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No Small Bills
DuckBob Spinowitz has a problem. It isn’t the fact that he has the head of a duck—the abduction was years ago and he’s learned to live with it. But now those same aliens are back, and they claim they need his help! Apparently creatures from another reality are invading the universe, and only DuckBob can reset the device that maintains the barrier between dimensions. He reluctantly agrees to help, but how can a man whose only talents are bird calls and bad jokes, and whose only work experience is punching random buttons on a computer in a standard cubicle, be expected to save the universe? No Small Bills is the hilarious new science fiction novel from award-winning, bestselling author Aaron Rosenberg, who has written books for Eureka, Star Trek, WarCraft, and many others, and is also the author of the rousing Dread Remora space-opera series for Crossroad Press.
- GenresScience FictionHumor
358 pages, Paperback
First published September 13, 2011
2 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Aaron Rosenberg
234 books117 followersAaron Rosenberg is an award-winning, bestselling novelist, children’s book author, and game designer. He's written original fiction (including the NOOK-bestselling humorous science fiction novel No Small Bills, the Dread Remora space-opera series, and the O.C.L.T. supernatural thriller series), tie-in novels (including the PsiPhi winner Collective Hindsight for Star Trek: SCE, the Daemon Gates trilogy for Warhammer, Tides of Darkness and the Scribe-nominated Beyond the Dark Portal for WarCraft, Hunt and Run for Stargate: Atlantis, and Substitution Method and Road Less Traveled for Eureka), young adult novels (including the Scribe-winning Bandslam: The Novel and books for iCarly and Ben10), children's books (including an original Scholastic Bestseller series, Pete and Penny's Pizza Puzzles, and work for PowerPuff Girls and Transformers Animated), roleplaying games (including original games like Asylum and Spookshow, the Origins Award-winning Gamemastering Secrets, and sections of The Supernatural Roleplaying Game, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and The Deryni Roleplaying Game), short stories, webcomics, essays, and educational books. He has ranged from mystery to speculative fiction to drama to comedy, always with the same intent—to tell a good story. You can visit him online at gryphonrose.com or follow him on Twitter @gryphonrose.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 25, 2011
DuckBob Spinowicz's life has been difficult since being abducted by aliens and given a new body with feathers and a human-sized duck head. But he's been coping. Now those aliens are back, with news of extradimensional beings trying to break through into our universe and destroy our existence as we know it. DuckBob holds the key to defeating them, but it's not going to be an easy journey. Along the way, he learns that while the universe is a much larger place than he ever knew, that doesn't mean it makes any kind of sense.
Aaron Rosenberg's novel, his first as part of the Crazy 8 writing/publishing collective, is a lot of fun. It's a fast-paced, antic romp through the weirder reaches of time and space. While I found it a bit episodic, enough of those episodes ended up being important to the overall story that I was able to forgive them. More importantly for a humor novel, it kept me laughing as I went along.
Rosenberg's comic voice is relaxed and easy-going. The jokes flow naturally, as if the reader is listening to a genuinely funny storyteller, not someone deliberately trying to cram in jokes. Rosenberg cites Douglas Adams as an influence, and a lot of reviews seem to be picking up on that. I'm not entirely sure that's the best comparison, although Adams is pretty much the easiest example to come up with as far as humorous science fiction. The tone of Rosenberg's book reminded me more of movies like Men in Black or shows like Warehouse 13; funny, but not quite the playfulness of language that Adams uses. This isn't meant as a criticism; Rosenberg has a hilarious voice of his own, and shouldn't be stuck just being compared to Adams (because, really, who can compare to Douglas Adams and come out looking favorably?).
If I have one criticism, it's that we don't learn very much about the characters in this book. However, since the story is told by DuckBob, and he's presented as a fairly shallow guy who grows over the course of the story, that only makes sense. And it's the kind of story where the plot and humor are more important than the characters, so it's still very enjoyable.
As I said, this was a lot of fun, and highly entertaining. Aaron Rosenberg is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more of DuckBob and his friends in the future.
Aaron Rosenberg's novel, his first as part of the Crazy 8 writing/publishing collective, is a lot of fun. It's a fast-paced, antic romp through the weirder reaches of time and space. While I found it a bit episodic, enough of those episodes ended up being important to the overall story that I was able to forgive them. More importantly for a humor novel, it kept me laughing as I went along.
