Venus on the Half-Shell

Book excerpt: Disaster sends a man across the universe in search of answers to life’s big questions in this humorous classic adventure by a Science Fiction Grand Master. When a massive flood wipes out Earth and spoils his date, lone survivor Simon Wagstaff finds refuge in an abandoned Chinese spaceship, the Hwang Ho. Accompanied by three new companions—a dog, an owl, and a beautiful robot—and his electric banjo, Wagstaff sets off on an extraterrestrial adventure. He travels from planet to planet, seeking the definitive answer to the ultimate question: Why are we created if only to suffer and die? Of course, after he drinks an elixir granting him eternal life, the real question is what to do for the rest of eternity after he answers his first question . . . “Lively and inventive and goes by faster than a holiday weekend.” —The Washington Post “A comedy of sexual mores, an investigative search for Love, a lampoon of people who require answers to imponderable questions.” —Science Fiction Review “Not only a science-fiction epic of the most incredible proportions, but it is also a satiric-fantasy, a clever parody of its own genre.” —The Daily Eastern News