The time is a few decades from now, the place what used to be the United States, now disrupted by internal factionalism as well as a short-lived foreign invasion. Out of this chaotic background Ron Goulart has produced a swift-moving, witty and constantly delightful novel, a story of a future odyssey through: *The Nixon Institute, where aging former rock stars reminisce about the days when they still had hair; *the wide-open sin-town of San Rafael, run by the Amateur Mafia (no Italians allowed); *Vienna West, a detailed replica of Sigmund Freud's 19th Century city where psychiatric patients live and abreact together; *the Monterey Mechanical Jazz Festival, featuring the music of pinball machines, jack hammers and Laundromat washers... All this plus a dozen or two of the oddest characters you're ever likely to meet.
Author
Pseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner. Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award. In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).
