Order of the Golden Sprout The New Robert Rankin Fan Club

Well written, but over-long. 2009-07-17

Reviewer: Behan

A sensual, maddening sci-fi saga set in the jungle. It's a story about a war of psychic powers - which is dumb, but no dumber than the usual betentacled aliens and dogfights in space. It's a story of drugs, madness and intrigue set both the jungles of Guatemala and the jungle of the human mind. It's an odd, rambling, and ultimately unsatisfying tale which tries to cover too much ground and turns weirder with each chapter: I made it to the end, but the rewards diminished as the pages flipped by. However, it's still a worthwhile read for those who like parrots, paranoia and purple prose. Like "Heart of Darkness" it's better read sitting sweaty in a too-hot bath under the shade of a potted cheeseplant, so you can nearly hear the croaking tree frogs and buzzing jungle flies. Now and again, there's a gem of a short story shining in the collage of exotic foliage, or maybe just a treat of writer's self indulgence, like the melvillesque, page-long sentence when the hero has his first vision of the fleshpots of the future California. Might appeal to fans of Ballard's "Drowned World".

Lacks discipline, structure, or revelation -- avoid 2006-06-27

Reviewer: gigidunnit

I would like to be able to recommend this book, but after struggling through its enormous, tedious and inconsequential length, I was left merely disappointed. I couldn't figure out what Shepard intended to write, and whatever it was, he didn't pull it off. I would advise you to approach this book with caution, even if, like me, you've reached the point where you'll buy anything released in the SF Masterworks series just to keep your (cruelly numbered) collection complete.

I'm not certain this is SF at all. It has some SF motifs, but Shepard seems uncomfortable with them. There is a vague and undeveloped undercurrent of psychic powers, including telepathy and the ability to project emotions on other people. In its way, very "The Chrysalids". But Shepard explains them by claiming there's a psychic war (Angela Carter's "Infernal Desire Machines Of Dr Hoffmann" comes to mind), centuries old, waging between two feuding families in South America, their powers fuelled by a certain unknown psychotropic plant (so we're now in Philip K Dick/William Burroughs territory), using the rest of the world as a stage on which to enact their vengeances (er...Blue Oyster Cult?).

Shepard seems far more comfortable during the passages when writes a simple "journey into the heart of darkness" novel, equal parts Joseph Conrad (purportedly the novelist's main influence) and, most pointedly, its reimagining as "Apocalypse Now". There's even a boat journey up a jungle river, past burning villages, crashed bombers and such. The novel takes place during a South American war which is just another refraction of Vietnam. At times, Shepard veers (with some awkwardness) into satire, recalling "MASH" and "Catch 22". Elsewhere, there's some embarrassing fantasy (a man who can control swarms of butterflies), ill-considered sci-fi cliches (a computer that thinks it is god) and far, far too much explicit purple prose which definitely should get Shepard a "worst sex in a novel" award. With all this schizophrenia, it's hard to get a handle on what the book is actually supposed to be about.

It seems to me that this novel outgrew its original source, which was a short story called "R&R" that forms the first 100 pages or so of the book. It's an effective, self-contained story about a jaded, battle-scarred soldier grasping at meaning and recuperation in a hellish jungle village. There's absolutely no SF in this at all. It does look like Shepard wanted to expand the story into a novel, but didn't know how, and so we got this mishmash of styles and a story which, frankly, doesn't go anywhere.

So I kept plodding through the book, hoping that Shepard would tie everything together somehow at the end, given that I believed he was capable of it (or I would have given up long since). But he never did, and I was left annoyed by the time I'd wasted on this wild goose chase. If I was being creditable, or a publisher that wanted to justify a weak novel, I'd claim that this was the point. But I don't think that's the case at all. I think it was a novel that ran away with itself and didn't know where it was going. A shame.

uhmmm...hm... 2000-02-09

Reviewer:

A very difficult book to rate...It starts very slowly, and is rather hard going in the beginning. The same with the end, with is for me a bit disappointing because of the absolutely grand middle section. Shepard's speciality, erotic descriptions (have you read "The Golden"? Oh my god, it should be x-rated !), are really class. The mixture of reality and drug hallucinations is fantastic, as is the explanation of why there is war on earth. Well... I cannot say this book is excellent, but the middle section definitely is (read the beginning and the end, or you won't get it...).