Rating: 
Summary: Time Not So Well Spent
Review: An all-around trifle that left me disappointed when reading, and utterly unmoved upon complition; to the extent that a week later I had to pick the book up and read the insdie of the jacket to remember what it was about. As a satire it is weak after the intial set-up and becomes total (and unfortunatley woefully unfunny) farce at the end, any larger points that were trying to be made are forever lost to cartoonish and plodding plotting.
Rating: 
Summary: An Entertaining Examination of Nine to Five America
Review: Have you ever worked in one of those huge soulless offices --- the kind that is full of row after row of gray cubicles and harsh fluorescent lighting? Then perhaps you know how mind numbing the days in these environments can be. But for Paul Trilby, who works in just such an office, life in a cubicle, so he thought, was the least of his concerns.James Hynes's latest novel KINGS OF INFINITE SPACE, tells the story of Paul Trilby, a temp worker employed in the General Services Department of the Texas Department of General Services. Trilby didn't always work as a tech writer in a government office. In fact, he was once an English professor at a prestigious university. But he was fired from his job there and when his wife Elizabeth found out about his girlfriend Kymberly, he was divorced as well. After Kym and Paul moved to Lamar, Texas (a thinly veiled Austin), their relationship also falls apart. Paul now finds himself typing away at TxDoGS, an office filled with eccentric and creepy characters, and living in a run down motel, haunted by Elizabeth's dead cat, Charlotte. It soon becomes clear to Paul that the problems of working at TxDoGS are bigger than dealing with the snotty Olivia or his clueless boss Rick. For example, who is leaving cryptic Post-it note messages on his computer screen? Why does he feel like he is being watched? Is the recycling bin really a bottomless pit? Why are people afraid to be in the office after dark? And, finally, who are the mysterious Stanley Tulendji and Boy G, and what do they want from Paul? KINGS OF INFINITE SPACE is office life taken to an absurd, but unique, extreme. Hynes's satire has a bit of the supernatural thrown in for good measure. Paul Trilby is a classic everyman down on his luck (granted, his current predicament is entirely his fault). He is grumpy and arrogant but still actually likeable. And, as Paul becomes more and more enmeshed in the bizarre world of TxDoGS, we cheer for him more and more. The mysteries and secrets of the Texas Department of General Services finally become clear to Paul and at the same time dangerous. Hynes asks Paul (and readers) to think about how much he is willing to sacrifice for a work-free life, a life unaffected by gray cubicles and mindless busy work. Hynes also questions if a person is defined by the work they do. KINGS OF INFINITE SPACE is at turns frightening and laugh out loud funny. Hynes has captured many of the realities of office work while contorting them to nightmarish fantasies. From office politics to bloodthirsty zombies, from classic literary references to a steamy love affair, Hynes erases lines between genres by putting it all in one quite readable novel. Smartly written, this is an entertaining examination of nine to five America. While it doesn't offer many revolutionary insights into postmodern alienation and the costs of productivity versus creativity, you will never look at the ceiling tiles above your desk the same way again. --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
Rating: 
Summary: Are we not men? . . . Apparently not.
Review: How many of us sit in our cubicle or at our desk wondering what has happened to our lives? How have we been imprisoned so? Have we made it come to pass ourselves?
I believe this was written by such a man wondering these types of things, and he thought: what would make this more interesting? How can I keep from running away while screaming and tearing at my hair? This novel was given birth by those ideas. It is good but at most it seems like a daydream.
I hope Hynes made it out of his cubicle, as for the rest of us we must make our own dreams; read this book and get some good ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Island of Boy G
Review: I don't remember exactly why I picked this book up, but I enjoyed it a lot. It is humorous and engaging and it becomes progressively odder as it goes. I guess this is a relaxed effort for the author as well as the reader - a light read with plenty of literary references. This book is part satire, part romance, and part horror show. I think I'll pick up Hynes' other novels after I finish typing this review.
Rating:
Summary: Finest kind, says Kat from Readerville.com
Review: I gulped down this book in a single afternoon, it's not just that good but that thigh-slapping funny. And, oddly or perhaps not, that useful in thinking about examined lives and such. Of course, Hynes, can write bloody well ... or bloody well write, whichever, but lordy knows he gives awfully good book and then some. This one, "Kings of Infinite Space," is finest kind and a worthy counterpart to his earlier "The Lecturer's Tale" which also made sore my laugh muscles. Folk who have read Hynes' earlier novela trilogy ("Publish or Perish") might recognize a character or two, not all entirely human. Hynes reprises these and gives them a fullness of life that anyone would envy. If this guy ever writes a sententiously serious novel, he'd be in great danger of earning one of those prestigious prizes -- you know, a Pulitzer or an NBCC or some such. Because everyone knows you can't write a marvelously FUNNY brilliant book and win squat. Or rather, squat is what such a brilliant book wins.
