Gaudeamus

Rating:
Summary: An excellent work of (non)fiction
Review: Gaudeamus begins with an excellent premise... well, several. It's first person enough that you realize from his standpoint the events in the book are quite possibly entirely true. The Gaudeamus movement/device/drug/concept, as well, is quite novel. Barnes then throws in enough hand-waving to justify the occasional lack of details, mixes it equally with his usual wackily referenced but precisely placed oddball gems of knowledge, and presents it in a manner such that anyone who grew up with the internet (that is to say, all of us who are indeed still growing up) will be at once enthralled and amused by the results. If you've made it through Orbital Resonance, been shocked by parts of Kaleidescope Century, identified with the characters in The Sky So Big and Black, and enjoyed the romp (with sweet conclusion) that was Mother of Storms, you will go nuts over this weekend's worth of light reading. Barnes pokes fun at anything and everything, most of all himself, in this excellent take on what could be happening right under (and over, and folded 90 degrees outside of normal space from) our noses. Sure, the book's not perfect, but the imperfections haven't made themselves apparent in my first reading. I'm promptly going to mail it to the guy who's stolen my copy of Candle. And since he outright says as much in the book: Mr. Barnes, thanks for reading, and bravo.

Rating:
Summary: Pseudo-autobiographical farce
Review: John Barnes (the author) is the viewpoint character in a tale of his friend Travis' investigation of strange goings-on in a black military project. The investigation gets out of hand quickly and turns more than a few strange bends. Aliens, the almost-Unabomber, USAF flying saucers, a radio-controlled deer, sex, drugs, (bad) rock-and-roll and the Fate of the Earth pass through the story at one point or another.

If Heinlein were alive he might write something like this -- it almost reads like what "Number of the Beast" ought to have been.

Rating:
Summary: Good Concept for a Novel but not Entertaining
Review: John Barnes has taken a unique approach to his newest novel. Using his real name and written in the first person, John is sitting in his home office one day writing - or at least attempting to write - when his old, eccentric friend Travis Bismark shows up the door. Travis spins a tall tale about corporate espionage. As time goes on, Travis comes in and out of the picture telling taller and taller stories. Corporate espionage, to a drug that induces ESP, to a strange gadget that can move objects in time and space, to aliens buying and selling the planet Earth and a group of aliens and humans trying to save it. The thing is, John never witnesses anything first hand. It's all told by Travis. Is it just a tall tale? Or is it real? We'll never know.

While I thought the concept of the novel was pretty good I quite honestly was mostly bored by it. The aliens in the book seemed completely farcical and seemed like something a high school kid would come up with. Maybe that was planned to give the whole story more of an "is it real or isn't?" it aura. But the bottom line is, I wasn't that entertained by the novel.


Rating:
Summary: A sf satire that takes you on a roller coaster ride
Review: Private detective Travis Bismark visits his college friend, science fiction writer Professor John Barnes in Gunnison, Colorado after the writer spent time on the Internet with a cartoon, Gaudeamus. Travis spins some wild tale about "goddies" pills that enhance sex and telepathy and also describes a baffling technology called Gaudeamus that people are killing one another to gain control.

Not long afterward, Travis vanishes while a cyber elk attacks John. Travis keeps appearing and disappearing over the next few months, but at each visit he provides a weirder tale starring exploitive alien businessmen and grunge musical clowns traveling in flying saucers that make even Mr. Barnes' novels seem so mundane. Soon John realizes that the clock is ticking and that the earth has less than seven years to learn how to fully use Gaudeamus technology to convert energy from one form to another without space or time restraints.

Mindful of a fabulous Eerie, Indiana episode, GAUDEAMUS is a wild tale that breaks the wall between autobiography and science fiction as John Barnes provides insight into himself and his wife in an over the top out of this world (but on this planet) satire. The story line goes from seemingly impossible to sublimely impossible as Mr. Barnes furbishes an insane yet entertaining satire that ironically even takes shots at the author. Though SF fundamentalists will take exception (not portrayed too highly), fans of way out craziness will enjoy the Gaudeamus tale and would want a prescription of goddies (of curse the FDA would declare them as harmful because people might have fun).

Harriet Klausner



Rating:
Summary: Wild story--with some great questions
Review: Review of GAUDEAMUS by John Barnes
Tor, November 2004

College professor and Science Fiction author John Barnes is wasting his time trying to write when a friend from college appears on his doorstep needing a ride to Denver (hundreds of miles away) and telling a strange story--a story so strange Barnes just might be able to use it for his next SF story--or maybe so strange that it is even true. According to Barnes' friend Travis Bismark, Travis was hired to look into how a top-secret research company's secrets were being leaked. At first it seemed easy--and highly profitable. Travis traced the leaked documents, found who could be responsible (very few scientists would be exposed to all of the documents) and then traced the most likely suspect to where he was meeting with a high-class hooker. Bugging the hooker's apartment turned up something, but not at all what Travis expected.

Author John Barnes (the book's author, not the character) gives us the story in dribbles, whetting our appetite for more as he tells of Travis's adventures, the increasing danger he finds himself in, finally leading to the culmination of something that he simply couldn't be making up--or could he. According to Travis, a strange machine that just might be able to pass objects through time, a sex drug, and an on-line comic strip all have the same name--Gaudeamus. It could be that Gaudeamus is just the name for something cool, but that doesn't seem like quiet enough to Barnes--or to Travis.

For GAUDEAMUS (the book, not the sex pill, comic strip, or machine), Barnes adopts the old-fashioned device of a retelling of a story. This works--allowing the author to 'discover' what happens next as the reader does. A downside of this technique is that it often distances the reader from the story, making suspension of disbelief that much more difficult. But Barnes doesn't really want people to buy into his story. Rather, he wants them to buy into his concerns and ambiguity about the way the world is headed.

GAUDEAMUS is a bit of a message story, but the message is complex. Would the world really be better off if we spent more time enjoying life and less time obsessively trying to discover new inventions? Are people who see flying saucers crazy, or just more observant than the rest of us? Do casual observers really deserve a chance to toss one-line zings at artists who have devoted their career to creating something? All good questions--and questions that Barnes leaves out there more for thought than answering.

Bottom line--I enjoyed this story. There were a number of laugh-out-loud moments for me, and the character of Barnes--always on the periphery of something happening but always managing to miss it, was entertaining. Barnes (the author) asks his readers to think, and gives us something compelling to think about.