Rosenberg's comic voice is relaxed and easy-going. The jokes flow naturally, as if the reader is listening to a genuinely funny storyteller, not someone deliberately trying to cram in jokes. Rosenberg cites Douglas Adams as an influence, and a lot of reviews seem to be picking up on that. I'm not entirely sure that's the best comparison, although Adams is pretty much the easiest example to come up with as far as humorous science fiction. The tone of Rosenberg's book reminded me more of movies like Men in Black or shows like Warehouse 13; funny, but not quite the playfulness of language that Adams uses. This isn't meant as a criticism; Rosenberg has a hilarious voice of his own, and shouldn't be stuck just being compared to Adams (because, really, who can compare to Douglas Adams and come out looking favorably?).
If I have one criticism, it's that we don't learn very much about the characters in this book. However, since the story is told by DuckBob, and he's presented as a fairly shallow guy who grows over the course of the story, that only makes sense. And it's the kind of story where the plot and humor are more important than the characters, so it's still very enjoyable.
As I said, this was a lot of fun, and highly entertaining. Aaron Rosenberg is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next. Hopefully, we'll be seeing more of DuckBob and his friends in the future.
October 26, 2011
DuckBob Spinowitz is your average Joe--er, Bob, and compliments of the Gray aliens he had been modified with the head and plumage of--you guessed it--a duck.
As it turns out, his physical modification was no mere experiment of curiosity as DuckBob learns when he is pressed into service by the Gray aliens and the NSA on a matter of galactic security. For only DuckBob can realign the quantum fluctuation matrix to prevent an alien incursion from an alternate reality!
Say what?
Aaron Rosenberg channels Douglas Adams, Monthy Python, and Henson's Creature Shop (and silly string) in a hilarious, ludicrous escapade through outer space, intraspace, and ultraspace. Teamed with an irritable NSA agent, a squat broccoli-headed alien repairman, and a gorgeous human female mission leader (who was also modified by the Grays but only intellectually, to DuckBob's delight), our feathered and billed hero sets off across the galaxy and manages to enrage flower loving dinosaurs, cause an interstellar bus accident (punishable by losing his ability to see the color mauve), and confront a six-inch tall shrimp with a death ray gun on a protected ocean planet after falling off a speeding bridge.
You had to be there.
As a result, DuckBob and his team wind up in prison and sentenced to two hundred years of hard labor including telemarketing, stuffing envelopes, and filling bags of marshmallows. But they manage a daring escape, picking up two more characters along the way and it isn't long before they're back on course to the Galactic Core where the quantum fluctuation matrix awaits realignment. Of course, the preposterous challenges don't end there!
I read No Small Bills over two evenings and two lunch hours at work. There are few slow moments, mostly limited to DuckBob's occassional comedic introspection, yet the pacing is consistent and the dialogue witty. Rosenberg demonstrates a wild imagination and clever storytelling in a book suitable for YA and adults alike.
Remember, every duck has his day.
As it turns out, his physical modification was no mere experiment of curiosity as DuckBob learns when he is pressed into service by the Gray aliens and the NSA on a matter of galactic security. For only DuckBob can realign the quantum fluctuation matrix to prevent an alien incursion from an alternate reality!
Say what?
Aaron Rosenberg channels Douglas Adams, Monthy Python, and Henson's Creature Shop (and silly string) in a hilarious, ludicrous escapade through outer space, intraspace, and ultraspace. Teamed with an irritable NSA agent, a squat broccoli-headed alien repairman, and a gorgeous human female mission leader (who was also modified by the Grays but only intellectually, to DuckBob's delight), our feathered and billed hero sets off across the galaxy and manages to enrage flower loving dinosaurs, cause an interstellar bus accident (punishable by losing his ability to see the color mauve), and confront a six-inch tall shrimp with a death ray gun on a protected ocean planet after falling off a speeding bridge.
You had to be there.
As a result, DuckBob and his team wind up in prison and sentenced to two hundred years of hard labor including telemarketing, stuffing envelopes, and filling bags of marshmallows. But they manage a daring escape, picking up two more characters along the way and it isn't long before they're back on course to the Galactic Core where the quantum fluctuation matrix awaits realignment. Of course, the preposterous challenges don't end there!
I read No Small Bills over two evenings and two lunch hours at work. There are few slow moments, mostly limited to DuckBob's occassional comedic introspection, yet the pacing is consistent and the dialogue witty. Rosenberg demonstrates a wild imagination and clever storytelling in a book suitable for YA and adults alike.
Remember, every duck has his day.
June 9, 2018
Basically, this is a road trip in space. The overall plot is more of a Maguffin, that doesn't really matter much; the point of the book is to have a series of encounters.
