Cosmocopia by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Trent Walters
While Paul Di Filippo isn't a household name, if you've read deeply in the field, you've heard of him. He zigs and zags his
way across the genre. For a genre known for its weird, this book has to rank right up there.
As with many of Filippo's works, especially at this length, a Beatnik/Kerouac's On the Road feel rises from the
narrative. Predicting what will happen next is out of the question.
After the Collapse by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Trent Walters
Stories with a similar motif or concept tend to rub off on one another when gathered in one place, often conferring more
power to each. In rock, these would be the concept albums of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters where, even if there
were a weak song or two, you don't mind because they cohere well together as a whole. In the genre, similar
strength came when Isaac Asimov collected his robot stories or Fred Saberhagen his alien, killing machines -- the Berserkers.
Four Stories by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Trent Walters
The author claims that two possibilities exist for why writers choose to tell single-idea SF:
1) According H.G. Wells, writers should not beleaguer readers with too many strangenesses in one narrative.
2) SF writers are stingy with their ideas. A third reason not mentioned by him may be that writers
want to make a clear, philosophical extrapolation of a single idea or theme. If they add too much to the
pot, they fear cooking something more like mud than stew.
A Princess of the Linear Jungle by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Trent Walters
Merritt Abraham graduated from college but was too poor to pursue a higher degree in archeology (rather,
polypolisology -- the study of many cities) as she wanted. Taking a job in a museum, she marks time until her boss
learns of her true desire and helps her out. Merritt attends graduate school and falls in love with her offbeat
professor, Scoria. They join an expedition team on a journey to Vayavirunga, the Jungle blocks of
the Linear City.
Cosmocopia by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Neil Walsh
Payseur & Schmidt publishes more than just books; they publish high-quality multi-media art events. Cosmocopia
is a fine example. It's not only a short novel by Paul Di Filippo, it's also a 513-piece jigsaw puzzle and colour
poster with artwork by Jim Woodring -- the whole delightfully packaged.
Let's begin with The Origin of the World, dating back to 1866...
Shuteye for the Timebroker by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Paul Kincaid
Paul Di Filippo is a writer who likes to shift restlessly between styles and
manners, though his most common mode is the humorous. Not outright comedy, but the sort of thing that leaves you
smiling without necessarily understanding why. It's the sort of trick that writers like R.A. Lafferty and Howard
Waldrop pull of with aplomb.
Babylon Sisters and Other Posthumans by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Jayme Lynn Blaschke
This author may be too clever for his own good. It's almost like he pushes too hard to live up to his reputation as a
speculative fiction writer who is totally unpredictable. Well, not totally -- any reader that has encountered his brand of writing knows
to expect the unexpected. With that in mind, this collection encompasses both the best and worst of his stylistic quirks. Here
is a writer that effortlessly evokes envy one moment, only to prompt curses the next for some literary shenanigan he has perpetrated.
Little Doors by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Martin Lewis
Spanning 15 years from almost the beginning of his career to earlier this year, this is the author's 5th
collection. Like all of them, it is
thematic even though in this case it is a little hard to say what that theme might be. In the broadest terms, all the stories are
fantasies even though some of them contain no fantastic elements. Even though there is not a clear, unifying thread running through
the stories it is obvious that they rub up against each other and trade on similar concerns. They are stories of dreams and obsessions.
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A Mouthful of Tongues: Her Totipotent Tropicanalia by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by William Thompson
This bold, hallucinatory catalogue of sexuality is a most singular work. Written with an orgiastic abandon worthy of R. Crumb,
but with a beauty of language and imagination entirely the author's own, this work represents a possible apogee in literary
erotica far excelling in verve and energy any similar work encountered thus far. It is a book that quite literally bathes
in seminality. But this tale is far more than a fictional litany
of sexual acts or prurient fantasy, a mere celebration of bacchanalia, though it is impossible to ignore this aspect. This
is also a story of salvation, perhaps for some found in the most unexpected of places.
A Year in the Linear City by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by William Thompson
The premise for this novella is intriguing: a city laid out along a single thoroughfare -- a ubiquitous Broadway -- a
single block of buildings to either side, divided by numbered Cross Streets equally a block in length counterpoint,
seeming to stretch limitlessly both Up or Downtown, delimited only by Boroughs separated by a single street. The
residents live either on the Trackside or Riverside of the central boulevard: if lucky, with a Steetview looking
onto Broadway.
Strange Trades by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Rich Horton
The author's 5th collection of short fiction is one of the most satisfying
SF single-author collections Rich has read in some time. As the title
announces, the stories are concerned with people at work, exploring a
variety of science-fictional jobs, some strange due to technological
advances, others due to marginal or experimental economics, others because
they're set in unusual milieus.
Strange Trades by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Welcome to another mix of song titles, obscure pop culture references, the
kind of weird ideas only science fiction writers get, and those odd people
who always seem to live just down the street. This writer's at his best in
his short stories, which often feature an oddball sense of humour and
delight in popular culture. This collection is nominally based on the theme
of odd occupations, but it's really a sometimes silly, sometimes serious
overview of the writing of one of those authors whose gift is to present
sharply painted images in small packages.
Lost Pages by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Lisa DuMond
There could be any number of parallel universes popping up around
us, but even in this one, Paul Di Filippo is in his own world.
This time, he is musing upon a world where SF as a genre died in
the late 60s. The inevitable question arises: how would the world have been different?
The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Katharine Mills
This book is a magnificent specimen of intelligent humour. In the three
novellas of this collection, Di Filippo stirs up a funky stew of puns,
literature, natural history and sex, and serves it up in an elaborate
Victorian dish.
Ribofunk by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by David Soyka
Di Fillipo emphasizes the depiction of an unsettling reality over the
development of a traditional storyline. Although David can't think of any
other author who is quite as, well, weird, he thinks that if you're looking
for a few uncomfortable laughs in a quick-but-stylish read, this would be a
most excellent choice.
Fractal Paisleys by Paul Di Filippo
reviewed by Greg L. Johnson
Paul Di Filippo is one of the funniest writers working in SF today, and
maybe the only one writing in the "trailer park SF" genre. In this
collection, small-town characters are confronted with science fiction
weirdness, and instead of running away and hiding, they grab it and go. The
results are always entertaining and often outright hilarious.
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