The Platypus of Doom and other Nihilists

This one's by Arthur Byron Cover

So we've all read Douglas Adam's and worshipped at the altar of His awesomeness. Science fiction generally stops right there for us. Then someone like dear Arthur comes along and takes our limited perspective, drags it across the length and breadth of the existent universe, pounds it with the aid of giant, hairy monsters and makes us clutch our suddenly expansive heads, moaning softly.

Huh? Wait. From the start then.

The Platypus of Doom is exactly what it sounds like. A monster platypus that despite its noble intentions spreads doom in the universe. This is accomplished by granting people exactly what they truly desire.

Think about it. What if you were granted your heart's true desire? How would it change your life? For the better? Or is the tiny-whiny-achy-breaky motion picture of desires in your head, a nightmare in real life?

Heavy duty shit. And Byron keeps you laughing through it. Laughing, thinking and getting progressively weirded out.

The first story is about the Platypus God who meets a young ping-pong champion on an alien planet. Throw in a dead girlfriend, a lengthy match, a crazy Boss Man and the afterlife for a zany sort of read.

We then meet the Armadillo of Destruction next. This pink headed cigar smoking being has a clear agenda. Spreading Hate. He does this by encouraging mortals who've been repeatedly fucked over by life to hate with a passion and use their newly acquired superpowers to wreck general destruction and chaos.

The Aardvark of Despair follows next, with his penchant for despair and gloom in a chilling story that makes you wish for happy pills in colourful bottles.

The Clam of Catastrophe is last in this twisted line-up. She seduces and lures you into her "soft visceral mass", spreading disillusionment. Oh, and she has a Sherlock Holmes-esque "Godman" to love. Fireworks. Fuck this love thing.

Byron's world is littered with strange new planets, super human beings and yes, even a world where Fat is Beautiful. His unreal, sadistic and creepy monsters bring to life a new sort of fear. An intellectual black hole of general pessimism and despair.

I will obviously indulge in pointless comparisons with Hitchhikers. The same setting, the same madness, the same wow-that-is-so-banal-and-yet-I'm-making-it-excruciatingly-funny tone of writing, but without the comic effects that Adam's is so good at.

I'm clueless about why Platypus is not in the limelight, when it clearly deserves a few harsh glaring disco lights sort of glory. This book is great if you like weird reads/books that make you think/are slightly sick of life and wish to become a nihilist. In that case,this will push you firmly over the edge.

"The Devil you know is better than the devil you dont"

- last read in the Tommyknockers by Stephan king

Rating: 5/5 if you really dig science fiction/weird creatures(this description of the Aardvark should seal it for you: A meter and half long, covered with thick red skin and sandy coloured, bristly hair. Black thick tail, black, glassy eyes. generates his own crawling red ants as food)

4/5 otherwise