The Zen Gun

by Barrington J. Bayley

The novel about:
the absolutely ultimate weapon that can ever exist...
The sub-human who found it and tried to use it...
The beasts who manned humanity's last star fleet...
The widening rim in the space-time continuum...
The brief cosmic empire of the pigs...
The theory of gravitaitational recession...
The super-samurai who served the zen-gunner...
The colonial girl who defied the galactic empire...
And many more "nova" ideas from the author of whom Michael Moorcock said, "There is no one else to match him."

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Speculative Fiction

159 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 2, 1983

About the author

Barrington J. Bayley published work principally under his own name but also using the pseudonyms ofAlan Aumbry, Michael Barrington (with Michael Moorcock), John Diamond and P.F. Woods.

Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.

During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.

Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.

Reviews

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Zen gun-
“it had wabi,
the quality of artless simplicity, the rustic quality of leaves strewn on a
path, of a gate mended roughly with a nailed-on piece of wood and yet whose
repair was a quiet triumph of adequacy and conscious balance.
It had shibusa, the merit of imperfection.”

A crumbling human empire, on the edge of collapse. Its robots are on strike as a form of protest against not being declared sentient beings.

Genetically and cyberneticlally uplifted animals are “second class citizens” and do most of the administrative and grunt work necessitated by the dwindling number of decadent, vapid humans left in the empire.
A mutant monkey man with an amazing weapon-the zen gun, which he mostly uses to give purple nurpels. The moving cities of the flat plains, the pirates, the beautiful woman, rebelling against the empire, the fleet admiral and the fucking space techno ninja dude who gives no fucks and takes no shit. They’re all here in this wild but very enjoyable mess of a book dealing with Barrington J Bailey’s fake ass physics made up exhaustively just for this book and the the tear in space time that threatens the entire three dimensional universe.

This shit got wild. I love this guy.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barrington Bayley’s SF is the kind of writing that would appeal to both a taste for old-fashioned action-oriented Space Opera and New Wave mind-trips that border on the surreal. The Zen Gun is a tale of galactic rebellion with Luke, Leia, and Darth Vader replaced by eccentric hippies and talking animals. They are living in a universe where there are lots of Forces, not all of them benign.

http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007...

[Rendall · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a remarkably weird and wonderful book! If you like strange Philip Dickensian wackiness, get it.

[Dan Clore · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Alfred Bester and Philip K. Dick collaborated on a re-write of Animal Farm as a Futurama-like space opera.

[Nick J Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humanity has all but abandoned its home planet and is now dispersed throughout a galaxy-spanning empire that has descended into decadence and degeneration. Genetic manipulation is common-place. Animals have been raised to the status of people by artificially increasing their intelligence, and are pretty much running the show, as the human race slips further and further into perversion and self-mutilation. Provincial planets are kept in order through the threat of annihilation by fleets of faster-than-light warships, which themselves are falling into disrepair as knowledge of their essential systems is slowly forgotten and hedonistic on-board parties rave on through even the most intense space battles. At the heart of the empire a malicious curator seeks completion of his museum’s exhibitions through entrapment of all lifeforms, including human beings. His plans are thwarted, however, by a chimera of all primate species who escapes his cage and steals a deceptively simple-looking hand gun from the curator’s collection, that unbeknown to both of them, is in fact the most powerful weapon ever created...

Structurally one of Barrington J Bayley’s more complex novels, The Zen Gun deals with the thorny issue of science’s essentially speculative nature. Using his own fictional nomenclature, he addresses the cultural implications of quantum physics. But the science-based extrapolations are kept to a requisite minimum, with a fast-paced and somewhat picaresque narrative taking the spotlight. The question of what exactly makes a human is explored through a typically Bayleyesque space-opera romp that (less typically) takes on much of the symbolic value of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Accordingly, the tone is satirical. The farce is tastefully restrained but welcome nonetheless, as the plethora of truly weird ideas does at times threaten to become overwhelming. Yet Bayley seems to be aware of this, using as he does, the most transparent of prose styles, with his usual poetic and polysyllabic tendencies kept in check.

Despite its overflowing content, The Zen Gun is a short, quick read; but boy does it leave you thinking!

[Tom Shore]

Baley's masterpiece
finds its purpose at long last
as it becomes mulch

[Rog Petersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satire of a Science Fictional space opera satire with a heaping helping of layman created physics concepts.

[A. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book would've gotten a much higher rating if it had managed to keep it's crapulence going at the same high pace for longer. For about 50 pages, its told in this sing-song hippy-doggerel style that's oh-so-hard and painful to read. Then that just falls apart and it gets told more or less straight. Stick with perhaps Moderan, that's much finer.

