FREEZE FRAMES

From the author of Days of Blood and Fire, (1993), etc.: an imponderable and improbable concoction of six mostly inconclusive stories, ranging from the 1960's to the 21st century, that feature the unremarkable Maggie Corey and her descendants and that are also linked—if you can believe it—by the devil, an undead rabbi, and an invading telepathic alien race. In the San Francisco of the Haight-Ashbury era, dropout Maggie Corey gets pregnant by drug chemist Dr. Lucky, and laughs off Nick Harrison—the devil himself. Later, with Maggie now a grandmother, the aliens so torment Laurel, Maggie's scientist neighbor, that she kills herself, then urge Laurel's daughter to drive off a cliff. Next, Maggie's lawyer daughter, Janet, is stranded in England as Christian fascists take over the US in a military coup. Janet's granddaughter, recovering from injuries sustained as a fighter pilot, is told by Nick Harrison and Rabbi Akiba that she's fallen into a parallel universe. Finally, the alien Slaves and their Masters arrive in the solar system and expel the Christian fascists—the aliens, you see, have all converted to Catholicism. Baloney, whichever way you slice it.