Going, Going, Gone [Paperback]

Yes, I know, I'm a geek. Onwards.

The book starts in the alternate world first seen in TERRAPLANE, in 1968. Walter Bullitt is a pharmaceutical expert who puts his knowledge to nefarious use for the government, and spends his spare time collecting 78 RPM blues discs. While trying to avoid accepting his latest assignment, he starts seeing ghosts that he can't ascribe to his extracurricular chemistry experiments. Then he bumps into two females who have been sent by Dryco to...well, buy the book and find out!

What can I say, like all the Dryco books, it starts out weird and then just keeps turning corners that you don't see coming until your head starts to spin. Walter Bullitt is now one of my favorite characters from the whole Dryco mythology; his hipster narration makes GOING, GOING, GONE perhaps the most enjoyable read in the entire series.

A few recurring characters from previous books appear. It took me a moment to figure out who the ghosts were, but when I did I had to put the book down, I was so pleased. Amazing.

The ending of the book was so very unexpected and satisfying. The last chapter, "In the New World," won't make sense to anyone who hasn't read the five previous Dryco novels, but to those who have, you're in for such a treat. ( The bit about ALICE had me fall out of my chair laughing. ) The last sentence of the book -I won't tell you who it is about, but it redeems their life in the simplest of ways. I almost started crying. ( But geeks don't cry, dammit! )

So. That's that. Thank you, Jack Womack, for sharing this twisted universe of yours with us.

And if you haven't read any of his books, get cracking. In this order: Random Acts of Senseless Violence, Heathern, Ambient, Terraplane, Elvissey, and then this one. Get all of them. Right now. All you have to do is push a few buttons, for Christ's sake. It's painless. Do it.

Womack's style is so unique, I might suggest re-reading each book upon completion. His "vernacular" is so compelling, I actually find myself emulating it in e-mails to my friends (and perhaps his prophetic truncated style of speaking is an extrapolation of "e-mail-speak"). This book (or any of the books in the series, for that matter) are not suggested reading for the optimistic sort. He has as bleak an outlook of post-apocolyptic Earth as any author I've read, yet his vision also seems to be the most realistic. His works reap the seeds that our society is presently sowing, and he does it with STYLE.

While our government was fooling around with MK Ultra, Womack's more perverse parallel universe finds an accelerated plan far more sinister, even if it isn't fully explained. No need! He leaves enough room for you to plug in your own worst fears.

Sadly, I picked up "Random Acts" for a buck at a book surplus store (It was also, incidentally, an ideal place to start the Ambient series). While it was a great value for me, I find it unfathomable that Womack isn't as widely accepted as Frank Herbert. His vision is just as lucid, and, like Herbert's "Dune" series, I envy anyone who gets to experience it for the first time themselves...