Wars.’
I tried to like this book from the beginning. The concepts were good, having great potential for satiric play between two mischievous “creator” beings, cosmically out-of-bounds, and their interventionary “evolved” humanity populated by stereotypically frivolous, shallow, fanatical or violent characters. But, as is true with so many science fiction novels, the character development is artificial and shallow; there is no one for readers to like, at least not for very long. Cynicism seems a more apt a tone to describe this work than satire. The criticism of Christianity is certainly farcically cynical. I could tolerate this book up until it was four fifths complete. My tolerance ended with Chapter 33. Seldom do I read a book that close to the end without finishing it but I could no longer put up with the author manipulating the characters to act like crazed robotic caricatures with no hint of humanistic values. Too much chaos, too much nonsense, no hope for redemption from the outrageously ridiculous. I will not be reading the sequel ‘The Snake Oil Wars.’
June 20, 2023
This book is fun. Good Omens meets midcentury sci-fi weirdoes (Asimov, LeGuin, you know the type). A perfect gift for the edgy atheist in your life, but also just a really fun and wacky ride. Extremely dated of a book in its references and style, and you may want to watch out for a very white-liberal-in-the-80s approach to addressing racism/fascism/white supremacy if that's not your thing, but it's good. Also forever a fan of St. Augustine marching up to Jesus in heaven (not knowing who he is) and saying, "I don't know why they let you Jews in when you're the ones who killed our lord!" and Jesus being like, "tell me about it, I was against that myself" lollll
November 2, 2008
I thought this book was okay, but it didn't really suck me in. It's quirky in a Douglas Adams sort of way, but a little more grounded in a story line. My interpretation is that this is a story of a battle of good versus evil, meanwhile questioning the similarities and differences of good and evil. The author strikes directly at fundamentalism as you take an unusual trip through heaven and hell. A background in religion and 20th century politics is helpful in understanding some of the allusions and puns.
October 30, 2012
A quick, enjoyable read about human social and philosophical error. Godwin seems to barrow much from The Divine Comedy, Joseph Campbell, Shakespeare and many other classical works, too numerous to list. In a tale that is cosmic farce, Godwin throws in two original jokes.
"What is two hundred feet long, green, with warts all over and, sleeps at the bottom of the ocean?
Moby Pickle."
"What's purple, wears a Scout hat and stamps out forest fires?
Smokey the Grape."
(Hey, I liked them and silly fun is what reading is all about.)
"What is two hundred feet long, green, with warts all over and, sleeps at the bottom of the ocean?
Moby Pickle."
"What's purple, wears a Scout hat and stamps out forest fires?
Smokey the Grape."
(Hey, I liked them and silly fun is what reading is all about.)
August 14, 2015
This first book in the series delves into American religious fanaticism by way of two wayward alien scientists responsible for humankind's evolution trying to prevent the next Hitler.
funny and thoughtful read. Written by a foresworn enemy of fantasy and scifi who has written in the genre. Lots of fun. Please read and see how relevant it is even after 25 + years. Thanks to a friend who gave me the recommendation about 20 years ago. Finally got around to reading it.
Going through the shelves.
funny and thoughtful read. Written by a foresworn enemy of fantasy and scifi who has written in the genre. Lots of fun. Please read and see how relevant it is even after 25 + years. Thanks to a friend who gave me the recommendation about 20 years ago. Finally got around to reading it.
Going through the shelves.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews