Panda Ray: A Science Fiction Novel

Christopher Zimmerman sure looks like a normal ten-year-old (even if he is the shortest member of his class). He collects pebbles and has a dog named Buzz. He also tells his whole fifth-grade class at Lincoln Elementary about traveling into the past to see dinosaurs and trilobites. For Christopher - in spite of his ordinary looks - is actually the youngest child in a family of aliens... or are they mutants? (And really, does it matter which?)
When Mother hears of Christopher's boasting, she rules as she must: Christopher will be scooped out.
That's right - no more omicron for him, no more upsilon.
Christopher would rather die than be scooped out, so he enlists Gramps's help and flees on a journey through space, time, and other less recognizable things, and into a classic science fiction adventure.

Christopher appears to be an everyday 10-year-old boy, but he's actually an alien, or perhaps a mutant. The FBI isn't exactly sure what he is, but they're looking for him and his family in any case. His mother, meanwhile, surrounded by extraordinarily powerful and advanced communications equipment, runs their home with an iron fist. When Christopher begins telling stories in school about Shakespeare being a transvestite and the dinosaurs being wiped out by ESP?stories he can back up with an incredible amount of detail?Mother cracks down immediately. Christopher, she rules, is to be "scooped out," neutralized, turned into a pale shadow of himself. Determined to escape his punishment, the boy, aided by his grandfather and a time machine disguised as a bathroom, sets off on a bizarre and painfully humorous adventure through multiple universes. Kandel (Strange Invasion; Captain Jack Zodiac), is best known for rendering several of Stanislaw Lem's novels into English and has been twice nominated for a National Book Award for his translations. His latest novel?understated, surreal and intensely ironic?is unlikely to appeal to readers who see space opera as the epitome of good SF but should find an appreciative readership among admirers of the work of Lem and Philip K. Dick.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Formidably weird fantasy about the process of growing up, from an author perhaps best known for his resplendent translations of Stanislaw Lem. In western Pennsylvania live the Zimmerman family: Aliens, or mutants from the future, who possess strange powers and devices--they conceal themselves by controlling key figures in the community. But when ten-year-old Christopher starts boasting of his exploits at school, Mother decides that he must be scooped out- -permanently deprived of his magic/psi powers and turned into an ordinary straight-A student and model citizen . . . just like his brother, Brian. In desperation, Christopher flees to Gramps, who similarly is resisting being banished to a retirement home in Florida. Together, the pair go journeying through space, time, and probability--but Mother still pursues them with relentless fanaticism. There's one chance, Gramps thinks: His old friend and mentor, Panda Ray, will be able to help them, but Christopher will end up as an entirely different person. Still, having little choice, Christopher embarks on a further jaunt even odder than his first, with implacable Mother yet to face at the end of it all. Tirelessly inventive but amorphous, with humorous intentions that never quite break through into real amusement: impressive, yet difficult to approach. Rather like . . . yes, like Stanislaw Lem. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ten-year-old Pennsylvanian Christopher Zimmerman tells his classmates fantastic stories of traveling to the past and other worlds. For his boasting, his mother first disables his powers and, when he escapes with his grandfather, decides to kill him. When Panda Ray sends Christopher to the Sea of Isn't, where his mother can't hurt him, he learns how dangerous his powers really are. This humorous look at adolescence through an alien's eyes is recommended for YA and sf collections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ten-year-old Christopher Zimmerman has been talking too much in class for his teacher's comfort, recounting improbable visits to ancient Egypt, Jurassic dinosaur gatherings, and even Shakespeare's studio, where he reveals that the Bard wore dresses for inspiration. The teacher suspects an overactive imagination, but Christopher's mother knows he has been time traveling with Gramps and vows to end it before snooping federal agents expose the family. On the verge of being "scooped out" --that is, becoming a soulless automaton--Christopher flees with Gramps in a dimension-bending bathroom (the trick is in the tiles) to other worlds and times and the adventure of his young, alien life. Better known for his acclaimed translations of Stanislaw Lem, Kandel here advances his own standing as an sf author in a fanciful story about a family of Earth-bound aliens. His picaresque romp strikes just the right balance between whimsy and seriousness to keep things interesting, and Lem's fans will hear echoes of the Polish master's mercurial wit in Kandel's abundant satirical quips. Carl Hays