But then again, there's this:
"I can maim and I can kill,
with my Zen Gun"

Which one of the main characters sings over and over. And that keeps the pain up. Also the 5 page "how the universe would work if I were a physicist" bit at the end was a nice little knee to the groin.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously, I'm not even bothering to 'review' these Bayley bks. I'm leading up to the one I finished reading today. Can you feel the suspense build? Who reads this crap other than me?! & WHY?!!

[Sebastian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read far weirder books, but for a classical old-school space opera complete with interstellar warfare among battleship armadas Bayley does go pretty far out with his decadent and decaying space empire and all the trippy stuff that he weaved in – uplifted animals, futuristic samurai-ninjas, chimeric genetic experiments, warships that double as pleasure cruisers, intruders from another universe, and a heckuvalot more. This seems to be an all-ideas novel, not that it consists solely of ideas, but that the author tried to cram all of his ideas into a single story, including his kooky layperson theory of particles, forces and the structure of spacetime – to the point where he even added an “I’m not a scientist type, but here’s what I think” postscriptum at the end. However unlikely, it would be funny, and very much in keeping with the novel, if he ultimately turned out to be right.

[Jacob Tjornholm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Initially I really like this book. Interesting ideas, strangely imginative.

But for some reason I can't quite put my finger on, it totally lost momentum and became almost nonsensical at times. And quite frankly, it just weirded me out.

The pseudo-science parts were a struggle to get through without falling asleep and the ending just seemed way too far-fetched (even in comparison with the rest of the book).

2 stars becaue the first 30-50 pages were really interesting.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pacing of the story is excellent. The story spins from place to place but not dizzying. The author breaks in with his own crazy ideas about physics. There are space pirates and human-animal chimeras and the titular Zen Gun! The Empire that humans created is in a state of chaos and seems to be doomed. But then the Universe itself gets a hole poked in it and it seems like everyone is doomed.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a distant future, the Empire has grown wealthy, decadent, and underpopulated, so that the fleets protecting it (insufficiently, with looming internal and external threats) have warships that feel like luxury liners, the robot are on strike, and intelligent animals don't pick up the slack entirely. The book is wildly imaginative, but the work went into the imagination rather than the crafting of a good story.

[S. Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could tell ten pages in that this book wasn't for me. Nothing against the author or his work, my taste in science fiction is just a bit specific, and the style and scope of this book are way beyond my preferences.

[Travis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly original sci-fi book. So, many great ideas I wish were explored more. Then again I loved that it was less than 200 pages, it really left me wanting more.

[Lonnie Veal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whimsical tale of a a strange future where Man is Outnumbered by uplifted animals...

[Lesen]

Japanese culture SF...isn't it.

I can understand,the japanese taste.Samurai,Kosyou etc…
But for japanses(I am),the Story has just a Little Japan Soul.
Real SAMURAI has more proud.
This is like japanteste Comedy SF.
Beyrys Storys wer allways comedolytic.
So if you have hope for real SAMURAI,
i will not rekommend this story
It is just exciting..

[Scott Nieradka · Rating 2 out of 5]

hehehe... this book is awesomely and bizarrely terrible, its got a dystopian far future with intellegent animals and a late roman feel, a vengeful baboon or something as the main character with a samurai retainer, and a "zen gun" It drags in parts but the first 40 pages are brilliantly horrible. And then as stated, one character keeps reciting:

"I can maim and I can kill,
with my Zen Gun"

Every 10 pages or so. yep. and then there is the closing essay by the author, for a final parting insult.

[Keith Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

As best as I can decipher this, a galactic empire is brought down by a self-fulfilling prophecy about a fake weapon. It is predicted that the zen gun will destroy the empire and the prediction creates such a panic that the empire collapses thus fulfilling the prophecy. But the book is far more confusing than that description makes it sound. Maybe the gun was not a fake?

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bayley writes odd science fiction. In this case he describes an interstellar war between rival factions and the pursuit of a mysterious weapon, the titular Zen Gun. While I don't remember details from story, I do recall that it is weird and fun over its short length.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had some real promise but totally fell flat at the end, like a really long joke with a bad punchline that leaves you saying "that's it??" Either needed to be a 1500-page trilogy or not to have been written at all.

[Vitaliy Hristyuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barrington Bayley was one of best SciFi writers of his epoch. Now he is somewhat forgotten, but he was - and is - one of the forerunners of great many modern writers. When I read this book, I remembered Culture - only somewhat.. flawed.

[Michael Daines · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Zen Gun” is pretty gonzo. It has like four or five sci-fi concepts that could have been used to write independent stories, but instead it’s all crammed into 150 pages with multiple characters and plot lines. The empire in decay theme is played out well.

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://gnomeship.blogspot.com/2018/1...

[Weylin Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to try whatever drugs Bayley was on when he banged this one out

[Eija · Rating 2 out of 5]

Harvinaisen epäluettava, paljon fysikaalisten faktojen puintia. Sekava juoni, tylsä.