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Smallworld
A strangely captivating novel from Hugo-nominated author Dominic Green. Mount Ararat, a world the size of an asteroid yet having Earth-standard gravity, plays host to an eccentric farming community protected by the Devil, a mechanical killing machine, from such passers-by as Mr von Trapp (an escapee from a penal colony), the Made (manufactured humans being hunted by the State), and the super-rich clients of a gravitational health spa established at Mount Ararat's South Pole.
352 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2010
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April 13, 2024'Smallworld' is original, fast-paced and brimming with chaotic energy. It's funny not in a laugh-out-loud way but in an "Oh look - satire - how drole!" kind of way.
It creates an absurd but almost plausible small (tiny) world and populates it with and extended family of Cult survivors, an intelligent and lethal Made Thing that looks like a devil and an Anchorite who seems to have been an interstellar dictator before he became a hermit. Oh, and goats. Lots of goats. And an ass.
The small world then gets visited by various people who either do bizarre and violent things or have bizarre and violent things done to them or both.
At first, I was stunned into silence by the energy and originality of the story. Then I began to smile at how clever it was. Then, not very long after that, I became bored.
There was nothing for me to engage with. None of these people felt real. The ideas were bright as fireworks but how long can you watch a firework display and keep going "Oooh!" and "Aaah!" with any sincerity? I knew I couldn't manage 385 pages of "My but this satire is as dry as bone, isn't it?" so I'm setting it aside at the 18% mark.
It creates an absurd but almost plausible small (tiny) world and populates it with and extended family of Cult survivors, an intelligent and lethal Made Thing that looks like a devil and an Anchorite who seems to have been an interstellar dictator before he became a hermit. Oh, and goats. Lots of goats. And an ass.
The small world then gets visited by various people who either do bizarre and violent things or have bizarre and violent things done to them or both.
At first, I was stunned into silence by the energy and originality of the story. Then I began to smile at how clever it was. Then, not very long after that, I became bored.
There was nothing for me to engage with. None of these people felt real. The ideas were bright as fireworks but how long can you watch a firework display and keep going "Oooh!" and "Aaah!" with any sincerity? I knew I couldn't manage 385 pages of "My but this satire is as dry as bone, isn't it?" so I'm setting it aside at the 18% mark.
October 27, 2014
I absolutely loved this crazy, sci-fi tale. With very little (was there any?) exposition, the reader is thrust into this unique world, navigating technologies, strange names, unexplained terrain and a backstory that is revealed slowly. However, here's the thing (for those reviewers who found this confusing or hard to manage) you don't have to understand every word, in fact, you can just glide right over the confusing bits and hang on for the ride. I loved this simple, wildly intelligent family living on the tiny world of Mt. Ararat and I loved following their story and the story of the crazy characters who found their way to their planet. So different, and this story was hilarious, too!
did-not-finish
June 30, 2015Okay. I have tried, but just can't get past all the over-done names, etc. Maybe I'll try again at a later date.
December 11, 2014
Rereading just for fun. It is still free on the Kindle. Original review below.
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THIS ONE IS FREE FOR THE KINDLE.
I honestly did not mean to begin another book before finishing Silas Marner. However, Silas Marner isn't the sort of book I can read in bed before going to sleep. I have to be wide awake to pay attention and pick up on the subtle humor and other excellences therein.
So I turned to my Kindle, which I hadn't turned on in over a month as I recall. I was looking for short stories, figuring I could read one and put it down easily.
Turns out I was wrong. This collection of short stories that all are actually pieces of one larger story is indescribably amazing. Funny in a way that sounds corn-pone if I try to describe it, these stories are also gripping and will keep me up reading until I finish each one so I can see if the problem is solved, the danger averted.
Here's the description:
Not done yet but I already know that this is one that I'll be giving as a gift as well as getting for myself in real paper, ink, and glue for rereading. I like it that much.
==============
THIS ONE IS FREE FOR THE KINDLE.
I honestly did not mean to begin another book before finishing Silas Marner. However, Silas Marner isn't the sort of book I can read in bed before going to sleep. I have to be wide awake to pay attention and pick up on the subtle humor and other excellences therein.
So I turned to my Kindle, which I hadn't turned on in over a month as I recall. I was looking for short stories, figuring I could read one and put it down easily.
Turns out I was wrong. This collection of short stories that all are actually pieces of one larger story is indescribably amazing. Funny in a way that sounds corn-pone if I try to describe it, these stories are also gripping and will keep me up reading until I finish each one so I can see if the problem is solved, the danger averted.
