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There was a youth protest movement on the planet Jasper. Which should not have been anything new—there were always youth protest movements—and a planet like Jasper with its mixed colonies was entitled to them too. The difference was that these boys and girls had been made into human bombs—they blew up on contact.
That was good enough reason to call in Ben Jolson of the galaxy-famous Chameleon Corps. Jolson could disguise himself as just about anything—doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief, or even icebox.
But Jasper strained him to the limit. Not only did it house a mad combination of mad cultures, but someone else was doing the chameleon trick too—and besides, how do you go around looking like an exploding bomb?
It's a new Ron Goulart novel and another whacky, wonder tour of the eccentric side of futurity.
That was good enough reason to call in Ben Jolson of the galaxy-famous Chameleon Corps. Jolson could disguise himself as just about anything—doctor, lawyer, Indian Chief, or even icebox.
But Jasper strained him to the limit. Not only did it house a mad combination of mad cultures, but someone else was doing the chameleon trick too—and besides, how do you go around looking like an exploding bomb?
It's a new Ron Goulart novel and another whacky, wonder tour of the eccentric side of futurity.
159 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
1 person is currently reading
67 people want to read
About the author
Ron Goulart
604 books99 followersPseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner.
Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award.
In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).
Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award.
In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 17, 2020
DAW Collectors #107
Cover Artist: Jack Gaughan
Name: Goulart, Ronald Joseph, Birthplace: Berkeley, California, USA, 13 January 1933
Alternate Names: Carston Bingham, Lee Falk, Kenneth Robeson, Frank S. Shawn, Joseph Silva, Con Steffanson.
In the 1970’s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like 'Flash Gordon' and the 'Phantom', and in 1978 released 'Calling Dr. Patchwork', a comic science-fiction novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart was the ghost writer for William Shatner’s popular 'TekWar' novels, Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx.
Goulart penned the ''Avenger' series:
25. The Man from Atlantis (1974)
26. Red Moon (1974)
27. The Purple Zombie (1974)
28. Dr. Time (1974)
29. The Nightwitch Devil (1974)
30. Black Chariots (1974)
31. The Cartoon Crimes (1974)
32. The Death Machine (1975)
33. The Blood Countess (1975)
34. The Glass Man (1975)
35. The Iron Skull (1975)
36. Demon Island (1975)
and also the 'Vampirella' series:
1. Bloodstalk (1975)
2. On Alien Wings (1975)
3. Deadwalk (1976)
4. Blood Wedding (1976)
5. Deathgame (1976)
6. Snakegod (1976)
In 'Flux, we have Jolson, who's job is to find the ringleader of the Suicide Kids, an enigmatic man named Sunflower. He also is looking for Bronzini, a previous Chameleon Corps agent who disappeared while investigating Sunflower. Disguised as Will Mendoza, Jolson spends time in the Old West themed zone,
It was genuinely funny, and I loved the way everyone threw themselves into character, even talking like stereotypical cowboys. Jolson's other disguises are Tunky Nesper, a blues musician; Mowgli, a prolific and loud-talking author; a poet named Bugs Mainey. In the end, he finds Bronzini working for Sunflower. It turns out Bronzini has a daughter, Marina, who is part of Sunflower's cult, and to protect her, Bronzini switched allegiances
Cover Artist: Jack Gaughan
Name: Goulart, Ronald Joseph, Birthplace: Berkeley, California, USA, 13 January 1933
Alternate Names: Carston Bingham, Lee Falk, Kenneth Robeson, Frank S. Shawn, Joseph Silva, Con Steffanson.
In the 1970’s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like 'Flash Gordon' and the 'Phantom', and in 1978 released 'Calling Dr. Patchwork', a comic science-fiction novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart was the ghost writer for William Shatner’s popular 'TekWar' novels, Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx.
