The least likely book you've ever loved? Unutterably Silly Idea

[Donnageddon]

Is there a book concept that you just knew had to be bad, but wasn't? A book based on a totally preposterous idea, that made sense? A story that just couldn't be good, but was?

I know of one such book. It was Ishmael written by Barbara Hambly.

This book had the insane concept of mixing the worlds of the original Star Trek universe with the 1960's short lived TV show Here Comes the Brides.

This is a completely batcrap crazy notion. It simply cannot work!

But it does. It is one of my favorite ST:TOS novels. And it certainly is "novel".

Here is the synopsis from Wikipedia

Star Trek novel Ishmael has Spock traveling back to the time and place of Here Come the Brides after discovering a Klingon plot to destroy the Federation by killing Aaron Stempel (spelled Stemple in the book) before he could thwart an attempted 19th-century alien invasion of Earth. During most of the story, Spock has lost his memory and is cared for by Stempel, who passes him off as his nephew "Ishmael" and helps him hide his alien origins. At the end of the story, Spock discovers that Stempel is one of his mother's ancestors, which ties in nicely, since Mark Lenard also played Spock's father Sarek in episodes of the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as several of the Star Trek movies.

Do you have a least likely book, that you loved?

[NatCh]

I guess I'd mention the Cineverse Cycle. It's actually three books, Slaves of the Volcano God, Bride of the Slime Monster, and my personal favorite Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies.

The basic premise is that movies are reel, er ... that is "real" ... just not here. There's a whole other series of universes, called the "Cineverse," in which movie physics and laws all literally apply: the good guys never run out of bullets, you can identify the bad guy by his facial hair (but never until it's too late), etc.

It ought to be horrible, but it's really quite a fun romp. They're a bit hard to find: I ran across the first volume in a used book store one time, and spent several years tracking down the other two. I basically had to wait until bookselling got up to speed on the intartubes. It's fairly easy to come up with copies now, though the prices are what you'd expect from the situation.

If you like farce, you'll probably like this stuff.

[Donnageddon]

That actually does sound like fun, Natch. I see that used copies are available through Amazon, but as expected, I haven't been able to find a digital version.

For some reason the description of the cineverse and how it relates imaginary world of cinema to reality, reminded me of James P Hogan's short novel Out of Time, which used the concept of bugs eating time. Time passes differently in different places causing mass confusion, and as the speed of light changes for different viewers, real dangers.

An odd concept but it works really well as a short mystery novel.

[montsnmags]

Tom Robbins is probably not a "least likely" for me, though it perhaps satisfies the concept. I've always had the impression that his inspiration comes from him asking friends and family (especially children), to give him some ridiculous premise for a book, and then he goes from there.

"Write a book about a woman with enormous thumbs" (Even Cowgirls Get The Blues)

"How about Immortality and Beets?" (Jitterbug Perfume)

"A can of beans, a dirty sock, a spoon, a painted stick and a conch shell" (Skinny Legs and All)

"Gees, I'm out of Camels. What were you saying, Tom?" (Still Life With Woodpecker)

...and so on.

His books stubbornly defy their front and back covers, and the ludicrous nature of some of their contents (Vatican Assassins, the smell of Pan, someone called "Bonanza Jellybean" which is possibly one of the coolest names ever) is usually marvelous. He's definitely a favourite author.

Cheers,
Marc

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

That actually does sound like fun, Natch. I see that used copies are available through Amazon, but as expected, I haven't been able to find a digital version.

Neither have I. I fear it's old enough that it probably won't happen, not in any official way, anyway.

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

For some reason the description of the cineverse and how it relates imaginary world of cinema to reality, reminded me of James P Hogan's short novel Out of Time, which used the concept of bugs eating time. Time passes differently in different places causing mass confusion, and as the speed of light changes for different viewers, real dangers.

An odd concept but it works really well as a short mystery novel.

That does sound interesting. I read and enjoyed a couple of Hogan's books: Bug Park and Multiplex Man ... and maybe another one or two that I don't recall the names of off-hand ....

Bug Park was a great one, the idea was very engaging to me. Basically, a company has developed a way to allow people to "be" (in a virtual sense) a micro-scale robot (~1" high) and go exploring the strange and wonderful world of the back yard -- complete with "big game" hunting of centipedes and such. But another company has a competing technology, and fewer scruples: mayhem ensues.


@montsnmags: I love the idea of building stories around random, unconnected elements. I may have to check some of those out!