Initially, the protagonist (DuckBob) annoyed me by being a lech. Whenever he talks about Mary, he describes how physically attractive she is. He also does some things that are a bit creepy, e.g. on p32: "She'd stopped just beyond the warehouse door and I actually ran into her a little. Okay, sort of on purpose. What, a guy's supposed to save the whole friggin' universe and can't cop a little feel?" Compare and contrast that to Donald Trump, with his infamous "grab them by the pussy" comment. The mitigating factor is that Mary doesn't seem to mind, but that only applies in-universe.
Similarly, DuckBob meets someone in chapter 7, who is both a vegetarian and a pacifist. DuckBob's conclusion is that this person is a "sissy" and "a little girly man". Not a very enlightened point of view...
On a less controversial note, there's a bit in chapter 8 where someone mentions 75cm, and DuckBob tries to do some maths in his head. I initially assumed that he was trying to work out whether a particular object would fit into that space, but then it turns out that he's just baffled by metric and needs the equivalent distance in inches. That's not exactly wrong; in fact, it may well be an accurate representation of Americans. However, as an English person I just find it bizarre. (I had a similar reaction to a "Star Trek: Voyager" episode, where the holographic doctor gives a temperature in Fahrenheit. Have they really not moved to SI units by the 24th century?)
Having said all that, the book gradually grew on me. The author has very visual storytelling, and it helps that the core cast look so distinct from each other. I don't know whether this was intended as a stealth pitch for a film, but I think it could work in that format. The various encounters along the way are entertaining, and one of them made me laugh out loud. ("Abrupt?") There's also a group with a motivation that's completely ridiculous, but I'm willing to believe that people can be that stupid:
I got this book as part of a crowdfunding bundle, and on balance I think it was worth my time in reading. However, I doubt that I'll buy the sequel on its own.
Initially, the protagonist (DuckBob) annoyed me by being a lech. Whenever he talks about Mary, he describes how physically attractive she is. He also does some things that are a bit creepy, e.g. on p32: "She'd stopped just beyond the warehouse door and I actually ran into her a little. Okay, sort of on purpose. What, a guy's supposed to save the whole friggin' universe and can't cop a little feel?" Compare and contrast that to Donald Trump, with his infamous "grab them by the pussy" comment. The mitigating factor is that Mary doesn't seem to mind, but that only applies in-universe.
Similarly, DuckBob meets someone in chapter 7, who is both a vegetarian and a pacifist. DuckBob's conclusion is that this person is a "sissy" and "a little girly man". Not a very enlightened point of view...
On a less controversial note, there's a bit in chapter 8 where someone mentions 75cm, and DuckBob tries to do some maths in his head. I initially assumed that he was trying to work out whether a particular object would fit into that space, but then it turns out that he's just baffled by metric and needs the equivalent distance in inches. That's not exactly wrong; in fact, it may well be an accurate representation of Americans. However, as an English person I just find it bizarre. (I had a similar reaction to a "Star Trek: Voyager" episode, where the holographic doctor gives a temperature in Fahrenheit. Have they really not moved to SI units by the 24th century?)
Having said all that, the book gradually grew on me. The author has very visual storytelling, and it helps that the core cast look so distinct from each other. I don't know whether this was intended as a stealth pitch for a film, but I think it could work in that format. The various encounters along the way are entertaining, and one of them made me laugh out loud. ("Abrupt?") There's also a group with a motivation that's completely ridiculous, but I'm willing to believe that people can be that stupid:
I got this book as part of a crowdfunding bundle, and on balance I think it was worth my time in reading. However, I doubt that I'll buy the sequel on its own.
September 17, 2014
No Small Bills tries and fails to live up to Douglas Adams' work. Where Hitchhiker's Guide is witty, this book is crude and blunt. Where Adams goes on witty asides, this author makes constant references to how attractive some portion of a female character is. My twelve-year-old self may have found this book crassly amusing. As someone who left puberty behind long ago, I had a difficult time getting through what should have been a very light read.
If you like juvenile humor and aren't offended by the main character ogling a female on average once per page, it may be okay. I frankly found the humor clunky and characters two-dimensional. Didn't enjoy.
If you like juvenile humor and aren't offended by the main character ogling a female on average once per page, it may be okay. I frankly found the humor clunky and characters two-dimensional. Didn't enjoy.
October 13, 2011
A bit silly . Definately reminded me of hitchhikers guide to the gallery.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews