Synopsis
? A dark acid curio, brisk, fast, memorable, a rare improvisational duet from two of our best. Greg Bear Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction. Harry Harrison, author of Adventures of the Stanless Steel Rat Let there be light, and let there always be Roger Zelazny. Philip José Farmer, author of To Your Scattered Bodies GoFrom Publishers Weekly:This odd novel, left incomplete when Bester died in 1987, was finished by Zelazny, who himself died in 1995. In his introduction, Bear refers to Bester (The Deceivers) and Zelazny (Donnerjack) as masters of SF jazz, geniuses of improvisation, and the book has that feel to it. The plot is full of bizarre twists and turns. Neat ideas surface and disappear in an eyeblink and characters transform radically from one page to the next. Alf Noir, an investigative reporter, is sent to Rome to look into the mysterious Black Place of the Soul-Changer and its enigmatic proprietor, Adam Maser. Alf discovers that Maser is a Psychbroker, a sort of pawnbroker of the spirit, dealing in emotions, talents and psychological traits. Want more courage, the ability to see into the infrared, an understanding of ancient Persian? Maser will trade it to you for your mind-reading ability, or a rare coin, or perhaps for the secret of the collective unconscious. Alf discovers that Maser isn't human, but a highly evolved cat from the far future. Nothing is what it seems and no one can be trusted, not even Maser's sexy assistant, an evolved snake with whom Alf has an affair. There's much fun to be had here, but the book doesn't represent either writer in top form. Bester's style in the first part of the novel seems dated, and things don't gel until Zelazny takes over halfway through the book. Vintage has brought Bester's finest work back into print, and for this it deserves praise, but this novel is most likely to appeal to Zelazny's much larger readership.
Reviews
This odd novel, left incomplete when Bester died in 1987, was finished by Zelazny, who himself died in 1995. In his introduction, Bear refers to Bester (The Deceivers) and Zelazny (Donnerjack) as masters of SF jazz, geniuses of improvisation, and the book has that feel to it. The plot is full of bizarre twists and turns. Neat ideas surface and disappear in an eyeblink and characters transform radically from one page to the next. Alf Noir, an investigative reporter, is sent to Rome to look into the mysterious Black Place of the Soul-Changer and its enigmatic proprietor, Adam Maser. Alf discovers that Maser is a Psychbroker, a sort of pawnbroker of the spirit, dealing in emotions, talents and psychological traits. Want more courage, the ability to see into the infrared, an understanding of ancient Persian? Maser will trade it to you for your mind-reading ability, or a rare coin, or perhaps for the secret of the collective unconscious. Alf discovers that Maser isn't human, but a highly evolved cat from the far future. Nothing is what it seems and no one can be trusted, not even Maser's sexy assistant, an evolved snake with whom Alf has an affair. There's much fun to be had here, but the book doesn't represent either writer in top form. Bester's style in the first part of the novel seems dated, and things don't gel until Zelazny takes over halfway through the book. Vintage has brought Bester's finest work back into print, and for this it deserves praise, but this novel is most likely to appeal to Zelazny's much larger readership.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ensconced in a nondescript house in Rome, the Black Place of the Soul-Changer, Adam Maser, proprietor, is a 3,000-year-old hock shop dealing in intellectual and behavioral traits. When reporter Alf Noir discovers it, Cagliostro, the eighteenth-century magician's descendant, has just ordered 666 ingredients, including the intellectual contents of the Library of Congress and humanity's collective unconscious, to go into a human simulacrum. Inexplicably (it seems) taking on Alf as a helper, Maser goes to work gathering what Cagliostro wants. Everything is not as it seems--in many ways--in this pell-mell romp. For instance, Maser isn't human; neither, Alf learns, is Alf; and the shop is a space-and-time-traveling ship. Started by Bester (1913^-87) and completed by Zelazny (1937^-95), this is, as Greg Bear says in the introduction, an "improvisational duet" by two "jazz masters of sf." Anything can happen in it, and lovers of how Douglas (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) Adams does sf may just adore it. Ray Olson
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