ZB5

This book was not what I expected.

I ordered this book because I looked up any author associated with science fiction/fantasy & comedy. When I got it I saw a quote from Thomas Pynchon [probably my favorite author that I almost never read] on the front & references to Ayn Rand [an author I feel i should read but probably never will] on the back & wondered what I had got myself into.

There is a similarity in plot style between this book & a Pynchon book, but some significant differences in writing style, though not quite as good as Pynchon Matt Ruff is infinitely easier to read. Of course a book should be judged on it's own merits & not how it compares to another writer, so no more of that.

The story was intricate & nicely convoluted, but was true to itself. By which I mean that while the novel was essentially absurd Ruff never broke the rules of his created universe, never stressed my suspended disbelief and allowed me to accept & enjoy the wackiness. Wackiness including, among other things, a mutant shark, an electric Ayn Rand, an evil supercomputer in Disney World, blimps, an advanced submarine crewed with eco-terrorists, a not as advanced submarine crewed with feminists, a sea battle worthy of Hunt for Red October including both submarines, a blimp, a sub-hunter, and some whales, some free love, a ridiculously old Civil War Veteran, some other less old Veterans, a series of ironic murders, etc.

What's more the characters peopling this book felt real to me, making the absurd that much more acceptable, and this is doubly impressive considering that only a few characters were really fully fleshed out. This worked because the non central characters were not shallowly fleshed out, he gives the beginnings of a fully developed character & let's you take it the rest of the way if you wish. Personally I love it when a writer holds back a little on the description & let's the reader take a creative role in reading the book.

I also have to thank Ruff for giving me a full synopsis of Atlas Shrugged allowing me to put off reading it all the longer.

[I'm about to start talking about things that occur in later parts of the novel so you might want to stop reading]

The most powerful theme in the book was definitely that of the genocide of the black race & it's subsequent replacement with "electric negroes." As a white suburbanite with no strong bonds with anyone black this was especially compelling & caused a great deal of self examination. This would be one hell of a downer if Ruff didn't also include redemption in his story. When some of the only surviving members of the black race & friends plug a compendium of the entire history of Africa & it's peoples into a potential A.I. it creates a super-intelligence calling itself the eye of Africa which leads an army of disabled veterans [veterans of the wars fought over Africa's resources after the genocide, many of whom were injured by African survivors, this is where the redemption comes in] in a fight against the super-computer living in Disney World that had created the original virus targeting black people. The Electric Ayn Rand, the butt of many a joke throughout the novel & eventually found out to be a tool of the Disney super-computer, manages to redeem herself by resisting her intended purpose. Even Meisterbrau the mutant shark, killer of many an innocent, helps out in a bizarre way at the end.

All told a book well worth reading, though, as I have just found out, difficult to describe. ( )

A fun light read. ( )

I love all of Matt Ruff's books, and this is my favorite. The problem is, you just can't explain the plot of one of his novels without sounding slightly insane and this one is the worst. (There's an extremely disturbing subplot about a pandemic that I'm sure some people think is racist because they miss that it's a satire on the attitudes of some white Americans. J. Edgar Hoover and a psychotic robot are involved in the plot. Enough said?)

Just the title of this book is enough to make people wonder about you, and honestly, the title still doesn't really work for me. But the book itself is laugh out loud funny, and despite the fact that none of the characters are that deep, they're funny, and the plot is so wacky it keeps you guessing all the way through. Plus there are all of these strange insights on random subjects, like abortion laws and Ayn Rand. (No really, I'm not crazy.) ( )

What fun! Interesting take on life in the future. You can tell that Ruff is a fan of the Illuminatus Trilogy, even if he never mentions it. The book is funny, the characters are likeable, and there's some food for thought. ( )

Fun. Quick. Broken up into many little chapterlets, so it's great for the short breaks during jury duty. It manages to be openly ridiculous without crossing the line into obnoxiousness. ( )

http://bactra.org/reviews/sewer-gas-e... ( )

This was the second time I tried to read this book. I gave up at page 115. There were a lot of amusing things in here and I wanted to like it, but I felt like I was constantly reading digressions and back-stories and there wasn't much forward momentum on the plot. ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.a... ( )

Just a novel, not particularly good, nor bad. The reason I remember it is that I first read about Ayn Rand in this book. Cf. my review of the Fountainhead. ( )

hilarious...! ( )

Picked this one up because I love, love, love his first book, Fool on a Hill. Sewer, Gas, & Electric and Fool on the Hill are very, very similar; an motley assemblage of Good Guys fighting an army of fantastic and vaguely supernatural Bad Guys. FotH is set at modern-day Cornell, SG&E is set in 2030's Manhattan. Did that make me like it less? A little, yes. In any case, the writing is strong, and funny in a Christopher Moore kind of way, although I wasn't laughing out loud *quite* as often. There's so much going on, however, with the four or more main plotlines and with such short-attention-span cuts in the narrative flow, that it's kind of difficult to follow, even with frequent reference to the Dramatis Personae included in the beginning. So, I enjoyed it, and might get more out of it on a second read, but it's no Fool on the Hill. ( )

Very imaginative. I *knew* that the Evil of Disney would someday be revealed. Upon second reading, I've decided I'm really bothered by the whole idea of the Pandemic and wonder if it reflects any thoughts of the author. Still, this is a very imaginative and fun read. (June 2003) ( )

One of my favourite books - unfortunately I only own the German translation.