Panda Ray: A Science Fiction Novel

by Michael Kandel

Christopher Zimmerman sure looks like a normal ten-year-old (even if he is the shortest member of his class). He collects pebbles and has a dog named Buzz. He also tells his whole fifth-grade class at Lincoln Elementary about traveling into the past to see dinosaurs and trilobites. For Christopher - in spite of his ordinary looks - is actually the youngest child in a family of aliens... or are they mutants? (And really, does it matter which?)
When Mother hears of Christopher's boasting, she rules as she Christopher will be scooped out.
That's right - no more omicron for him, no more upsilon.
Christopher would rather die than be scooped out, so he enlists Gramps's help and flees on a journey through space, time, and other less recognizable things, and into a classic science fiction adventure.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

219 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1996

About the author

Michael Kandel (born 1941) is an American translator and author of science fiction.

Kandel was born into Polish Jewish family. He received a doctorate in Slavistics from Indiana University, and is an editor at the Modern Language Association. Kandel is also a part-time editor at Harcourt, editing (among others) Ursula K. Le Guin's work.

Kandel is perhaps best known for his translations of the works of Stanisław Lem from Polish to English. Recently he has also been translating works of other Polish science fiction authors, such as Jacek Dukaj, Marek Huberath and Andrzej Sapkowski. The quality of his translations is considered to be excellent and is especially notable in the case of Lem's writing, which makes heavy use of wordplay and other difficult-to-translate devices.

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

You want weird in a book? You've got it in this one, in spades. It's right up there with the weirdest book I've ever read. But it's the kind of weird I usually like, because it's rooted in the real world, albeit a real world with a family of people with unbelievable powers, headed by a mother who is pure evil. The book lets it be played out what would happen in various levels of reality and existence if a 10 year old boy with absolute power took over the world---and that's just a small part of the story. The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is there really doesn't seem to be a point or much underlying structure here, but it's a pretty cool read.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would have been a great young adult science fiction novel, if not for the fact that things take a turn for the weird, when the protagonist, Christopher Zimmerman, a 10 year old alien boy observing the Earth with his family, consult a Panda Ray, another strange alien, in order to escape the boy's crazy mother. Panda Ray sends him to a strange alternate Earth where people turn to mud or move like they are in mud; I didn't really quite get it.

It starts out with the feel of sixties sitcom where the mother doesn't want her son to use his special powers in front of ordinary humans and threatens to take away his powers just like she did to his brother.

Kandel put together some really great elements that just didn't work together.

I was also upset that there were references to Star Trek and comic books in this story but no reference to Doctor Who. I felt that the boy escaping with his grandfather in the family's bathroom which was really a time machine that changed it's appearnce on the outside was reminiscent of Dr. Who, but Dr. Who was not included in Kandel's pop culture references

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like it, but killing off a character and then just grabbing another one from a parallel
world/space/time is just too much for me. I finished it, but I came away feeling dissatisfied with the story.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The heartwarming tale of a boy who flees into the multiverse from his mother, who definitely wants to murder him, aided by manic many versions of his grandfather.

N.B. It’s not impossible that Dan Harmon or Justin Roiland owe Michael Kandel a bit of change.

[Nicholas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun, but didn't make much sense. Probably written as juvenile fiction. I found the ending somewhat unsatisfactory.