Earl Mac Rauch

This one is kind of a big pill to swallow. If anything, it is a cross between 1950's science fiction and modern Eastern metaphysics. It's not something most kids would get back when it was published and certainly not modern kids. Heck, most adults would probably stumble over some of the concepts. Read "The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Physics" (also in my Library Thing library), by Dr. Julian Barbour as a prerequisite. This will serve as a wedge to pry your mind open a bit. Most people who have heard of Buckaroo Banzai at all are more familiar with the movie than the book. The movie came first and while I have seen it, I prefer the book to the movie.… (more)

Well, this is, by far, the best novelization of a film I have ever read. In the spirit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Dr. Watson, Rauch writes the story from the perspective of Reno, the team chronicler. Using Reno's insights, the world of Buckaroo Banzai is fleshed out in vivid detail as if this is just one of a series of books Reno has released on the adventures of Buckaroo, his Hong Kong Cavaliers, and everyone else at the Banzai Institute.

With elements of classic pulp stories such as Doc Savage and the writing style of the great Victorian-era reportage fiction, the book reads almost more like a companion piece to the film, a direct report of the events compiled by Reno and presented to the public (even going as far as avoiding certain elements because they have "already been given so much attention in the press"), giving the feel that this world is very real and that Buckaroo and his comrades are out there keeping the world safe.… (more)