Goulart penned the ''Avenger' series:
25. The Man from Atlantis (1974)
26. Red Moon (1974)
27. The Purple Zombie (1974)
28. Dr. Time (1974)
29. The Nightwitch Devil (1974)
30. Black Chariots (1974)
31. The Cartoon Crimes (1974)
32. The Death Machine (1975)
33. The Blood Countess (1975)
34. The Glass Man (1975)
35. The Iron Skull (1975)
36. Demon Island (1975)
and also the 'Vampirella' series:
1. Bloodstalk (1975)
2. On Alien Wings (1975)
3. Deadwalk (1976)
4. Blood Wedding (1976)
5. Deathgame (1976)
6. Snakegod (1976)
In 'Flux, we have Jolson, who's job is to find the ringleader of the Suicide Kids, an enigmatic man named Sunflower. He also is looking for Bronzini, a previous Chameleon Corps agent who disappeared while investigating Sunflower. Disguised as Will Mendoza, Jolson spends time in the Old West themed zone,
It was genuinely funny, and I loved the way everyone threw themselves into character, even talking like stereotypical cowboys. Jolson's other disguises are Tunky Nesper, a blues musician; Mowgli, a prolific and loud-talking author; a poet named Bugs Mainey. In the end, he finds Bronzini working for Sunflower. It turns out Bronzini has a daughter, Marina, who is part of Sunflower's cult, and to protect her, Bronzini switched allegiances
June 26, 2024
Flux
On a Thursday in 1948 When he was fifteen years old Ron Goulart stepped into a house on Dana Street in Berkeley to take the $1 class on how to write Science Fiction. He is not as famous as his fellow students Marion Zimmer Bradley, Philip K. Dick, or even his teacher and host Anthony Boucher. That said Goulart was no slouch, publishing many SF novels. While just a few years younger he sold his first story one year after PKD in 1952, and they were a part of Boucher’s secret pipeline that went from the living room of his house straight to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
When Goulart died in 2022 he was known as a pop culture historian and Science Fiction author. He got on my radar because of something he did in 1965, he asked Phil Dick for advice on writing a novel. He wanted to get together for coffee but thanks to some healthy paranoia Phil asked that he could write a letter instead, as his phone was tapped and his car would only go to his therapist's office according to Goulart's account. The 5-page letter not addressed to any person is an outline of Philip K. Dick’s formula, and it is a controversial thing as PKD’s friends and colleagues have more than once referred to it as Bullshit, or rejected the notion that Phil followed a formula, all this despite the letter being cited in Sutin’s Divine Invasions bio of PKD.
So yeah, Goulart is important to me because the Formula is the basis of a chapter of my book Unfinished PKD, I developed a lecture on it and even wrote my novel using the formula. The fact was that I had not yet read any Ron Goulart, and I knew I would have to fix that. Flux caught my attention, but had I known it was the third in a series I probably wouldn’t have started here.
Flux is a novel that fits my interests, so I am glad to have started here. If this novel is indicative of his greater style I don’t know, I certainly think it is hard to judge an author by a single work. Flux is a piece of great comedy, and reminds me of the style of Douglas Adams, Rudy Rucker or Robert Sheckley who always had a very tongue-in-cheek style of writing the fantastic.
The story of Ben Jolson, a shapeshifter, is an essential skill to have when you are a far-future spy. This is the third book of the Chameleon Corps novels, and I sorta figured out in the first couple of chapters that there was more story than I realized. A spy who can pretend to be another person or object sets up a hyper-SF version of Mission Impossible.
Jolson is sent to this colony world Jasper after a series of protests turns violent in the most curious way. In the book, it is referred to as the Suicide Kid problem. Goulart who was a student in college during the 50s was commenting through science fiction on the radical student movements. After finishing the novel, I got the impression that Goulart sympathized with the progressive agenda but was laughing at the movement. Good-natured mostly, but it does start with a movement of students who are so against repression that they have turned to suicide bombing.
All inspired by the radical protest poet who is part Abbie Hoffman and part Jim Morrison.
“His name is Bugs Mainey, heard of him on Barnum?”
“Poet, isn’t he?” Jolson bent closer and studied the miniature man.
“Political poet, yes,” said Wheeler-Woolsey. “I’ll sleepbrief you on him and his works. He’s very prolific and fond of self-quotes.”
Before I get into Bugs, I loved the little world-building with the sleepbrief method of transmitting information. I wonder how many times after a meeting someone would say “Well that could have been a sleepbrief.” Bugs is a character built for comedy, a lack of self-awareness, and driving the protest movement with his poems and songs. Jolson having to pretend to be him sets up some funny moments but I felt some moments were left on the table.
The world-building in the novel is funny throughout, Goulart sets up gags and pays them off, and the tone reminds me of Dr. Strangelove, this is at a level of just almost over the line into spoof or parody. As serious as some of the messaging is, the jokes never stop he might have been following the AE Van Vogt idea of a new idea every 800 words, but a joke and an SF idea at the same time. For that reason, this book was hilarious, and early on I was wondering why this was not a classic.
