Time's Dark Laughter

New World Trilogy #2

by James Kahn

Five years has passed since Joshua Green the Scribe and Beauty the Centaur had set out across the desert to find the creatures who had destroyed their homes and carried off their wives.But now Beauty’s wife has willingly abandoned him for the pleasures of mind-link with the mysterious Pluggers. Worse, she has taken with her the helmet that protected Joshua from the mental summons of the City with No Name.While Beauty travels once more in search of his wife, Joshua’s fifteen year old brother Ollie, formerly a slave in a Vampire Harem, sets off with the Neuroman Jasmine to rescue the Scribe.Soon they are engulfed in a deadly struggle against the creatures of a riotously mutated future world with no use, and little room, for humankind...

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

318 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

James Kahn is an ER doctor, novelist, TV writer-producer, and singer-songwriter. In addition to many original novels (including the sci-fi trilogy World Enough and Time, Time’s Dark Laughter, and Timefall) he authored the novelizations of Return of the Jedi, Poltergeist, The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

His television credits span the genres, from St. Elsewhere, to William Shatner’s TekWar, to Xena: Warrior Princess. He was a Supervising Producer on Star Trek: Voyager, Co-Executive Producer on Melrose Place, Emmy-nominated for his work on All My Children, medical advisor on Spielberg’s ET: The Extraterrestrial; and produced the feature film The Bet, which won Best Feature at the LA Femme Film Festival, 2013.

He’s previously released four Americana music CDs, including Waterline, The 12th Elf, Man Walks Into A Bar, and The Meaning of Life. Matamoros is the first simultaneous novel and CD release, and his first foray into deeply researched historical fiction.

Reviews

[yellowbird · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like China Mieville, give this book a try. It's not as dark as Mieville's stuff, but Time's Dark Laughter has a similar post-apocalyptic science fiction/fantasy world.

[Chuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is some of the purplest prose ever to come out of the last half of the 20th Century. It had words I had to look up, too. I loved Kahn's World Enough, and Time as a kid, but I had no idea there was a sequel (and Goodreads says there is another, too). These really feel like epic tales set in a Gamma World-like post-apocalypse. There are Neuromans, Centaurs, Vampires, a lot of librarians, and a pretty anti-climactic ending that stretches on. (It kind of surprises me that there's a sequel, actually.)
It took me almost a year to read this. Part of it was because it's paper and I do a lot more of my reading on my phone these days, but also it often took some work to wade through the florid language, which is also kind of distant, as if this is a historical account rather than a novel.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

James Kahn (writer of the original novelization of Return of the Jedi) has written a rather strange thrill ride that mostly works. Unfortunately, the addition of profanity and sexual content, especially an illustration that features nudity, as well as liberties taken with the Bible, messed this up for me.

[Megan Walters · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as a teenager, as a standalone, bc I didn't know it was part of a trilogy. I picked it up out of boredom. I read mostly fantasy back then, and this had elements of fantasy, but was an interesting hybrid of fantasy and sci-fi that I found intriguing. I really enjoyed the lush, dark atmosphere, and the world-building was creative and engaging. I do remember thinking the ending was kind of a let-down -- but at the time, like I said, I didn't know it was part of a trilogy. I have remembered this book off and on over the years, and I think it's time to pick up the trilogy from the beginning and read all three books.

I also remember feeling sad for the over-powered bird-girl, and really loving the cat character and how she was used in the story. This book was kind of sexy, kind of weird, fantastical, and overall very entertaining. Would recommend.

[James]

Book 2 finds Joshua and his friends alive, but not well, three years after the calamitous rescue in Book 1. Beauty's wife, Rose, disappears again, this time drawn compulsively to others of her kind — those with connecting ports implanted in their brains by the Queen's minions. But now Joshua goes missing as well, ensnared by the Queen herself, to father a semi-human child with the telekinetic potential of destroying the entire planet. It's up to beautiful android Jasmine, powerful centaur Beauty, and Joshua's own disturbing, ghostly doppelganger to save the lives of those they love, even as they pull the crumbling world from the brink of destruction.

[Kim · Rating 1 out of 5]

couldnt get into

[Celise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly an unusual story, but I don't often read such old novels and I enjoyed this.

[V. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had forgotten most of it, but not some details. Highly imaginative. keeps you reading.