Here's the description:
A strangely captivating novel from Hugo-nominated author Dominic Green. Mount Ararat, a world the size of an asteroid yet having Earth-standard gravity, plays host to an eccentric farming community protected by the Devil, a mechanical killing machine, from such passers-by as Mr von Trapp (an escapee from a penal colony), the Made (manufactured humans being hunted by the State), and the super-rich clients of a gravitational health spa established at Mount Ararat's South Pole.The children's names are laugh-out-loud hilarious, but surprisingly you get so used to them that after a while you know exactly who is being spoken about.
Not done yet but I already know that this is one that I'll be giving as a gift as well as getting for myself in real paper, ink, and glue for rereading. I like it that much.
January 10, 2013
I enjoyed this book, but it took me forever to read. Not because it was boring or uninteresting, because that is certainly not the fact, but for two reasons:
1) The names of the characters were hard to digest, especially since the Reborn-in-Jesus family are the main characters in the book. Yes, that's their last name, so you can just imagine what their first names were like. It got a little confusing and I kept thinking that I really needed a character sheet so I could keep them all straight. Plus it got a little tedious as you went through with such long names.
2) The author obviously enjoyed the use of his thesaurus while writing this book. Which is an odd thing for me to say considering I love big words and use them often. There were an exceptional amount in this book and even I spent a lot of time looking things up in the dictionary because I had never heard of the words before.
The book is several stories over a period of time dealing with the Reborn-in-Jesus family and the little planet that they live on. As I said before, I really enjoyed the stories and was excited to find that their is a sequel to this book, one I plan on reading in the near future - though the description of it seems like it will be more about two of the children instead of the family as a whole.
I recommend you read this book ... just make sure you have the dictionary downloaded on your Kindle :)
1) The names of the characters were hard to digest, especially since the Reborn-in-Jesus family are the main characters in the book. Yes, that's their last name, so you can just imagine what their first names were like. It got a little confusing and I kept thinking that I really needed a character sheet so I could keep them all straight. Plus it got a little tedious as you went through with such long names.
2) The author obviously enjoyed the use of his thesaurus while writing this book. Which is an odd thing for me to say considering I love big words and use them often. There were an exceptional amount in this book and even I spent a lot of time looking things up in the dictionary because I had never heard of the words before.
The book is several stories over a period of time dealing with the Reborn-in-Jesus family and the little planet that they live on. As I said before, I really enjoyed the stories and was excited to find that their is a sequel to this book, one I plan on reading in the near future - though the description of it seems like it will be more about two of the children instead of the family as a whole.
I recommend you read this book ... just make sure you have the dictionary downloaded on your Kindle :)
May 30, 2019
The Smallworld of the title, known as Mount Ararat, has come about as the result of the merging of two separate planetoids under the influence of an extremely dense neutronium sphere, now at its heart. It orbits within the rings of Naphil, a Jovian world in the solar system of a red giant star, 23 Kranii. Mount Ararat has at most a few hundred inhabitants but the book concentrates on the Reborn-in-Jesus family (yes, really) and their protector, an armed robot they know as the Devil. In accord with all these biblical resonances the extended family’s children have names such as Testament, Measure, Apostle, God’s Wound, Beguiled-Of-The-Serpent, Only-God-Is-Perfect and Be-Not-Near-Unto-Man-In-Thy-Time-Of-Uncleanness. Yes. Really.
Described on the credits page as a novel, Smallworld is in fact a series of shorter pieces related only in the sense that they all feature members of the Reborn-in-Jesus family and take place in the same setting. The resultant lack of narrative flow, of an overall arc, its stop-start nature, compromises the book as a coherent whole. The five, or seven, stories (the last has three sub sections) relate the family’s encounters with various incomers whose appearances can be unexplained. The tone is kept deliberately light throughout, and thus runs into a further problem.
With very few exceptions Science Fiction and comedy do not make comfortable bedfellows. Too often the comedy unbalances the SF or else is not comic enough. The most successful mix the two seamlessly, embed them in each other, as in Eric Frank Russell’s Next of Kin, and the result can still be a cogent comment on human - or alien - affairs. The SF must also stand on its own merits and not be entirely derivative. Unfortunately, in Smallworld, Green does not always successfully manage to avoid the pitfalls inherent in the form.
The book’s fundamental lack of seriousness is deleterious. Its targets for satire are either too easy or too pat - jailbirds, space pirates, tax collectors – and its references scattershot (Santa Claus/Father Christmas and the first three of the Twelve Days of Christmas in the titles of the last story, Helen of Troy, a plethora of biblical allusions over and above the manifold Reborn-In-Jesuses as well as casual allusions to 21st century ephemera of which the inhabitants of Mount Ararat would most likely be totally ignorant - though we, of course, are not.) The ramifications for daily life of the structure of a small world as described here are for the most part unexplored.