There were also weird moments like this scene where the colonists were regularly having robots be the victim of simulated racism. Why and what point Goulart was making with this I wasn’t sure.
“Don’t get upset Jolson. They’re all androids,” said the PEO man. “See you won’t see any real blacks in this part of Jasper. Those are just androids out there, for fun.”
A ten-year-old black boy android fell over in the snow, synthetic blood flowing from his nose. I bet the night show is even more fun.”
Fun? I think Goulart was trying to make a point about outrage culture, as the youth movements are looking for something to be constantly outraged about. Maybe I was a bit confused and uncomfortable with this chapter. It was a stark contrast to the humor of the rest of the book. Goulart is keeping up with the satirical nature, but this chapter was not funny, just uncomfortable.
Most of the book is straight-up humor and much of it is built on the back of Science fictional concepts one of my favorites was A Jack the Ripper Cosplayer complaining that he could catch any victims or this scene…
“R.S.,” said Rosenfield to Jolson, stands for remote sex. Am I getting this straight, J.Jack?”
“Yes.”
“The whole thing is a branch of cybernetics and advocates of remote sex and telemetric intercourse- that's what T.I. stands for, isn’t it J. Jack?”
“Yes, yes.”
“The main idea is,” Continued Rosenfield, “Is you and your wife-by the way Tunky, we still believe in sex only among married people here in Town center #1 – you and your wife can take advantage of the latest gadgets and not have direct contact at all.”
Probably my favorite scene was when he has a character Leftover trying to explain the various youth movements, in a scene that explains the generational divide in a hilariously concrete way.
“Skinny’s the co-chair of the Killmom movement,” explained Leftover.
“It’s Killgranny,” corrected the pale boy. He dangled and shook the cord and the harmonica fragment fell free.”
“I can’t keep up. Things have changed a lot since my patricidal days.”
“They used to call themselves Killmom,” said mother Bluebird, “then a schism developed. Skinny opted to go along with the portion of dedicated kids who wat to strangle only very old ladies and thereby get them out of the way of progress, Killmom is still staunching dedicated to knocking off any broad over forty. All of them were inspired by your pioneering work in Killpop, Lefty.”
Goulart also makes use of repeating gags throughout the novel including Bugs poem titles that seemed a purposeful dig at Bob Dylan.
“The man who recorded ‘Head on the Chopping Block and One Foot in the Grave Talking Blues.”
Flux is a very funny SF novel, that is filled with radical ideas and some next-level humor. It is dated and I wondered if some of it felt like an old guy talking about a younger generation that was out of touch at the time. Hard for me to say. Some of the humor is not PC by modern SF standards including jokes that made me laugh despite knowledge that the shit wouldn’t fly today.
As an example of Goulart, it seems like a good place to start. The book starts stronger and for the first 2/3 I thought I was reading a forgotten classic. Then the final act sputters out a bit, it doesn’t seem to end with a structure it started with. IT sort of just ends, I didn’t feel the mission on Jasper was solved at all. Over all I enjoyed it. The good in the first part out-weighed the rough parts.
December 14, 2020
Flux features one of Goulart's most enduring characters, Ben Jolson of The Chameleon Corps. In this one, Ben is sent to the planet of Jasper in order to investigate a suicide cult that's sprung out of a youth protest movement. Jasper is a mad mish-mash of cultures which strains Ben's detective abilities to the limit and challenges his shape-changing talent as well. Goulart parodies politics, spy stories, and all things in between; it's a funny romp with an unexpected twist or two along the way. Vintage Goulart!
September 24, 2017
Ha ha! I 'cdn't' resist! This is the 3rd Goulart bk I finished reading TODAY! That probably tells you something about his bks, eh? Yes, they're easy reads, yes, they're flowing pulp. The more I read by him the more I wonder who the hell he is? Is he still alive? That sort of thing. Anyway, I was thoroughly engrossed & entertained by this bk - as thoroughly as the other 30 bks I've read by him. One might wonder: didn't I have anything BETTER to do?! Yes, I did, & I managed to get those things done today too. If I hadn't, I might've been able to read ANOTHER 2 or 3 Goulart bks today.
December 15, 2023
Continuing my occasional quest to re-read the works of Ron Goulart, this 1974 novel is what you could call the second instalment of the Chameleon Corps, a branch of the intergalactic Political Espionage Office that employs shape-changers as agents. The CC first appeared in Goulart’s short story collection The Chameleon Corps and Other Shape Changers. The protagonist in those CC stories, Ben Jolson, returns here for his first novel-length adventure.
