Legend of the Salad Traveler

by Jerry J.K. Rogers

So what does a radio DJ's salad and Schrodinger's cat have in common? Absolutely nothing, unless you consider if one of them decides to go on vacation, the salad that is, then all you have is a cat all alone with nothing to do except ponder its existence. So what about the salad? Legend of the Salad Traveler is a lighthearted story of a salad that weighed 5.5 ounces, and it decides to go on vacation; a man unexpectedly ends up in your shower and tells you he knows how to find it. Just make sure you keep enough rocks in your pocket. That's explained later, and it has something to do with moving from universe to universe, as this is a story of whimsical proportions.

ebook

First published April 23, 2012

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I won this book in a good reads giveaway, I was not sure what I would be reading. The book cover says it was written as homage to Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe which I have not read. But after reading this book I can say it was a delightful and kooky story that I completely enjoyed reading.

[Chelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book through a goodreads giveaway and am thankful to the author and publisher for a chance to read and review it.

In a world of sentient, universe-traversing salads, things are bound to get confusing. That was certainly true for this book. A short read at only 75 pages, the book managed to introduce several colorful characters and numerous Hitchhiker's Guide homages. Having read Hitchhiker's Guide and being quite a fan of the book, I can understand and appreciate what the author was trying to do with The Legend of the Salad Traveler. Unfortunately, I think he missed the point just a bit. The overall story is good and rather entertaining, but the sentence structure is pretty hard to read. I think the biggest problem is that the author (trying to be cheeky, I'm sure) chose not to give his main characters names and instead chose to call them "Carl's friend" and "Carl's friend's guide" which made the already-complicated sentences much too convoluted.

I had a hard time deciding between 2 and 3 stars for this book. I went back and forth several times while writing this review and ultimately decided to go with 3 stars because I would have really liked it if the sentence structure wasn't so obnoxious.

[Benjamin Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Won through a Goodreads giveaway.

A novella length pastiche of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide. If I were to write a hitchhiker's style story, I would probably have trouble figuring out why Douglas Adams's prose was effective. I think the author has a version of this problem.

The story follows a character (who is referred to only as Carl's friend) who meets an interdimensional tour guide (known only as Carl's friend's guide). The tour guide takes the opportunity to whisk him off across the dimensions to find his salad, which was able to switch dimensions based on some happenstance of numbers lining up.

In the end, nothing is resolved, you are simply taken on a journey that is similar to, but obviously not the same as, a Douglas Adams story. I'm not a big enough fan to bother getting upset about it, but I thought about putting it down after the second chapter, and if it was longer, I probably would have.

[Susan Heft · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, quick, entertaining read.