In addition, the cosmology of the book is unconvincing, the Physics and Chemistry of dubious lineage and accuracy. (An example. Sulphur dioxide, while noxious, does not smell of rotten eggs: that is hydrogen sulphide.) Small errors such as this can fatally undermine confidence in the author and in the tales he or she is trying to tell.
At the level of the fiction, rather than experiencing background as the stories unfold, we find prodigious information dumping and paragraphs of expository dialogue. With sufficient guile this can be a strength and elsewhere has been made into a feature of the comedy (galactic encyclopaedia anyone?) but no such approach is adopted here.
There is too the lurking sense that Green has not lavished care on his characters, who are unconvincing, barely more than ciphers, present only to progress the plot(s) and voice the jokes, hence failing to engage empathy. Quite apart from the family other names can be over elaborate, some characters being known mainly by their job descriptions – Optometrist Wong, Social Correctness Officer Asahara. Others, for no obvious reason, “speak” in CAPITALS. This hostage to fortune invites invidious comparisons with a previous purveyor of comedic SF/fantasy.
If your tastes lean towards comedy with not too much rigour this may be for you. If your preference is for strongly drawn, nuanced characters reacting to and combatting life’s vicissitudes, then maybe not.
Described on the credits page as a novel, Smallworld is in fact a series of shorter pieces related only in the sense that they all feature members of the Reborn-in-Jesus family and take place in the same setting. The resultant lack of narrative flow, of an overall arc, its stop-start nature, compromises the book as a coherent whole. The five, or seven, stories (the last has three sub sections) relate the family’s encounters with various incomers whose appearances can be unexplained. The tone is kept deliberately light throughout, and thus runs into a further problem.
With very few exceptions Science Fiction and comedy do not make comfortable bedfellows. Too often the comedy unbalances the SF or else is not comic enough. The most successful mix the two seamlessly, embed them in each other, as in Eric Frank Russell’s Next of Kin, and the result can still be a cogent comment on human - or alien - affairs. The SF must also stand on its own merits and not be entirely derivative. Unfortunately, in Smallworld, Green does not always successfully manage to avoid the pitfalls inherent in the form.
The book’s fundamental lack of seriousness is deleterious. Its targets for satire are either too easy or too pat - jailbirds, space pirates, tax collectors – and its references scattershot (Santa Claus/Father Christmas and the first three of the Twelve Days of Christmas in the titles of the last story, Helen of Troy, a plethora of biblical allusions over and above the manifold Reborn-In-Jesuses as well as casual allusions to 21st century ephemera of which the inhabitants of Mount Ararat would most likely be totally ignorant - though we, of course, are not.) The ramifications for daily life of the structure of a small world as described here are for the most part unexplored.
In addition, the cosmology of the book is unconvincing, the Physics and Chemistry of dubious lineage and accuracy. (An example. Sulphur dioxide, while noxious, does not smell of rotten eggs: that is hydrogen sulphide.) Small errors such as this can fatally undermine confidence in the author and in the tales he or she is trying to tell.
At the level of the fiction, rather than experiencing background as the stories unfold, we find prodigious information dumping and paragraphs of expository dialogue. With sufficient guile this can be a strength and elsewhere has been made into a feature of the comedy (galactic encyclopaedia anyone?) but no such approach is adopted here.
There is too the lurking sense that Green has not lavished care on his characters, who are unconvincing, barely more than ciphers, present only to progress the plot(s) and voice the jokes, hence failing to engage empathy. Quite apart from the family other names can be over elaborate, some characters being known mainly by their job descriptions – Optometrist Wong, Social Correctness Officer Asahara. Others, for no obvious reason, “speak” in CAPITALS. This hostage to fortune invites invidious comparisons with a previous purveyor of comedic SF/fantasy.
If your tastes lean towards comedy with not too much rigour this may be for you. If your preference is for strongly drawn, nuanced characters reacting to and combatting life’s vicissitudes, then maybe not.
November 23, 2016
A Deadpan Funny Space Opera Sendup
This worked for me on three different levels. First off, it's fun even if you don't know much about sci-fi, or even much about Earth culture. Snappy dialogue, imaginative scene setting, dry and deadpan narration, bits of double-act slapstick - it's all there and clever in a very engaging fashion.
Next, if you do, or ever did, read sci-fi and space opera, well this provides a pretty jolly skewering of every cliche, trope and meme in the basket. Space colonies, gormless explorers, stiff-upper-lip colonists, threatening aliens, friendly aliens, elements with weird properties, pirates, idiot robots, space mining - it just goes on and on. At least once a page, and sometimes more, some little space opera standard gets poked.
Finally, just in terms of cultural and social commentary this books hits a wide range of targets. You could drop most of the spacey stuff and put these pioneers in any setting and a lot of what's addressed, (especially the characters' approach to religious belief), is still pertinent, dead on and funny.
