Subject: CAPTAIN JACK ZODIAC by Michael Kandel

From: [email-masked] (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070)
Date: 31 Jul 92 22:31:21 GMT

CAPTAIN JACK ZODIAC by Michael Kandel
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper

     Kandel began his career translating the works of Stanislaw Lem, or at
least that is how he became known.  And that off-the-wall style that Lem is
known for has influenced Kandel and in this, his third novel (his first two
were STRANGE INVASION and IN BETWEEN DRAGONS), he gives us a world in which
the Soviets are nuking several of our major cities, but the real problems
are the garbage strike and the traffic jams (the latter not helped by the
occasional Soviet paratrooper squads landing on the highways).  One
character is trying to maintain a perfect lawn, but the combination of the
greenhouse effect, radiation leaking through the failing ozone layer, and
all the chemicals he has been using start to have some very undesirable
effects.  Meanwhile, out main character is trying to find his children: his
daughter has become a mall zombie (no, not like in George Romero's DAWN OF
THE DEAD) and his son has taken and is traveling off in interstellar space.
When you take one of Captain Jack Zodiac's pills, you really trip!

     I can't really describe this book.  The preceding gives you some idea
of the flavor, but only some idea.  Kandel flings his characters from one
improbable situation to the next, on this world, on other worlds, and even
in the next world.  Oddly enough, the Captain Jack Zodiac thread for which
the book is named is one of the less involving ones (at least for me),
though its solipsistic approach does reinforce the book's approach in
general.

     I definitely recommend this wild and wacky look at what just might be
just around the corner (well, okay, maybe not the Soviet paratroopers, but I
wouldn't dismiss the possessed chicken salad just yet...).

%A      Kandel, Michael
%T      Captain Jack Zodiac
%I      Bantam Spectra
%C      New York
%D      April 1992
%O      paperback, US$4.99
%G      ISBN 0-553-29367-2
%P      260pp

Evelyn C. Leeper   |   +1 908 957 2070   |   att!mtgzy!ecl or [email-masked]