SAGE'S MULTIVERSE MINI-SERIES

This third installment of Bushnell’s metafictional SF series follows the lives of several whimsical characters of various species.

Halycon Sage has earned the title of Greatest Novelist of the Century with his two-sentence novels. He lives in a post-apocalyptic world that no longer has modern technology, including the internet. It does, however, have alien Squids; F. Atty. Lumpkin, a cat lawyer; and, much to Sage’s chagrin, aspiring writers who steal his minimalist style. This relatively short novel is, for the most part, a mélange of short stories, poetry, and other narrative modes. Bushnell offers plenty of comedy in an entertaining variety of formats, including legal documents, email correspondence, book excerpts, and the transcript for a live TV studio recording. Likewise, Sage is just one member of an impressive ensemble; in fact, one may argue that Lumpkin gets the brightest spotlight—which is why, at one point, several members of the supporting cast sign a formal complaint. It should come as no surprise that plot takes a back seat to a string of asides, as when Sage, for example, complains when his editor pressures him to write a blog. Elsewhere, TechieSquid debates his own species’ customs and those of “Eartheans,” and human literary critic Basel Vasselschnauzer goes looking for Sage, which connects to “trials and adventures” from preceding series installments. Nevertheless, this book’s best parts come from the inclusion of the author as a character in her own story; she insists that Sage is the one who’s dreamed up an “imaginary author,” which makes their eventual run-in wonderfully surreal. Bushnell also intermittently takes over Lumpkin’s diary entries, leading to tender moments in which the sickly feline requires multiple trips to the vet. There’s lighthearted artwork as well, from Oelenschlager, Spragins, and Hatch, such as an image of the “annoying” species Snrrr—an evidently inaccurate rendering that still “perfectly expresses their collective personality.”

A succinct and witty genre-hopping romp that entertainingly favors character over story.