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From Publishers Weekly
Ernst Vossoff, would-be interstellar tycoon, and Karl Nimmitz, his exceptionally
dim sidekick, take the reader for a merry ride through a thankfully distant galaxy
in Castro's (An Alien Darkness) zany collection of eight linked stories, which
boast titles like "Just a Couple of Extinct Aliens Riding Around in a Limo"
and "Just a Couple of Ruthless Interstellar Assassins Discussing Real Estate
Investments at a Twister Game the Size of a Planet." Dejah Shapiro, Vossoff's
impossibly gorgeous ex-wife who later falls in love with Nimmitz, provides the
narrative frame, purporting to tell
true stories of the bumbling duo to the sleazy aliens clustered around a classic
wrecked spaceport bar. ("The jukebox switched to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
version of `Louie, Louie.' ") The sharp, wide-ranging satire seldom lapses
in tone or taste. In "A Ridiculously Lengthy Afterword"
(which happens to be a model of concision), the author elucidates a few in-jokes
and explains that the first of the series was mainly inspired by Robert Sheckley,
not the late Douglas Adams, to whom the book is dedicated. Sheckley and Adams
fans will find Castro a worthy successor to those two giants of comic SF.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
From "Just a Couple of Sentients Sitting Around Talking," the story
that launches the dubious careers of time- and space-traveling ne'er-do-wells
Ernst Vossoff and Karl Nimmitz to "Just a Couple of Ruthless Interstellar
Assassins Discussing Real Estate Investments at a Twister Game the Size of a
Planet," the final outing for the unscrupulous pair, the eight stories
in this collection present a smorgasbord of slapstick humor, one-liners, and
stand-up comic routines cleverly disguised as sf tall tales. While the humor
in these stories may not appeal to everyone, readers who enjoy their comedy
loud and raucous should appreciate these connected tales first published in
the now-defunct Science Fiction Age magazine. For large sf collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Regina Schroeder, Booklist
Vossoff and Nimmitz are bumbling partners in petty but nonetheless grandiose
crime who occasionally succeed at something, though certainly not at what they
intend. Castro's stories about them first appeared in the now-defunct Science
Fiction Age, and in this collection are loosely tied together by interludes
set in a bar called Ralphs [sic], which is in no way a pleasant place but proves
an excellent venue for recounting the pair's bizarre exploits. At first, in
"Just a Couple of Sentients Sitting around Talking," they seem potentially
competent, but the ignominious fate they meet--being stranded on the perfectly
featureless surface of a world reputedly home to beings far more advanced than
humans--destroys that illusion. Sf humor being what it is--compare Douglas Adams'
galactic hitchhiker yarns--things only get worse in a mad universe in which
a union boss can organize the Revolt of the Mitochondria, only to be outsmarted
by a criminal idiot. As endearingly incompetent as Vossoff and Nimmitz are,
one hopes there aren't interstellar rogues of their caliber loose in our universe.
(Copyright) American Library Association. All rights reserved
From Paul Di Filippo, Science Fiction Weekly
The corps of SF humorists and satirists is a small and exclusive one, although
there are numerous wannabe applicants to the club. De Camp and Pratt, Kuttner,
Sheckley, Goulart, Laumer, Harrison, Webb, Bunch, Rucker, Lem-the roll call
is full of famous names, to which can now be added that of
Adam-Troy Castro. Forging a distinctive style and a personal set of themes,
he has learned from all his illustrious predecessors and managed to extend their
canonical work into new territory...Intelligent mitochondria, weight loss through
gut teleportation, a planet overloaded with a "flash crowd" of guests-in
the hands of a Larry Niven or Greg Bear, these would all be deemed
brilliant conceits worthy of serious treatment. In Castro's sweaty embrace,
these beautiful concepts are watusi'd around the dancefloor, then diddled in
the hat-check room. Pardon my metaphors, but this is what reading Castro's stories
does to you. The language is so flashy, hyperbolic and funny, in a Mark Leyner/Steve
Aylett vein, that you start to get giddy and want to
imitate his worldview in your own speech...all in all, the stories hold up at
least as strongly as any eight random skits by Monty Python, another spiritual
ancestor.
Copyright Science Fiction Weekly.
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