Rating:
Summary: A great book.
Review: I sort of doubt that all the reviewers that have commented on this book actually read the whole thing. I say that because there is no way one could finish it, (and review it) without noting the dramatic fashion in which the climatic scenes are written. I won't spoil it here, but just know the last 50 or so pages ARE NOTHING like the rest of the book. Yes, there are great points of recognition about cube office life. Yes, there is laugh out loud humor ( the text book lessons with vertically arranged double meanings are brilliant, as are the descriptions of various people at the library book sale -complete with a Strawbs reference- to name just two of many great and hilarious examples). But the tone changes so much at the end, that the light Kafkaesque look at office bureaucracy and the slices of Texas life so well depicted earlier are a distant memory. A lot of times you hear people say a particular book 'can't be fit into any one genre' but trust me, here is a book that combines several styles and combines them well. The result is one of my favorite reads of 2004. I really enjoyed it on many levels, so I show up here to highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Are we not men?
Review: I'm a technical writer. Really- I have spent years sitting in gray cubes, imagining extremes of horrors/delights to overcome the ennui, experiencing symbolic cannibalism from all quarters: especially from direction of the ceiling tiles. I thought this book was so delightful that when I lost my first copy halfway through (long story involving a brake-happy New York cabbie), I had to buy a new one. I saw plenty of parallels to real life, my real life, and, I'd imagine- many people's real lives. It's not just creepy and scary and funny; it's sexy, too. The female protagonist reminded me of someone you'd find in an early Tom Robbins book. You'll take a few messages with you, including (but not limited to): Don't let work devour your soul, respect your security guard, and never, ever drown your ex-wife's cat.
Rating:
Summary: A supernatural satire, in the Hynes tradition
Review: I've enjoyed Hynes's work for years. He unerringly hits the mark in his supernatural satires (Publish and Perish, The Lecturer's Tale), which are like nothing else being published today, although the influence of his literary ancestors M. R. James and H.G. Wells is clear. But he is also a master at plotting suspense, as readers of his first novel, The Wild Colonial Boy, will know. In Kings of Infinite Space these talents come together in the story of Paul Trilby, formerly of Publish and Perish, who has found employment at a Texas state-government bureaucracy. Hynes evokes the dreariness of office life with bitter accuracy and brilliant analogy. There is a particular kind of bureaucratese, Texas-style, for which Hynes has perfect pitch; and the quirks of office politics will be dreadfully familiar to all those who suffer in cubeland. However, rendered with equally deadly (as it were) accuracy are the vengeful spirits, human and animal, with which Paul must contend. In confronting them he attains a kind of redemption, via numerous hilarious yet hair-raising episodes-for the hilarity alternates with real, nail-chewing suspense. Not many authors can pull this off, but Hynes is a master.
Rating:
Summary: Horrors of Mundane Office Life
Review: James Hynes "Kings of Infinite Space" is one of the most creative and hilarious books I have read in a long time. Hynes captures exactly what it's like to wake up every morning and face the endless maze of cubicles,coffee cups and telephones. Only he makes it a horror story as well. There are moments in the book that will scare the bejesus out of you and two sentences later you're laughing. A genius novel that deserves to be read by many.
Rating:
Summary: Office Space Spooky
Review: Paul Trilby has come a long way down, from a teaching position at a prestigious university to an office temp at the Texas Department of General Services. He has made every mistake in the book, and so he finds himself divorced, alone, barely making enough to live on, his life in shambles. Worse yet, he is haunted by Charlotte, the ghost of his ex-wife's cat, the cat he drowned because...well, it's complicated. Well, cubicle hell is bad enough, but then strange things start happening. Strange pale men appear and disappear mysteriously. Strange post-it notes appear on Paul's computer. People know things about him they couldn't possibly know. Tiles in the ceiling move strangely, suggesting someone--or something--is up there watching. Amusing as all this may be, it will soon get personal for Paul. He will be asked to make some terrible, serious decisions. Does he have what it takes? And is all this real? Or is Paul going psychotic? You will have to read the book to find out. Author James Hynes is absolutely brilliant. His writing reflects his vast erudition without being the slightest bit pretentious. It flows along easily, and you find yourself unable to put the book down. At first it is humorous, but then it becomes alarming, enthralling, unvelievably suspenseful, as you race through the last hundred pages. I recommend this book highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
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