NP

[rich]

yeah, unfortunately
small publisher, etc etc.
remember seeing a whole slew of titles at a great sci-fi place in
London a few yrs back--if i had the dough i would've bought them all

some of the novels I like (these are others descriptions but its the
sheer uniqueness of Lafferty's voice that stands out. short stories
tend to be better)

Reefs of the Earth (about a bunch of weird kids--Six children of the
alien Puca families visiting Earth (seven if you count Bad John),
decide to make the world a better place, mainly by killing all the
people on it--you might think my god, but its pretty funny believe or
not)

Serpent's Egg takes place in the indeterminate future of 2035 when all
sorts of experiments are taking place between animals, humans and
humanoid computers, resulting in various hybrid offspring. These
mega-persons all reach maturity at ten years old, but should they
prove to be a serpent's egg, a threat to the "floating world",
assassins are sent after them by the Kangaroo Court, seen as a portent
in the sky of a kangaroo. The offspring of four experiments join up to
form a magic twelve, including in their number a psychic python, an
unborn elephant, a wolverine, a bear, a computer, and a few humans.
the epilogue (written by a whale) claims that half the book is lies.

but the prize goes to Not to Mention Camels--the, and I emphasize the,
strangest book I've ever read

R. A. Lafferty has created three memorable creatures in Pilger Tisman,
Pilgrim Dusmano, and Polder Dossman. Pilger is a protean figure of
phantasmagoric qualities; Pilgrim’s fragmented existence lies in
thousands of minds besides his own; Polder is eidolon-man and
cult-figure, hypnotic, electric, magnetic, transcendent.They are all
world-jumpers in a meta-cosmosic universe. What hellish worlds they
jump to—Hieronymus Bosch landscapes that thrive on anti-matter,
anti-space, anti-time. What mind-and-body-searing challenges they are
confronted with. For Pilger, Pilgrim, and Polder are one man.


On 9/18/09, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the tip.  I've never read nor head of Lafferty, but I'll do
> myself that favor you mention.
>
> But, man!  This book is expensive, new or used.
>
> Would you have full-length novels by him to recommend?
>
> David Morris
>
> On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 11:19 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>> after reading R.A. Lafferty, most mainstream sci-fi to me became
>> pretty inane and laughable. Lafferty was a practicing Catholic,
>> ex-alcoholic who resided mostly in Oklahoma, who sympathized with the
>> Choctaw among other things
>>
>> do yrself a favor, read the short story collection, Nine Hundred
>> Grandmothers. guarantee you'll read a couple of those stories and
>> think, what the fuck was that? (and laugh smiling)
>>
>> http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Hundred-Grandmothers-R-Lafferty/dp/1880448971
>