MASTER OF SPACE AND TIME
By
A mostly amusing, high-speed, lunatic whiff through a variety of unlikely worlds--from the author of Software and The Sex Sphere. Computer programmer Joe Fletcher is sitting peacefully in his car when his friend and ex-partner, mad inventor Harry Gerber, drops by--in multiple form: dozens of Harrys appear, from normal-sized to enormous to minuscule! The Harrys, you see, have returned from the future to remind Fletch to visit the regular Harry and tell him to invent the ""blunzer"" which will give Harry mastery of space and time. (The witty explanation of this power involves Planck's constant and some red ""gluons,"" particles that bind quarks together.) Then, while still in multiple ""blunzed"" form, Harry decides to explore an alternate world--where the big boss, ""Gary Herber,"" is a giant naked brain who rules through the hundreds of small parasitic brains he's budded off. Harry and friends defeat the brains--but when they return home one of the Gary-brains gets through as well. Meanwhile, porkchop bushes and fritter trees (Harry's notion of ending world hunger) are sprouting everywhere . . . and there are plenty of other improbable complications. Inventive, agreeably batty fun--with several good math and physics jokes for science-savvy fans.