The Zen Gun

Rating:
Summary: Zen master Barrington Bayley
Review: An entertaining and absorbing romp through space aboard a battle class pleasure ship in search of the ultimate weapon. While developing a new space drive, humans have accidentally torn a hole in space, annoying nearby aliens, and inadvertently releasing strange creatures who mold matter indisciminately. As a human-primate chimera and his samurai escort quest for the power of the zen gun, intelligent animals threaten to take control of the empire. Even though the moon is falling from the sky, and the robots are on strike, there is always time for a brief physics lesson or two. Barrington J. Bayley is not only a great storyteller, he is also a master of the English language.

Rating:
Summary: Zen master Barrington Bayley
Review: An entertaining and absorbing romp through space aboard a battle class pleasure ship in search of the ultimate weapon. While developing a new space drive, humans have accidentally torn a hole in space, annoying nearby aliens, and inadvertently releasing strange creatures who mold matter indisciminately. As a human-primate chimera and his samurai escort quest for the power of the zen gun, intelligent animals threaten to take control of the empire. Even though the moon is falling from the sky, and the robots are on strike, there is always time for a brief physics lesson or two. Barrington J. Bayley is not only a great storyteller, he is also a master of the English language.

Rating:
Summary: The Tao of Barrington Bayley
Review: As with everything from this much under-rated master, this book is full of unusual and intriguing ideas and extrapolations.

A lunatic mutant primate, free after a lifetime of confinement in a museum, takes possession of the most powerful weapon in the universe. Rips in the space-time continuum, space-war and the paradoxes of particle physics are meshed into a concise tale of excitement and despair.

I've always found Bayley's work to be tinged with a subtle element of underlying sadness, perhaps because of the futility of the actions of many of his characters. Always to be highly recommended, in any and all cases.