An Old Book

A few years ago, I used to live near a store that sold used paperbacks for half the cover price. I picked up quite a few good books there, like my collection of Fu Manchu books. I also picked up a few pieces of total crap, like Planet of the GAWFS, which is one of the worst books I've ever read, or The Monodyne Catastrophe, which I couldn't get any farther into that the first chapter before I got bored. There are a few others though, that for one reason or another I just never got around to reading. One of those was Found Wanting by Lin Carter.

This is one very strange book. There's this guy named Kyon who wakes up in the futuristic city of Urbs. He can't remember anything about his past. He had all kinds of strange adventures: getting rescued by squid like things, nearly eaten by severed stone heads, becoming a magician's assistant, getting arrested for breaking and entering, etc.

While that may sound interesting--and it is--the over all plot is somewhat predictable. For instance, all of the characters are referred to as "he." Eventually, Kyon meets someone named Auren. For some reason, nobody else seems to like "him." Not surprisingly, it turns out that Aruen is female, and every male has been programmed to not like females. This, along with ensuring no one goes through puberty, is to prevent over crowding. I had it figured out as soon as Auren was introduced.

All in all, while the overall plot is a bit predictable, this is still a good book, but since it's out of print, it might be hard to get. Still, Amazon has a few used copies for sale, and I give it 4 yo-yos.