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Astrotruckers

by Mikael Niemi

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2164124,225 (3.58)1
A brilliant, hilarious and totally original collection of tales from Mikael Niemi, the bestselling author of Popular Music A series of tales based around outer space, Astrotruckers is funny, perverse, inventive and bristling with unstoppable imagination. In the illuminating company of an astrotrucker we meet the ponorists -those who venture into outer space beyond the point of no return -discover the most popular and most pungent Earth mementos taken into space and learn the essential difference between humans and androids. He clarifies the murky areas of human knowledge- the meaning of the oldest writing in the universe, who set off the big bang, the scientific explanation for Murphy's Law, the catalyst for the death of literature and, not to be forgotten, how the world will end.What do you say to an intellectually superior fistular maggot who wants to observe you watching football? How many doors get slammed in your face when you try to find out who is in charge of the universe? And what happens when you switch your android's personality setting to 'humour'?Poetic, grotesque, hilarious, disgusting and visionary, Astrotruckers will reveal all this, and more...… (more)
  1. 00
    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts by Douglas Adams (andejons)
    andejons: Similarly absurd stories set in space, even if Niemi has more grime.
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A collection of science fiction short stories by author of [b: Popular Music from Vittula|63504|Popular Music from Vittula|Mikael Niemi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388851848s/63504.jpg|61671]. Some of the stories are thought-provoking, some melancholic and many are ridicolous and almost all of them are great. ( )
  joschuh | Dec 18, 2019 |
Astrotruckers is one of those books I'd not heard was coming out, but it was displayed in such a way in the bookshop that I was in yesterday that it jamp straight out at me and demanded 'Buy me!' As it turns out, I've read the author's (Mikael Niemi) previous book, and thought it was OK, but this is far more fun.

Astrotruckers is a series of short vignettes, not even stories, centred around the astrotruckers, the human subculture that gets on with the mundane business of ahuling things from one end of space to the other. Niemi uses that as a springboard to explain the origins of the Universe (a nincompoop head fertilised a cold haggis instead of Roly, who was meant to do it, and that's why space is black and not white as Roly intended); the origins of misfortune (a small subatomic particle called Rupert, named for the angry divorce lawyer of the discoverer's now ex-wife); why space travellers take vials containing human shit into space with them (to combat homesickness); and how the world will finally end, amongst other diversions (not least of which is the hijacking of the book halfway through by the Cult of Harold, trying to persuade you of the role of Harold the Fish in the origin of life, and why the rest of the book is blatantly wrong)

The result is a rather random collection of observations, often funny, frequently full of brilliant little ideas, occasionally a bit disgusting, and entertaining throughout. It's a bastard cousin to the Hitch-Hiker's Guide, telling you all the rest of the secrets of life that the Book never quite got round to. Fairly short, eminently readable, a happy little book to while away an hour or so. ( )
  MikeFarquhar | May 27, 2007 |
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A brilliant, hilarious and totally original collection of tales from Mikael Niemi, the bestselling author of Popular Music A series of tales based around outer space, Astrotruckers is funny, perverse, inventive and bristling with unstoppable imagination. In the illuminating company of an astrotrucker we meet the ponorists -those who venture into outer space beyond the point of no return -discover the most popular and most pungent Earth mementos taken into space and learn the essential difference between humans and androids. He clarifies the murky areas of human knowledge- the meaning of the oldest writing in the universe, who set off the big bang, the scientific explanation for Murphy's Law, the catalyst for the death of literature and, not to be forgotten, how the world will end.What do you say to an intellectually superior fistular maggot who wants to observe you watching football? How many doors get slammed in your face when you try to find out who is in charge of the universe? And what happens when you switch your android's personality setting to 'humour'?Poetic, grotesque, hilarious, disgusting and visionary, Astrotruckers will reveal all this, and more...

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