The episodic nature of the story-telling is just right for the book. Like a rich dessert you can't consume a big helping in one sitting. For me this was a pick-it-up-and-put-it-down treat sort of read. Once we're more or less set up, the book plays out like a set of interconnected stories, which makes starting and stopping easier. The author is a bit tricksy, in that many stories end on a cliffhanger or ambiguity that gets cleaned up at the beginning of the next chapter, but that approach was O.K. by me. The book does start to come together toward the end and points to a sequel with a more disciplined plot, but you can decide at that point if you want to keep going with the characters into another book.
So, I mostly just enjoyed the characters' reactions to all of the absurd situations thrown at them by Mr. Green, and marked this a happy, cheerfully quirky, slightly skewed and entertaining find. (Please note that I found this book some time ago while browsing Amazon Kindle freebies. I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
This worked for me on three different levels. First off, it's fun even if you don't know much about sci-fi, or even much about Earth culture. Snappy dialogue, imaginative scene setting, dry and deadpan narration, bits of double-act slapstick - it's all there and clever in a very engaging fashion.
Next, if you do, or ever did, read sci-fi and space opera, well this provides a pretty jolly skewering of every cliche, trope and meme in the basket. Space colonies, gormless explorers, stiff-upper-lip colonists, threatening aliens, friendly aliens, elements with weird properties, pirates, idiot robots, space mining - it just goes on and on. At least once a page, and sometimes more, some little space opera standard gets poked.
Finally, just in terms of cultural and social commentary this books hits a wide range of targets. You could drop most of the spacey stuff and put these pioneers in any setting and a lot of what's addressed, (especially the characters' approach to religious belief), is still pertinent, dead on and funny.
The episodic nature of the story-telling is just right for the book. Like a rich dessert you can't consume a big helping in one sitting. For me this was a pick-it-up-and-put-it-down treat sort of read. Once we're more or less set up, the book plays out like a set of interconnected stories, which makes starting and stopping easier. The author is a bit tricksy, in that many stories end on a cliffhanger or ambiguity that gets cleaned up at the beginning of the next chapter, but that approach was O.K. by me. The book does start to come together toward the end and points to a sequel with a more disciplined plot, but you can decide at that point if you want to keep going with the characters into another book.
So, I mostly just enjoyed the characters' reactions to all of the absurd situations thrown at them by Mr. Green, and marked this a happy, cheerfully quirky, slightly skewed and entertaining find. (Please note that I found this book some time ago while browsing Amazon Kindle freebies. I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)
September 14, 2019
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3254291.html
Smallworld isn't Great Literature, but it's entertaining enough, a set of connected stories set on a very small and weirdly shaped asteroid which nonetheless has a breathable atmosphere thanks to a lump of neutronium at its core, and whose inhabitants include a creatively fundamentalist family, a robotic devil, a prison and a health spa. The folks of New Ararat are subjected to various incursions, which are resisted with varying degrees of success. It's all good fun, and I enjoyed it.
Smallworld isn't Great Literature, but it's entertaining enough, a set of connected stories set on a very small and weirdly shaped asteroid which nonetheless has a breathable atmosphere thanks to a lump of neutronium at its core, and whose inhabitants include a creatively fundamentalist family, a robotic devil, a prison and a health spa. The folks of New Ararat are subjected to various incursions, which are resisted with varying degrees of success. It's all good fun, and I enjoyed it.
February 19, 2023
A very amusing collection of short stories set on the world of Mt Ararat, a small planet with an earth like atmosphere.
It mainly deals with the mishaps and shenanigans of the Reborn-in-Jesus family as they deal with various interlopers who try to either defraud or steal from them.
It also features the very enigmatic “Anchorite” a hermit with some unusual technological backup.
All in all the stories had a wonderful sardonic wit throughout which I found Very entertaining.
It mainly deals with the mishaps and shenanigans of the Reborn-in-Jesus family as they deal with various interlopers who try to either defraud or steal from them.
It also features the very enigmatic “Anchorite” a hermit with some unusual technological backup.
All in all the stories had a wonderful sardonic wit throughout which I found Very entertaining.
October 30, 2023
Interesting
Just okay. A bunch of short stories all about the same place - an artificial Worldlet in orbit around (I think) Jupiter.
It's a decent glimpse of the way things work in the author's universe. But it feels like it's just part of a whole; like you have to read some other works to get the whole story. I just happened upon this and haven't read anything else if there is any, so it feels incomplete to me.
Just okay. A bunch of short stories all about the same place - an artificial Worldlet in orbit around (I think) Jupiter.
It's a decent glimpse of the way things work in the author's universe. But it feels like it's just part of a whole; like you have to read some other works to get the whole story. I just happened upon this and haven't read anything else if there is any, so it feels incomplete to me.
