COSMIC BANDITOS

by A.C. Weisbecker ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 1986

A first novel, by a Miami Vice screenwriter, in which cute-as-a-bug dope dealers stumble onto the secrets of the Universe. Hiding out high in the mountains of Colombia are the unnamed-but-very-stoned American narrator and his even-more-stoned sidekick, Jose, both of them marijuana smugglers on the lam. Jose and his Bandito Buddies like to mug American tourists, and one day they bring back a bundle of physics books apparently belonging to a Sausalito university professor. The narrator fires up a joint, begins to dabble in Subatomic Particles, and soon discovers the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, which says that ""different editions of us live in many different worlds simultaneously."" Mr. Quark--as the narrator has now dubbed him. self--finds this horrifying notion especially enchanting, and decides to visit the Sausalito professor to discuss it further--after first sending the bewildered man a series of mysterious notes gradually announcing his intentions. He and Jose then make the long trek up through Central American and Mexico to California, along the way preaching the Many Worlds Interpretation to other Banditos. (Weisbecker fills in the black holes that appear in the plot with Time Travel Chapters, Time Travel Sentences, and Time Travel Footnotes describing Mr. Quark's deeply druggy past.) Arriving on the astonished professor's doorstep, they hook up with Quark's old compadres-in-crime, Robert, Jim and Flash. The reunion is so boisterous that the main purpose of the visit is forgotten; they blow up the man's house (accidentally, to be sure) and then head off happily for more adventures in the drug trade. Mind-bendingly shallow fiction.

Pub Date: May 9, 1986

ISBN: 0451203062

Page Count: -

Publisher: Vintage/Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION