Aeota

by Paul Di Filippo

On the trail of a missing con man, our private eye hero uncovers a vast conspiracy that stretches from the dawn of time to the Omega Point—and finds himself central to the whole enigmatic game.

Surrealism with a beating heart and a merry soul. Paul Di Filippo’s latest romp takes us elsewhere, else-when, and back to now. Featuring a worldweary private detective who finds—as we all hope to do—life’s lost pearl within reality’s battered rind. Co-starring coats of sentient slime (one good, and one evil), a regained wife named Yulia, and—what is Aeota? Yoks, tears, and illusions. No one rings the changes like our Paul.
—Rudy Rucker

Here it is, people—the latest long-awaited cosmi-comic cocktail from the feverish noir brain of Paul Di Filippo, blending tinctures of Rudy Rucker, Phil Dick, Illiza Shlesinger, Thomas Aquinas, John Sladek, Arthur Schopenhauer and Suzanne Vega. Who or what is Aeota? But surely everyone— Unpack your ancient Nokia 7650 and be prepared for a heady, whirly spin.
—Damien Broderick

87 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 24, 2019

About the author

Paul Di Filippo is the author of hundreds of short stories, some of which have been collected in these widely-praised collections: The Steampunk Trilogy, Ribofunk, Fractal Paisleys, Lost Pages, Little Doors, Strange Trades, Babylon Sisters, and his multiple-award-nominated novella, A Year in the Linear City. Another earlier collection, Destroy All Brains, was published by Pirate Writings, but is quite rare because of the extremely short print run (if you see one, buy it!).

The popularity of Di Filippo’s short stories sometimes distracts from the impact of his mindbending, utterly unclassifiable novels: Ciphers, Joe’s Liver, Fuzzy Dice, A Mouthful of Tongues, and Spondulix. Paul’s offbeat sensibility, soulful characterizations, exquisite-yet-compact prose, and laugh-out-loud dialogue give his work a charmingly unique voice that is both compelling and addictive. He has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, BSFA, Philip K. Dick, Wired Magazine, and World Fantasy awards.

Despite his dilatory ways, Paul affirms that the sequel to A Year in the Linear City, to be titled A Princess of the Linear Jungle, will get written in 2008. He has two books forthcoming from PS Publications: the collection entitled Harsh Oases and the novel titled Roadside Bodhisattva. His 2008 novel Cosmocopia is graced by Jim Woodring illustrations.

Paul lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Philip K. Dick on drugs. Wait a minute, that’s redundant. How about Philip K. Dick on drugs…on drugs. That’s about the size of it.

Here’s the basic scenario: after a private investigator receives a strange, indecipherable text that includes the word “Aeota,” he starts noticing the word appearing in random places, and hearing people mention it, even though he’s pretty sure it’s not a real thing. It seems to refer to some sort of company. Soon it starts showing up in Google results as if it’s always been there, which eventually leads our hero on a ludicrous adventure involving time travel and/or parallel realities.

Is Aeota real? A conspiracy? Or is our detective ready for the funny farm? All I know is it’s a good time, and has a similar zaniness and trippiness to PKD’s mid-60s work, only more so, and with a slightly faster pace, telling a lot of story in only 130 pages or so. Not to mention loads of references, which aren’t TOO distracting. Anyone who craves a little more Dick in their life, but with its own uniquely bizarre flavor, would do well to try this one out.

I can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on Di Filippo all these years. He just has so many collections and novellas (not very many novels, comparatively) that I suppose I never knew where to start.

This would make for a nice entry point, much more so than Ciphers: A Post-Shannon Rock 'N' Roll Mystery (as great as it was) or Cosmocopia, my only previous Di Filippo reads.

[Karl]

This hardcover is numbered 54 of 100 printed and is signed by Paul Di Filippo .

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very strange book about a world-weary, woman-troubled private eye who encounters a cosmic plot that covers all time, while trying to track down a missing husband. Hard to makes sense of the thing, and that's not a criticism, as it's pretty engaging anyway. If you like them odd, you might like this one.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite as odd as COSMOCOPIA but still pretty darned odd. An hallucinogenic tale of time travel, conspiracy, and sex. With plenty of nod to Thomas Ruggles Pynchon and Philip Kendrick Dick. Perhaps the comic SEX CRIMINALS, too. Great fun.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and reads like a hard-boiled private eye story. Well written with some very creative analogies, but... exceedingly odd!

[Vultural · Rating 2 out of 5]

Di Filippo, Paul - Aeota

This burst out as a hard boiled detective yarn. Our PI, Vern Ruggles, works a missing husband case. The same could be said for him. As a husband, he’s missing. A failure as a spouse, and as a human being; divorce papers dog him down.
The dialogue and descriptions here are purple pulp, so excessively drawn you could start giggling.
Unfortunately, the plot shifts into time travel, alternative realities, the multiverse, whatever else pops up in our author’s noggin. Full bore silliness blooms large.
If you are a loser (guilty), you will read to the conclusion and question your common sense.
Signed copy notwithstanding, this is in box of Salvation Army donations.

[Dima · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'm not sure if I always understood what was happening (perhaps neither does the author?), it's riveting and exciting. This short book is written in the style of a noir crime procedural, with the protagonist, a PI, trying to find a missing person, and getting entangled in a cosmic conspiracy to eliminate life on earth as we know it. As our protagonist moves through space and time to uncover what's happening he also, naturally, discovers what's important in his own life, and becomes a better person. Think of this as a Raymond Chandler novella, if he had hallucinogenic mushrooms while writing it.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lives up to classic Di Filippo, definitely among his finest work.