February 18, 2018
This space opera was really far out there... The family of settlers on the little rock have the weirdest upside-down Christian faith ever, especially their names. The kids are wacko, seemingly invincible because they are protected by the "Devil". Or are they??? The whole story was a wild ride and I often had a hard time keeping up.
August 26, 2017
Smallworld with big characters...
An unfolding microverse of characters and concepts that quickly draw you in, plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and unexpected twists. Both thumbs up.
An unfolding microverse of characters and concepts that quickly draw you in, plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and unexpected twists. Both thumbs up.
May 8, 2017
Having enjoyed my first Dominic Green book I was more than ready to start at the beginning but by the end of the book felt disappointed. I just didn't get it.
May 16, 2017
Loved this science fiction yarn filled with satire.
September 19, 2018
Could not finish it, good in parts, but just not enough story to keep me hooked,
March 7, 2023
In a word, Weird! Story hard to follow. Abrupt ending. Didn't care for it.
July 28, 2019
One of the best, most clear set of reasons and reflections I’ve ever read. Everything he writes is brilliant.
May 10, 2014
You know that feeling when you hear an inside joke and you’re not in it? That creeping sense of confusion, forcing you to think outside any and all boxes you can wrap your brain around, and yet you still can’t make sense out of it. You take the joke at face value, blankly nodding along as you admit to yourself that you simply don’t get, and that perhaps you missed something. This, in a nutshell, is Smallworld for me.
Smallworld is supposed to be a funny book about life in a small asteroid called Mount Ararat with Earth-like gravity. I can see the attempts, but alas, they never reached me beyond one or two lopsided smirks for two seconds. Descriptions said that this book has deadpan humor; perhaps the humor for me was deader than an actual dead pan. The whole plot simply shows the progression of life on said asteroid, and as such it felt disjointed. As I’ve seen one other reader say, chapters felt as if they were related short stories compiled together. Once I had that mindset, going through the book became a lot smoother.
Despite my exclusion from the apparent joke that’s supposed to be going here, Smallworld excels in describing its environment. Quite a unique terrain, and the supposed asteroid’s distance to its parent planet makes me imagine that this might be how it would be like living on one of the items floating around Saturn’s rings. With my 16-week stint in introduction to astronomy class, I’ve learned enough to know that Green actually researched his astronomical terms and their usage. I was enamored with the people’s history, as well as the progress that their civilization has made so far. The main character’s family’s names, albeit being tedious to remember, were so amusing that sometimes you’re left shaking your head as to how anyone could decide to give their characters such names.
When I finished the book, I was happy. I was happy not because I liked it, but because I’m finally done enduring a book-long inside joke that I never once got. Even though the lore surrounding the characters are rich and well-developed, I simply did not get it. Perhaps it was out of my reach, beyond my comprehension, just like our current hopes of a spacecraft going past the Oort cloud this lifetime.
Smallworld is supposed to be a funny book about life in a small asteroid called Mount Ararat with Earth-like gravity. I can see the attempts, but alas, they never reached me beyond one or two lopsided smirks for two seconds. Descriptions said that this book has deadpan humor; perhaps the humor for me was deader than an actual dead pan. The whole plot simply shows the progression of life on said asteroid, and as such it felt disjointed. As I’ve seen one other reader say, chapters felt as if they were related short stories compiled together. Once I had that mindset, going through the book became a lot smoother.
Despite my exclusion from the apparent joke that’s supposed to be going here, Smallworld excels in describing its environment. Quite a unique terrain, and the supposed asteroid’s distance to its parent planet makes me imagine that this might be how it would be like living on one of the items floating around Saturn’s rings. With my 16-week stint in introduction to astronomy class, I’ve learned enough to know that Green actually researched his astronomical terms and their usage. I was enamored with the people’s history, as well as the progress that their civilization has made so far. The main character’s family’s names, albeit being tedious to remember, were so amusing that sometimes you’re left shaking your head as to how anyone could decide to give their characters such names.
When I finished the book, I was happy. I was happy not because I liked it, but because I’m finally done enduring a book-long inside joke that I never once got. Even though the lore surrounding the characters are rich and well-developed, I simply did not get it. Perhaps it was out of my reach, beyond my comprehension, just like our current hopes of a spacecraft going past the Oort cloud this lifetime.
July 4, 2013
I expected great things from Smallworld. Something about the title, the cover, the description, billed as both a science fiction and a comedy smack in the title, and by a Hugo nominee no less - it felt like it could have been literary magic. At very least engaging. And at very, very least maybe deliver a chuckle or two.
So it's with a small amount of regret that I must report that Smallworld sucked.
