Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Spectra (1988)
Description
Simon Wagstaff narrowly escapes the Deluge that destroys Earth when he happens upon an abandoned spaceship. A man without a planet, he gains immortality from an elixir drunk during an interlude with a cat-like alien queen. Now Simon must chart a 3,000-year course to the most distant corners of the multiverse, to seek out the answers to the questions no one can seem to answer.
User reviews
LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
This interstellar picaresque novel by Philip José Farmer was written under a pseudonym taken from a fictional author described by Kurt Vonnegut. To pile Pelion upon Ossa, "Trout" has his main character refer often to the life and works of an imaginary 20th-century American science fiction writer
Many 21st-century readers will compare this book to Douglas Adams' later Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Both begin with the destruction of terrestrial humanity, aside from the protagonist who then becomes a wanderer in outer space. The book is full of allusions to The Wizard of Oz, but I think that The Phantom Tollbooth is also a likely influence. The prose style reminds me of no one so much as R. A. Lafferty, for the sake of qualities I find difficult to describe. The humor in "Trout's" book is a little more broad that what I usually find in Lafferty, the atmosphere decidedly less mystical.
The book recounts the adventures of the banjo-playing Simon Wagstaff, a character who was promptly animated in my mind by the ghost of Duane Adam Rostoker. Following the calamity that visits the Earth during Simon's visit to the Sphinx at Giza, he quickly acquires animal companions after the manner of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, but Simon's are a dog and an owl, perhaps figuring his "lower" and "higher" awarenesses.
The proper names in the story are a raft of anagrams, from the randy cat planet Shaltoon that is a hot Salon, to the planet Longalor of nomadic wheel-creatures who roll aLong. The beautiful android Chwortkap is a patChwork of the optimized DNA of hundreds of donors. These and many others put me in mind of James Branch Cabell, whose Jurgen may also have been a model for Farmer here.
Although replete with frank sexual content, Venus on the Half-Shell is not really erotic at all. It merely refuses to repress the importance of sex in the dilemma of life. It contains a variety of episodes with different intelligent species that demonstrate the illusions and falsehoods that enslave societies and individuals ("yet therein is the mystery of redemption" --Liber B). The whole thing reads quite quickly and can be written off as a farce, serve as a puzzle, or even inspire serious reflection.
Show More
named Jonathan Swift Somers III.Many 21st-century readers will compare this book to Douglas Adams' later Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Both begin with the destruction of terrestrial humanity, aside from the protagonist who then becomes a wanderer in outer space. The book is full of allusions to The Wizard of Oz, but I think that The Phantom Tollbooth is also a likely influence. The prose style reminds me of no one so much as R. A. Lafferty, for the sake of qualities I find difficult to describe. The humor in "Trout's" book is a little more broad that what I usually find in Lafferty, the atmosphere decidedly less mystical.
The book recounts the adventures of the banjo-playing Simon Wagstaff, a character who was promptly animated in my mind by the ghost of Duane Adam Rostoker. Following the calamity that visits the Earth during Simon's visit to the Sphinx at Giza, he quickly acquires animal companions after the manner of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, but Simon's are a dog and an owl, perhaps figuring his "lower" and "higher" awarenesses.
The proper names in the story are a raft of anagrams, from the randy cat planet Shaltoon that is a hot Salon, to the planet Longalor of nomadic wheel-creatures who roll aLong. The beautiful android Chwortkap is a patChwork of the optimized DNA of hundreds of donors. These and many others put me in mind of James Branch Cabell, whose Jurgen may also have been a model for Farmer here.
Although replete with frank sexual content, Venus on the Half-Shell is not really erotic at all. It merely refuses to repress the importance of sex in the dilemma of life. It contains a variety of episodes with different intelligent species that demonstrate the illusions and falsehoods that enslave societies and individuals ("yet therein is the mystery of redemption" --Liber B). The whole thing reads quite quickly and can be written off as a farce, serve as a puzzle, or even inspire serious reflection.
Show Less
LibraryThing member EmScape
"Kilgore Trout"'s only published novel is like a cross between The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy crossed with the Oz books, except 20 times dirtier. Simon Wagstaff is on a quest for the answers to his questions, namely, "Why are we here?" and..."Who created all these weird candy-heart shaped
Despite the aforementioned vulgarity and somewhat heavy-handed use of simile: "Dawn broke like a window hit by a gold brick. Simon entered the spaceship. A human doughnut dunked in weariness, satiety, and cat-in-mating-season pungency, he slopped in.", Venus on the Half Shell is quite pleasurable to read. At times, it almost seems to be poking fun at itself, as possibly a send-up of bad science fiction...so bad, it's good.
Show More
indestructable towers on most of the planets in the universe -- but not Earth's galaxy?" Simon gets one of his questions answered, and meets some very interesting aliens along the way. Except for the long, involved descriptions of the aliens' sexual practices (and there are is a lot of sex in this book) it wouldn't be surprising at all to find creatures of this description in Oz. Despite the aforementioned vulgarity and somewhat heavy-handed use of simile: "Dawn broke like a window hit by a gold brick. Simon entered the spaceship. A human doughnut dunked in weariness, satiety, and cat-in-mating-season pungency, he slopped in.", Venus on the Half Shell is quite pleasurable to read. At times, it almost seems to be poking fun at itself, as possibly a send-up of bad science fiction...so bad, it's good.
Show Less
LibraryThing member gypsysmom
Farmer wrote this book under the pseudonym of Kilgore Trout. It's basically a spoof of the early SF novels which always showed a half-naked maiden on the cover. It's a hoot.
LibraryThing member CaseyAdamsStark
If you like Hitchhiker's Guide, then you should check out this space odyssey of a more sexually explicit nature. I was given a dog-eared, nicotine stained pages copy from an old era stranger of questionable background, which is oddly appropriate. So, you've been warned...
Subjects
Awards
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1974
Physical description
6.7 inches
ISBN
0553275313 / 9780553275315