A Fun Smooth Ride for A While; Then It Gets Pretty Bumpy

The first half of this book is a stoner comedy, followed by an epic road trip. Once our heroes get to Mars, though, we sort of lose our way.

Our heroes, Jordan and Leonard, are sad sack slackers on a mild, boring, progressive and egalitarian Earth. It may be paradise, where everyone has just "enough", but Earth is boring and our heroes are pretty lame boy men. At this stage the quips, jokes, sarcastic and ironic comments, and cutting throwaways and observations fly thick and fast. If you don't like one, the next funny line is just a sentence or two away. When Jordan gets sent off to Mars we are treated to a solar system road trip that makes the worst Greyhound bus in history seem like the Queen Mary. Again, lots of funny lines and set pieces. Our boys are on a roll.

Then we get to New Austin on Mars. SPOILER. It isn't party central; it's a dump run like a prison by the real estate developer who basically owns everything. O.K., we could get into some subversive put-it-to-the-man humor here, and maybe the Animal House party nerds will put it to Dean Wormer. Well, no. Instead we drift into a hyper-violent revolution tale with sketchy and forced humor. It's like "Hitchhiker's Guide" met "Total Recall" by way of "Brave New World" and "Blade Runner", with a touch of "Scooby Doo". It didn't work very well, and once your heroes are covered with blood and guts it's hard to recapture that light and frothy humorous slacker feel.

So, it's well written, but sinks under the effort to create an action/adventure plot. The lines are still funny, and the book is breezy and loaded with energy. It was entertaining enough at the outset, and skimmable enough toward the end, that it still ended up being a happy find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)