From a character naming convention that was little more than a cheap way of telling the audience what the character should be like, rather than having the character filled out enough to come to that conclusion on your own all the way to scenes that were about as coherent as an SNL skit that falls apart somewhere in the middle and ends with the comics running around like chimps - suffices to say there was very little here that didn't make me feel like the idiot in the room missing the joke.
Who knows? Maybe I AM that idiot. Maybe this novel was absolutely brilliant and my plebian mind just couldn't wrap itself around the 'bone-dry satire' that at least one reviewer points to being this author's forte. By the mid-point I was actively forcing myself to the end because I thought it might all come together in some amazing ah-ha moment. Unfortunately, it ended in such a ludicrous, out-of-the-blue, anticlimactic way it made me wish time travel had been invented so I could go back and warn my past self to avoid this complete waste of time.
Bottom Line: I usually love this stuff. I'm a Monty Python addict and have a near religious appreciation for author's like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett and I just don't get this one. But then again, maybe I just don't get it or maybe it was the unreasonable expectations I had walking into it. Either way, save yourself the time and walk by this title.
Love what you see here? Don't miss the weekly book reviews, monthly reading suggestions and free book title giveaways by visiting my blog or by following me on Twitter @TheJessle
So it's with a small amount of regret that I must report that Smallworld sucked.
From a character naming convention that was little more than a cheap way of telling the audience what the character should be like, rather than having the character filled out enough to come to that conclusion on your own all the way to scenes that were about as coherent as an SNL skit that falls apart somewhere in the middle and ends with the comics running around like chimps - suffices to say there was very little here that didn't make me feel like the idiot in the room missing the joke.
Who knows? Maybe I AM that idiot. Maybe this novel was absolutely brilliant and my plebian mind just couldn't wrap itself around the 'bone-dry satire' that at least one reviewer points to being this author's forte. By the mid-point I was actively forcing myself to the end because I thought it might all come together in some amazing ah-ha moment. Unfortunately, it ended in such a ludicrous, out-of-the-blue, anticlimactic way it made me wish time travel had been invented so I could go back and warn my past self to avoid this complete waste of time.
Bottom Line: I usually love this stuff. I'm a Monty Python addict and have a near religious appreciation for author's like Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett and I just don't get this one. But then again, maybe I just don't get it or maybe it was the unreasonable expectations I had walking into it. Either way, save yourself the time and walk by this title.
Love what you see here? Don't miss the weekly book reviews, monthly reading suggestions and free book title giveaways by visiting my blog or by following me on Twitter @TheJessle
December 22, 2010
Note: Free copy provided by publisher for review (also available for free download on press's website).
This reads like a sitcom. A very strange, wacky, somewhat low-budget sitcom. The jokes were a bit cheap in places and Green seems to have thrown as much plot as possible into the pages without really considering whether or not more plot was actually needed. Duplicated words and typos were present and the not-so-occasional use of CAPS to indicate that some characters were robots, authority figures, and/or screaming was a bit gimmicky and probably would have been easier to cope with coming from just one character type.
There was no single protagonist, rather a whole family of protagonists, who were so numerous it was hard to keep straight. Luckily it wasn't really necessary to remember who was who because we don't spend enough time with any individual to really need to keep them straight, which is good because some of them are ridiculously long named (i.e. Beguiled-by-the-Serpent Born-in-Jesus). Despite the fact that the Reborn-in-Jesus family never leaves the isolated 20 km planetoid, stuff seems to happen to them. They get raided by tax-collector space pirates, a penitentiary cube is dropped on them which results in several breakouts and related drama, they open up a spa on the planet, etc. Like I said, it's kind of like a sitcom in novel form. Even though the story progresses, the reset button keeps getting hit so it feels like new viewers can jump in and start watching at any time. There isn't a whole lot of character development, but for those who enjoy an overabundance of plot, this would be something to keep their interest.
Although I personally liked it, this isn't something I would recommend to everyone, it does have the charm of robots, lunatics who think they are Satan and Santa, and "backward" religious yokels trying to make it on a mudhole planet who are not as backwards as they appear.
This reads like a sitcom. A very strange, wacky, somewhat low-budget sitcom. The jokes were a bit cheap in places and Green seems to have thrown as much plot as possible into the pages without really considering whether or not more plot was actually needed. Duplicated words and typos were present and the not-so-occasional use of CAPS to indicate that some characters were robots, authority figures, and/or screaming was a bit gimmicky and probably would have been easier to cope with coming from just one character type.