This time he’s sent to the planet Jasper, where a mysterious person called Sunflower is recruiting teenagers to become suicide bombers for his revolution. Jolson’s mission is simple enough: track down Sunflower and stop him. He’s also tasked with locating Bronzini, another CC agent who disappeared after accepting the same mission. As it happens, the districts of Jasper are all divided into themes – for example, one district is designed like the Old American West, where everyone dresses as cowboys, while another is based on 1920s Manhattan, etc. This gives Jolson plenty of opportunity to run through a number of different personas as he goes along.
It's pretty standard stuff for Goulart – the plot is basically a platform for a reluctant agent to play the straight man to all the oddball characters and satirical situations he encounters as he follows each lead. Which is fine, though this one is a little dark in the sense that it’s hard to make light of teenage suicide bombers here in 2023. Also, like a lot of Goulart’s work, his realistic takes on racism, sexism and homophobia will challenge some readers – they don’t dominate the story, but they haven’t aged well, either, to say nothing of his use of love interests, even if he’s being true to the genre he’s satirizing. Anyway, it’s okay for what it is, but Goulart has done it better elsewhere.
This time he’s sent to the planet Jasper, where a mysterious person called Sunflower is recruiting teenagers to become suicide bombers for his revolution. Jolson’s mission is simple enough: track down Sunflower and stop him. He’s also tasked with locating Bronzini, another CC agent who disappeared after accepting the same mission. As it happens, the districts of Jasper are all divided into themes – for example, one district is designed like the Old American West, where everyone dresses as cowboys, while another is based on 1920s Manhattan, etc. This gives Jolson plenty of opportunity to run through a number of different personas as he goes along.
It's pretty standard stuff for Goulart – the plot is basically a platform for a reluctant agent to play the straight man to all the oddball characters and satirical situations he encounters as he follows each lead. Which is fine, though this one is a little dark in the sense that it’s hard to make light of teenage suicide bombers here in 2023. Also, like a lot of Goulart’s work, his realistic takes on racism, sexism and homophobia will challenge some readers – they don’t dominate the story, but they haven’t aged well, either, to say nothing of his use of love interests, even if he’s being true to the genre he’s satirizing. Anyway, it’s okay for what it is, but Goulart has done it better elsewhere.
October 6, 2024
A 1970s sci-fi work, following a Chameleon Corps agent, who's able to shapeshift into more or less anyone. Even a fridge. He's trying to track down a terrorist leader and a rogue Cham.Corps agent.
I got Thomas Pynchon vibes when reading this, as many of the themes are the same as Pynchon deals with; identity in flux (hence the name), secret organizations, powerful institutions and their hidden operations, etc. All accompanied with jokes, songs and slapstick.
There's a planet where the people have decided to shape the landscape into an old earth wild west-world, very like Westworld. Many things are also said to be replicas of the original (fruits are created replicas, not real fruit), also a quite Baudrilliardian take.
What I wasn't impressed by was the ending. It just sorta fizzes out into nothing after a long chase that ends up seeming rather pointless.
I got Thomas Pynchon vibes when reading this, as many of the themes are the same as Pynchon deals with; identity in flux (hence the name), secret organizations, powerful institutions and their hidden operations, etc. All accompanied with jokes, songs and slapstick.
There's a planet where the people have decided to shape the landscape into an old earth wild west-world, very like Westworld. Many things are also said to be replicas of the original (fruits are created replicas, not real fruit), also a quite Baudrilliardian take.
What I wasn't impressed by was the ending. It just sorta fizzes out into nothing after a long chase that ends up seeming rather pointless.
May 31, 2018
A "Ben Jolson / Chameleon Corps" novel and a satirical look at student protesters / spy novels / detective stories
April 1, 2020
Craziness that actually manages to be slightly crazier than what's going on right now. Cultures keep getting fluxed up. It's funny.
January 24, 2025
Flux is funny, and the paperback cover features Duane Allman.
February 5, 2021
A shapeshifting investigative agent, on a planet divided into 'Westworld'-style themed zones, this is '70s gonzo sci-fi—paranoid, silly, satirical, compellingly readable and enjoyable. It only falls down in the final chapter, when the hero shape-shifts into a (silly and unbelievable, even by the standards of this book), and a very—bafflingly—abrupt ending.
June 16, 2013
Not very good. Very dated.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews