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Walden Planet
Wise-cracking robots, slow-motion bullets, time machines that don’t work the way they’re supposed to, evil holograms, androids with brain donors, a truth-telling plague with multicolor symptoms, a man who carries four watches and a bad punch line… these are the curious, sometimes disturbing, but always intriguing fantasies of Richard Zwicker, a small-town New England school teacher by day and droll dreamer after dark.
In this first collection of Zwicker’s short stories now available to dreamers everywhere, Walden Planet introduces imagined worlds: A forward-looking adventurer encounters a dimension of people who do everything backwards; a desperate woman travels sideways into a parallel universe to regain what she’s lost; a hard-boiled detective finds a phone that can dial the future; a doctor with a conscience considers applicants lined up for a quick ‘n’ easy memory cleanser; long-distance space haulers battle big-time cabin fever and a tempting cargo; and — of course — the title story’s character: a would-be writer maroons himself on desolate planet because he’s read too much Thoreau.
Sure, the narrator of a certain, popular space-western TV show has promised to take you “Where no man has gone before,” but Zwicker’s stories are a whole ‘nother rodeo — so, saddle up, everyone, and take your time-space motion-sickness pills. We’re about to push the button and…
Reactions from inhabitants of Walden Planet:
“…So funny, I forgot to laugh.” — Android L10W227 (a.k.a., “Mort”)
“I think he’s stealing brain data.” — Erika Henniker, android transformation counselor
“What kind of a gag is this?” — Detective Terry Marselle
“Can’t you just trust me, you dumb bastard?” — Niles Castle, Wellman State science professor
“We see this as an opportunity.” — Robots for Reintegration with Humans
“It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.” — Ned Baylor, interstellar hauler
“You won’t be disappointed.” — Ralph Flynn, playboy and real estate developer
In this first collection of Zwicker’s short stories now available to dreamers everywhere, Walden Planet introduces imagined worlds: A forward-looking adventurer encounters a dimension of people who do everything backwards; a desperate woman travels sideways into a parallel universe to regain what she’s lost; a hard-boiled detective finds a phone that can dial the future; a doctor with a conscience considers applicants lined up for a quick ‘n’ easy memory cleanser; long-distance space haulers battle big-time cabin fever and a tempting cargo; and — of course — the title story’s character: a would-be writer maroons himself on desolate planet because he’s read too much Thoreau.
Sure, the narrator of a certain, popular space-western TV show has promised to take you “Where no man has gone before,” but Zwicker’s stories are a whole ‘nother rodeo — so, saddle up, everyone, and take your time-space motion-sickness pills. We’re about to push the button and…
Reactions from inhabitants of Walden Planet:
“…So funny, I forgot to laugh.” — Android L10W227 (a.k.a., “Mort”)
“I think he’s stealing brain data.” — Erika Henniker, android transformation counselor
“What kind of a gag is this?” — Detective Terry Marselle
“Can’t you just trust me, you dumb bastard?” — Niles Castle, Wellman State science professor
“We see this as an opportunity.” — Robots for Reintegration with Humans
“It must have seemed like a good idea at the time.” — Ned Baylor, interstellar hauler
“You won’t be disappointed.” — Ralph Flynn, playboy and real estate developer
228 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 21, 2016
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 8, 2016
As a short story writer, I really should pay more attention to collections. I tend to read individual stories from authors who have caught my attention rather than whole collections, unless they've actually published me.
My bad.
Walden Planet reminded me why I need to revise my reading choices; it's an object lesson in how a collection can build stories around a range of different but related thoughts and package them in bite-sized chunks. Comparing a collection to a novel is rather like comparing a packet of crisps to a baked potato. The crisps look like a lights snack but contain more substance than you notice until after you know you're not going to stop until you've finished the whole packet.
Richard Zwicker offers up a range of flavours in his value pack of a collection, which reminded me of the works of Philip K Dick and Ray Bradbury. Like Dick and Bradbury, Zwicker uses science fiction as a vehicle to explore logic problems and the vagaries of human nature.
Thus in the opening story, That Was So Funny I Forgot to Laugh, the tale of humans being expelled to Mars to make way for a robot utopia is really a device to explore a society that loses its capacity to respond to humour and nuance. In the final story, Dig the Slowness, the characters invent a weapon that slowly but inexorably closes in on its victim not because it would be a particularly useful weapon, but because when they can't resist fiddling with it, mortality ceases to be the abstract concept that most of us live with and forces them to face it directly.
Every story presents themes that could spark hours of over-a-pint discussion, and does it with humour that kept me reading and a lack of judgement that left me to make up my own mind.
Full disclosure: Rich Zwicker is a friend and critique partner, although I only critiqued one of the stories in this collection. Nevertheless, I only review things I like, with no exceptions for friends. Walden Planet allowed me to follow my policy with no second thoughts.
My bad.
Walden Planet reminded me why I need to revise my reading choices; it's an object lesson in how a collection can build stories around a range of different but related thoughts and package them in bite-sized chunks. Comparing a collection to a novel is rather like comparing a packet of crisps to a baked potato. The crisps look like a lights snack but contain more substance than you notice until after you know you're not going to stop until you've finished the whole packet.
Richard Zwicker offers up a range of flavours in his value pack of a collection, which reminded me of the works of Philip K Dick and Ray Bradbury. Like Dick and Bradbury, Zwicker uses science fiction as a vehicle to explore logic problems and the vagaries of human nature.
Thus in the opening story, That Was So Funny I Forgot to Laugh, the tale of humans being expelled to Mars to make way for a robot utopia is really a device to explore a society that loses its capacity to respond to humour and nuance. In the final story, Dig the Slowness, the characters invent a weapon that slowly but inexorably closes in on its victim not because it would be a particularly useful weapon, but because when they can't resist fiddling with it, mortality ceases to be the abstract concept that most of us live with and forces them to face it directly.
Every story presents themes that could spark hours of over-a-pint discussion, and does it with humour that kept me reading and a lack of judgement that left me to make up my own mind.
Full disclosure: Rich Zwicker is a friend and critique partner, although I only critiqued one of the stories in this collection. Nevertheless, I only review things I like, with no exceptions for friends. Walden Planet allowed me to follow my policy with no second thoughts.
March 13, 2016
I'm not usually a fan of science fiction but I am a fan of this collection of stories. Each is thought provoking, engaging, and cleverly funny. I'd read these for fun but I'd also read them as serious and well-thought-out commentaries on the state of the planet. The predicted future may or may not come to pass but if it does then I'm pretty sure that men and women will interact with it in the way they do in these tales. Like all good writing it contains truth.
I'm reminded of Douglas Adams in terms of creating humour out of close observation of the timeless qualities (failings?) of human nature in contrast with the brave new world offered by time travel, slow moving bullets and other visions of where we may be heading. Many of them also show a deep knowledge of detective fiction. Echoes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler but also some with a lighter touch. Like the Guy Noir stories that feature on Prairie Home Companion. I loved this book. Well written, great eye for detail and laugh out loud funny.
I'm reminded of Douglas Adams in terms of creating humour out of close observation of the timeless qualities (failings?) of human nature in contrast with the brave new world offered by time travel, slow moving bullets and other visions of where we may be heading. Many of them also show a deep knowledge of detective fiction. Echoes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler but also some with a lighter touch. Like the Guy Noir stories that feature on Prairie Home Companion. I loved this book. Well written, great eye for detail and laugh out loud funny.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews