The Quanderhorn Xperimentations
7th December 2024
After Reading a moderately dark novel I decided I needed something light, and so picked this off my shelves where it has been waiting a few months since I finally found it after years of looking.
I may have over-corrected.
This is an absurdist story set in the 66th 1952, where a mad professor has set up a ragtag crew to defend the planet against all sorts of wild threats.
It’s reminiscent of other science fiction novels based on radio series - Hitch-hiker’s and Red Dwarf (with the latter of which it shares a creator) - possibly because of the need to make every second sentence a joke. The characters also feel a bit Red Dwarf, being very simple one line explanations that turn into continuous comedy.
The plot seems surprisingly solid for the vast majority of the book, with even elements that seem throwaway or out of the blue turning out to be building up to something. Spoiler alert though that ultimately what it leads to is a total anticlimax and the feeling that the authors couldn’t be bothered to write a final chapter.
I think overall it was sillier than I was looking for, and although m glad I finally got to it, I’m not going to miss these characters or the world.