There was no single protagonist, rather a whole family of protagonists, who were so numerous it was hard to keep straight. Luckily it wasn't really necessary to remember who was who because we don't spend enough time with any individual to really need to keep them straight, which is good because some of them are ridiculously long named (i.e. Beguiled-by-the-Serpent Born-in-Jesus). Despite the fact that the Reborn-in-Jesus family never leaves the isolated 20 km planetoid, stuff seems to happen to them. They get raided by tax-collector space pirates, a penitentiary cube is dropped on them which results in several breakouts and related drama, they open up a spa on the planet, etc. Like I said, it's kind of like a sitcom in novel form. Even though the story progresses, the reset button keeps getting hit so it feels like new viewers can jump in and start watching at any time. There isn't a whole lot of character development, but for those who enjoy an overabundance of plot, this would be something to keep their interest.
Although I personally liked it, this isn't something I would recommend to everyone, it does have the charm of robots, lunatics who think they are Satan and Santa, and "backward" religious yokels trying to make it on a mudhole planet who are not as backwards as they appear.
June 20, 2012
Comic science-fiction can work very well. As long as it's actually funny. Dominic Green's Smallworld can't quite seem to decide how funny it wants to be. This novel about an extended family living on an asteroid protected by a robotic Devil almost lost me with a very muddled opening. Other than Uncle Anchorite and Trapp, a lot of the characters were pretty much ciphers, and the ongoing hints about Uncle Anchorite's true identity were pretty boring as it's obvious who he is before a hundred pages have passed.
The comic passages are occasionally pretty amusing, but they also tend to be fleeting, in a tale of surprising violence and savagery. There are loose ends, and bewildering digressions in the book, which comes across more as a compendium of several novellas.
Smallworld's colony grows considerably during the course of the novel over a period of many years. If it was a better book, you might call it sci-fi's answer to One Hundred Years of Solitude. Unfortunately it's really just a tedious bit of guns and spaceship nonsense with interchangeable characters, perked up by the odd decent joke.
The comic passages are occasionally pretty amusing, but they also tend to be fleeting, in a tale of surprising violence and savagery. There are loose ends, and bewildering digressions in the book, which comes across more as a compendium of several novellas.
Smallworld's colony grows considerably during the course of the novel over a period of many years. If it was a better book, you might call it sci-fi's answer to One Hundred Years of Solitude. Unfortunately it's really just a tedious bit of guns and spaceship nonsense with interchangeable characters, perked up by the odd decent joke.
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February 7, 2014Worth reading for the names
This is a fun read, quick and entertaining. Each chapter is discrete, more like reading a book of short stories than a novel. Being a fan of short stories, I'm fine with it. Only once did I think a resolution to a story was contrived and a bit lazy. If you've used it once, don't use it again. That's fine in the real world, but not in storytelling. You need a dry sense of humor for this book. Those who like their humor slapstick will probably be disappointed. If you like Monty Python you'll like this. If you're more a Three Stooges fan read the excerpt first. I was hooked after a sample read.
As I mentioned in the title, the names he gave his characters are fun. It took the author some time to come up with them. It also took a bit of science to make the planet work. I know I wouldn't want to live there, and I'd have to think about visiting. That's part of the fun. So hop on a C+ ship and take a trip to Small world. You won't be sorry you stopped to visit.
This is a fun read, quick and entertaining. Each chapter is discrete, more like reading a book of short stories than a novel. Being a fan of short stories, I'm fine with it. Only once did I think a resolution to a story was contrived and a bit lazy. If you've used it once, don't use it again. That's fine in the real world, but not in storytelling. You need a dry sense of humor for this book. Those who like their humor slapstick will probably be disappointed. If you like Monty Python you'll like this. If you're more a Three Stooges fan read the excerpt first. I was hooked after a sample read.
As I mentioned in the title, the names he gave his characters are fun. It took the author some time to come up with them. It also took a bit of science to make the planet work. I know I wouldn't want to live there, and I'd have to think about visiting. That's part of the fun. So hop on a C+ ship and take a trip to Small world. You won't be sorry you stopped to visit.
March 3, 2012
This was an entertaining read, albeit not the comedy I'd expected from reading the blurb. Nor does it really work as a novel, as it reads more like a collection of (long) short stories strung together and linked by virtue of a shared cast and setting. The writing is good and there are moments of very clever (and often bizarre) humour - I particularly liked the escape from the penitentiary through psychoanalysis and Helen of Troy's personality inside a killing-machine robot (both of which appeared in the final story) - yet many of the supporting cast were too one-dimensional to care about and I frequently forgot who was who. However, the science-fiction setting was fun and obviously well thought-out; I just wish the author had done the same with more of the myriad of characters involved along the way. In summary, I did enjoy it and would have been happy to spend money on this - I found it on Smashwords for free.
