Rating: 
Summary: The Great American (Cartoon) Novel...Almost
Review: An AMAZON.COM reader who saw my paragraph on SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson, recommended SEWER, GAS & ELECTRIC -- for which I am terrifically grateful. SG&E is a comic SciFi satirical novel. Ruff's take on Ayn Rand is sort of a spoof but evolves into something more -- certainly not an encomium but rather a questioning of that great lady's miniaturized "ghost" in a way she herself would have never put up with in life, I have no doubt. The novel teems with astounding and memorable characters. Philo Defresne, captain of the Yabba-Dabba-Doo (a pink-and-green spotted submarine that bearing "a living cargo of castaways and endangered species," and roaming "the East Coast shipping lanes doing embarrassing things to people and institutions that were reckless with their effluvia" -- is, with his ship, the most memorable of the lot. He is also the last Black person left on earth, having been under the sea when a virus was loosed that turned the rest to dust before they could even be buried. Unfortunately, not all the other characters are as well drawn and memorable. And the book seems to have started out in one "direction" and moved restlessly off in first one then another direction. Tighter editing? Maybe. But SEWER, GAS & ELECTRIC is a minor masterpiece, warts and all. I loved it
Rating: 
Summary: bizarre, brilliant , and hillarious !
Review: This book is a fast-paced, hard-to-put-down, edge-of- your-seat comic thriller. With tangled plot line weaving a mulitutude of characters from a goofy billionaire to an eco-terrorist to Ayn Rand, and featuring a mutant shark and a genocidal computer, Sewer Gas & Electric is a very bizzare romp through an imaginary 21st century. Matt Ruff has lost none of the brilliance that made Fool on the Hill such an enjoyable read, an he has combined that with a stricking vision to creat a wonderful tapestry of confusion and deviance. Highly reccomended
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable twist on the world you see around you now...
Review: It seems to me that some of the reviewers missed some key points to this novel. I found a copy of the paperbook in a science-fiction/fantasy store in sf after asking the cashier if she had any books that she would recommend. She picked up "Sewer, Gas & Electric" and said, "A lot of people think this one is really funny."As to the novel itself, it does start slowly. It puts into place all the cogs that will come together as the book progresses. I had to read it twice to make sure where everything fit into place and it made a funnier and more in depth read the second time around because I could see where and why the writer had placed people and situations in the manner he had. I had to read some Pynchon twice too. Not that I think they necessarily write in the same tradition. I find Pynchon tends to more of a subtle slapstick where I find Ruff (at least in this book) goes more in a Merry Prankster tradition. I did find one reviewer online who found that this novel owes a lot to Neal Stephenson, of Snow Crash fame. Even that, comparatively seems less over the top (and that says something in itself) than this book. As far as the "trashing Ayn Rand" some reviewers have mentioned, I find more of an alternative viewpoint from somebody who has obviously read her books and knows her history and dearly wanted to show her what a hypocrite she (as written by him) acted. And that her philosophy only made sense if you don't disseminate it. But whatever, the main point of the book stems from the fact that it belongs in the science-fiction/fantasy section so people who love the tradition Matt Ruff writes in (and plenty of other reviewers have made their cases for what tradition they believe it is) should have a good, semi-light, read and perhaps laugh.
Rating:
Summary: Joan, Stop this crazy thing!
Review: Istanbul! Appluse, applause... I just finished reading Matt Ruff's "Sewer, Gas and Electric" and I wish he were here before me so I could give him a one-man standing ovation. I picked this book up in an airport bookstore, having looked at it several times before. This time, I was caught - I could not resist the ghost of Ayn Rand in a hurricane lamp or the mutant great white nicknamed "Meisterbrau". Five hours later I was breathlessly reading the last page. So what's good about it? The writing is funny without being condescending or slapstick. The philosophy is interesting for those of us who walked in off the streets without having bought the "Atlas Shrugged" ticket. The characters are amazingly fleshed out, and even the villains have redeeming qualities and sympathetic motives. I loved Kite (the immortal amputee), the secret history of Disneyland and the vain attempts to kill Meisterbrau, when every knows that the best way to kill a mutant shark is to introduce it to the workings of Ayn Rand. If you like your humor broad, your books thoughtful and your day weird, this book ought to do the trick.
Rating:
Summary: It's Not Rocket Science.
Review: When you have glowing reviews by 2 great writers on the cover of your dust jacket one expects great things. Well, this book isn't great, but it is a very fun and fantastical read. Anyone who can create a plot that involves Ayn Rand and a mutant shark named Meisterbrau, just to name a few of this book's creations, deserves some kind of credit. Halfway through the book I even started reading Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." (And they say TV & movies make people do strange things.) The plot definitely displays the author's ingenuity but I thought it could be tightened up in a few places. The work as a whole reminds me of Pynchon, which brings up the interesting coincidence between Pynchon's review appearing on the book and the fact that Melanie Jackson (Pynchon's wife) is Ruff's agent.
Rating:
Summary: SG&E- a Great Read
Review: Brilliant! Genocide, electronic slaves, eco-crusaders, the politics of power, social responsibility...how do you construct a novel with all these elements without frightening or boring your reader to death? Matt Ruff knows: a true artist. He extends reality to the point of what is seemingly fantastic; but, is it really? Probably not; however, the flow of Ruff's lyrical writing style and excellent comic relief empowers the reader with a sense of hope. All I can say is... WOW!!! This is a must for anyone's personal library. A rating under 4 doesn't do this book justice. I've given it a 5. PS: FOTH is a very different book but another great example of Ruff's amazing talent.
Rating: 
Summary: Getting people to laugh at Ayn Rand requires no skill.
Review: It's like shooting fish in a barrel. With a Kalashnikov. More than once. Think about it. How many of these Amazon[.com] reviewers, in the limited time and space available to tell the world what they thought of this book, chose to highlight the fact that it makes fun of Ayn Rand? If this book was so great, or so funny, you'd think they'd have found something *original* to say about it. Oh, wanting the book to be original...must have been reading too much Ayn Rand, ha ha. Go back a few years, to _The Fountainhead_, and read Ellsworth Toohey's views on humor. I didn't think the book was funny.
Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking and clever
Review: This novel defies classification. It is part SF, part satire, but all very readable and enjoyable. It is thought-provoking but doesn't beg to be taken seriously, and certainly not literally.
For the objectivists in the crowd, I recommend it for those who thought *Atlas Shrugged* was gospel when they read it in college, but who are now ready to begin questioning Ayn Rand's philosophy.
Rating: 
Summary: bad, bad, bad
Review: I rarely sumbit reviews, but I couldn't leave this dog with raves when I found its self-conscious silliness an embarassment that left me cold. This fella Ruff sounds like an adolescent with lots of energy to spare: like the giggling high school girls that titter nervously everytime the movie they're watching refers to anything they know about- like, PepsiCola, for example. Duh. I doubt the author will make a career of this hobby.
Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the strangest book I've ever read
Review: For the most part, I found this to be a fun read. However, I always find it offputting if major characters spend inordinate amounts of time lighting up and puffing away and that was the case here with several characters. Most improbably, one of the chain-smoking characters was a one-armed veteran from the Civil War. Still, I was amazed at the inventiveness of the author and would recommend the book if only for that reason. Too bad this was written before 9/11, as the author would have had great fun working that in.
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