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Reality Challenged (The Other Universes, #1)

Ubiquitous Bubba

Start date: July 1, 2013

Finish date: July 31, 2013

Why we're reading this: This is a fast paced funny Science Fiction novel similar in style to Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.
[close] This is a fast paced funny Science Fiction novel similar in style to Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

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May 03, 2013 J.D. Tew rated it really liked it

In a Multiverse where change occurs on the tail of the previous, a girl with a gift finds her way.

Reality Challenged is a story driven by the quirks and unique behaviors of its characters. The unlikely teenage hero Psychann has been given an interesting gift by this author: to Trade. Trading is a concept that is a wonderful innovation from Bubba. If it isn't for this ability and the goof-troop of characters she is associated with, Psychann would be lost.

At times I found myself turning back the p ...more

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Jun 17, 2013 Kevin Andrews rated it really liked it

My summer reading schedule began with a delightfully humorous story called “Reality Challenged” by science fiction writer Ubiquitous Bubba. The story follows the lives and adventures of an interstellar smuggler-mercenary named Xorian and his companion known as the Krazhdi. The pair travels the “multiverse” in their ship the “Chaos Effect”, moving in an out of different realities each with its own delights, perils, and well, challenges. The relationship between these two principal characters is w ...more

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Aug 26, 2013 K.A. Krisko rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, fantasy

I picked up this book because I’m a fan of Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett/Spider Robinson, and ‘Reality Challenged’ looked like it fell into the same category. And indeed, it starts out with the same irreverent, ridiculous humor. You are dropped right into the middle of the action in a bizarre set of alternate universes in which anything even remotely possible can, and does, happen. From then until the end, the action is non-stop, with the characters boomeranging from one crisis to the next at br I picked up this book because I’m a fan of Douglas Adams/Terry Pratchett/Spider Robinson, and ‘Reality Challenged’ looked like it fell into the same category. And indeed, it starts out with the same irreverent, ridiculous humor. You are dropped right into the middle of the action in a bizarre set of alternate universes in which anything even remotely possible can, and does, happen. From then until the end, the action is non-stop, with the characters boomeranging from one crisis to the next at breakneck speed.

Several of the characters are well-drawn and unique: in particular, the over-sized alien who refers to itself as One and recites unintelligible poetry in every situation, and Xorian, a Han-Solo-type character and the pilot of a stolen pirate spaceship. There’s a plethora of other characters, including the female lead, a young teen named Psychann, who I unfortunately never felt much for, a large panicky guy named Zeke who I couldn’t figure out at all, and a guy who can make himself invisible, who was likable enough, but didn’t seem to have any family or backstory.

And then there are others - lots of others. In fact, I couldn’t keep track of them. The story switches point-of-view so rapidly and so many times that I was often hard-pressed to figure out who I was following, and I was a lot more hard-pressed to figure out why. There are huge side-tracks into the ongoing stories of multiple characters which in the end don’t seem to have any relationship to the resolution of the main plot. They’re just miniature adventures within the larger work, which can be fun, but is quite distracting, especially if you’re trying to track what’s going on in each one with the expectation that it matters (it doesn’t).

Unfortunately, the Adamsesque humor disappears after the first tenth of the book and doesn’t reappear until the side-stories begin in earnest, nearly halfway through. In between, it’s straight sci-fi. And speaking of halfway through - we’re more than halfway through (55%, according to my Kindle) before we find out the main theme of the book.

There were a few other things that bugged me, one of which was the overuse of the term ‘squealed’. Everybody squeals. Psychann squeals three times in the first 20% of the book. Rog squeals. The flying warthog squeals (unsurprisingly, but after everyone else squeals, it’s a bit much.) Psychann has skill-creep - she inexplicably develops incredible skills quickly until she’s virtually all-powerful. There are some misused words and a lot of punctuation errors. I don’t mention such errors if they’re few and far between - every book on the face of the planet has a few - but in this case, it’s as if the author has a pathological inability to correctly place commas within quotes. Proper punctuation sets up the visual flow of the page, and when that normal flow is disrupted, it’s distracting.

There are so many good things about this book. The idea of Trading is the best idea in it. Some of the characters are worth following. The author does have a handle on the humorous sci-fi genre and he’s got plenty of ideas, so many that there are too many stuffed into a single volume. This book needs streamlining and some editing and it could be a really good read. Even without editing, I'd recommend it to someone who's looking for a kind of 'wow!' trip through outer-space fantasy-land.

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Jun 14, 2013 David Clark rated it liked it

Reality challenged was a fun read, though it does have some flaws. Xorian and company are thrust into a mission to save the multiverse, each contributing in their own reluctant way. The rules of the universes and the special abilities of some of the characters always kept things interesting. While the humor was sometimes reminiscent of a Douglas Adams novel or a Dr. Who episode, the story had it's own unique style. The characters were exotic, if naive and sometimes fickle. I loved the banter bet ...more

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Sep 05, 2013 T.D. Wilson rated it liked it

This book definitely lived up to its name. At first, I was challenged to keep up with the different twists and turns as Xorian and his alien companion Krazhdi bounce between different realities. The book is fast paced and full of action. I struggled maintaining focus on the characters as the POV really moved around.

There were some really cool abilities brought to light in this book. I loved the "Trade". In a multi-reality setting, I think that would be one of the most useful abilities to have fo ...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Ubiquitous Bubba added it · (Review from the author)

Shelves: bubba-books

Apr 09, 2013 Neil marked it as to-read

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