Author: Stephen L. Antczak

ISBN: 1892669331

(science fiction - 9/10)

The following review was submitted by:  Paul Lappen & CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's Reviews

Tom and Sparrow, his lover, are part of the punk music
scene in present-day Gainesville, Florida. Sparrow is
part of a band that has a gig at Dave-O's, the local
punk music club. Earlier that day, they score some
LSD, that was not meant for them, from Galactic Bill,
the local drug source.

Meantime, near Atlanta, Georgia, a young woman named
Hanna wakes up in a suburban house next to a fat,
hairy guy. She has no memory of who she is or how she
got there, except for flashbacks of having served in
the Vietnam War, even though she is nowhere near old
enough to have served. Hanna gets in a car and heads
south, not knowing where she is going. Along the way,
she meets The General, an older man in uniform who
certainly remembers Hanna.

When they reach Gainesville, Hanna realizes that The
General is some sort of alien whose task is to absorb
certain people, and thereby become part of Jovah. She
realizes this after seeing The General swallow
Galactic Bill whole, like a snake eating a rat. Back
at the punk club, the LSD begins to have an effect,
and suddenly, everyone at the club is flying, as long
as the music keeps playing. When a malfunctioning amp
stops the music, gravity takes over, violently. While
in the air, Tom, Sparrow and their friends watch as a
giant mechanical dragon lays waste to Gainesville,
like a modern-day Godzilla movie. They can't help but
think that this is the ultimate drug trip, but this is
reality (that's the magic word). They meet Hanna and
The General, who must absorb Hanna to become "whole."

This book does a fine job at messing with conceptions
of reality. One can almost hear the punk music in the
background. This one is really strange and really
good.