January 27, 2011
Mount Ararat is a tiny moon, just 20km across - but thanks to neutronium at its core it has gravity and an atmosphere. Settled by a family of christian fundamentalists, the children are protected by 'the devil' - a mechanical killing machine. There's also a high security prison on the planet - but there are escapes, including a serial killer who thinks he's father christmas. It's actually a hugely funny satire, with genetically engineered 'McChickens', goats named Faith, Hope, Charity and Shub-Niggurath, slavers, tramp traders, ultra powerful tax accountants, a mysterious hermit, and a high-gravity health spa at the south pole.
free ebook here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
February 3, 2016
This book has several sections; each stand alone although building on characters previously described. Interesting concepts, but the book would have been easier to read (and MUCH shorter) if the character's names would have been shortened. Mr. Rejoice-In-Jesus is a main character, and his name is never shortened. Girls have names: Rejoice-In-The-Name-of-the-Lord (why not call her just "Rejoice"?), Behold-the-Hinder-Parts-of-God, and Be-Not-Unto-Man-In-Thy-Time-Of-Uncleanness. (There are many other names, including the ass who is named, "Carries-the-Savior".
A quick joke, unfortunately carried out in full throughout the book, although one girl's name is shortened (by accident?)
The characters continue to the author's next book, which I will miss.
A quick joke, unfortunately carried out in full throughout the book, although one girl's name is shortened (by accident?)
The characters continue to the author's next book, which I will miss.
May 9, 2015
When I read this book, the word that popped into my head was "turgid."
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I plowed through to the end, so it deserves as least a 50%, but the stories just do not flow. Although interesting, the book could stand an editor and a re-write for readability. I feel that for a book labeled "A Science Fiction Adventure Comedy," it could use more comedy. Perhaps the author confuses sarcasm and an occasional pratfall for humor. Sadly, the major revelation at the end of the book is telegraphed from the beginning.
Still you may enjoy it. See other reviews and make your own decision. Right now the price is right on Kindle ($0.00)
Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I plowed through to the end, so it deserves as least a 50%, but the stories just do not flow. Although interesting, the book could stand an editor and a re-write for readability. I feel that for a book labeled "A Science Fiction Adventure Comedy," it could use more comedy. Perhaps the author confuses sarcasm and an occasional pratfall for humor. Sadly, the major revelation at the end of the book is telegraphed from the beginning.
Still you may enjoy it. See other reviews and make your own decision. Right now the price is right on Kindle ($0.00)
September 5, 2011
A strange future written by an author with a strange sense of humor. The wife - Shun-Company Reborn in Jesus - has several children and foster children, all with names like Testament, Beguiled by the Devil, God's Wound, etc. and lives with her husband on a tiny planet (hence the book's name). Mr. Reborn in Jesus deals with the complexities of life on this strange world with uncanny stoicism. I didn't like Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe (thought it too sophomoric) but this is capturing my funny bone. So far.
November 27, 2011
I absolutely loved this quirky sci-fi comedy, which I picked up as a Kindle freebie. Definitely worth reading at that price, and I'll probably shell out the money for the sequel as well. It reads a bit like Terry Pratchett In Space, complete with characters that manage to surprise you and an occasional jab at pop culture.
My only complaint is that it can be a little hard to follow at times, both in the slightly rushed plot and only sketchily described science/technology. Overall, a very fun read!
My only complaint is that it can be a little hard to follow at times, both in the slightly rushed plot and only sketchily described science/technology. Overall, a very fun read!
July 2, 2012
Mr. and Mrs. Reborn in Jesus and family try to eke a meagre living on Mount Ararat, a planetoid the size of an asteroid, but it's not all potatoes. Well it is really but who is the mysterious Uncle Anchorite, what is the Devil that brings swift death to anyone that tries to upset the delicate balance of the world or the kids.
Good science fiction mixed with tongue-in-cheek humour mixed with tax collectors, slavers, an army press gang, a real Devil and Father Christmas the serial killer.
Had me in stitches, an excellent read.
Good science fiction mixed with tongue-in-cheek humour mixed with tax collectors, slavers, an army press gang, a real Devil and Father Christmas the serial killer.
Had me in stitches, an excellent read.
June 7, 2014
"Smallworld" by Dominic Green is a humorous, science fiction story filled with many laugh out loud moments.
The story is actually several stories about the Reborn-in-Jesus family and the little planetoid that they live on. Although the family has never left their home planet, many things come their way that are not expected.
I am a huge Douglas Adams fan and believe that Dominic Green has the same qualities as a science fiction writer - the story was imaginative and definitely different.
I would recommend this to science fiction fans for a quick, quirky read.
The story is actually several stories about the Reborn-in-Jesus family and the little planetoid that they live on. Although the family has never left their home planet, many things come their way that are not expected.
I am a huge Douglas Adams fan and believe that Dominic Green has the same qualities as a science fiction writer - the story was imaginative and definitely different.
I would recommend this to science fiction fans for a quick, quirky read.
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