Showing results by author "Neal Barrett Jr." in All Categories

From readers who have followed Neal Barrett Jr.'s career come accolades such as "brilliant", "unique", "sheer genius". Other writers respect his status as a master of words, his ability to weave rhythm and poetry into his tales. Barrett jumps in and out of genres at will or simply invents one of his own. He likes to bring his favorite characters together and see what they'll do. Neal Barrett, Jr. has made a special effort to give us a number of dark, funny, and hopefully impossible views of the future.

Neal Barrett, Jr., answers (sometimes) to a number of names: Odd, Weird, Gonzo, and, as a former collection points out: Slightly Off Center. Barrett is all of the above, and more. From fans who have followed his career come accolades such as brilliant, unique, sheer genius. Other writers respect his status as a master of words, his ability to weave rhythm and poetry into his tales. Neal Barrett, Jr., has made a special effort to give us a number of dark, funny, and hopefully impossible views of the future.

One of the strangest adventurers in the history of science fiction. It is millennia from now and mankind has vanished from the Earth, under mysterious circumstances.... But he has left a legacy behind him: a host of intelligent species artificially enhanced by means of humanity's genetic science. Aldair is one such product, an intelligent, upright pig.

For his world and ours are the same...but his lies in the future and seems destined to parallel the history of our own. Where is humanity? What legacy has true mankind left to its manlike descendants that they must relive our past? For Aldair has been forced into the role of a future Magellan, who must travel down the coasts of unmapped continents, facing monsters, winged wizards and great dangers, to find a knowledge older than the history of his entire race.

I have done more than my share of wandering. In a few short years, I have been slave, scholar, and master of ships. I have played no small part in the death of two great empires. I have nearly been eaten whole by the shapeless thing that guards the Great River. I have even soared above the earth like a large, ungainly bird. Finally, I have come to know the handiwork of man, in the sad and fearful land of Merrkia, across the Misty Sea.

On the day that Aldair found that his world had abruptly turned upside-down, his history-changing quest began. And he did not even then know that it was to be a quest. Aldair had been a true acolyte of the faith when it happened. And then, he found himself an accursed outcast, the one against whom all hands were raised. His only friends were those who had been his most vicious enemies. His only course led to the lands of horror. And his final goal had to be that most forbidden of all lands, the dwelling place of the dead, that island of total terror known as Albion.

Dreamer came back to Austin, Texas from a bad banana war with a souvenir slug in his head. No big deal, just a minor side effect: Now, every safe, every lock, every fancy alarm takes a nap when he's around. Dreamer's not tempted. He's straight arrow and doesn't need the dough. He's happy selling guppies, hanging out at Mama Lucy's Vishnu and Esus Barbecue.

Even in a mystical world where centuries ago animals were magically changed into humans, the land of Makasar is considered strange. Its two major religions are Hatters and Hooters. During the day, Hatters, wearing hats of course, wander about jabbing pointy sticks into bystanders. The night is ruled by the Hooters, who hoot and set fire to people and things. Hospitality is considered a capital crime. And Newlies, the humanized animals, are treated lower than scum.

The essence of a truly null-Earth logic may never be as clearly defined as in this novel-length package of interplanetary surprises. Ride The Wormway To No-Wonderland. Consider this marooned astronaut. His spaceship and supplies are swallowed in one gulp by something from beneath the featureless plain of an unknown world.

Russell Murray is the editor of a literary magazine in Chicago. He drinks way too much. And he's in big trouble when he wakes up in a hotel room with a beautiful woman just before two men come into the room and kill her. They try to kill Murray, too, but he gets away. Things never slow down after that.