Outrageous Fortune

This is actually a really good book. It started off really quirky and exciting with tons of psychotic things happening to keep your attention. However, towards the middle of the book I began to wonder if all the craziness was going anywhere and seriously considered not completing the book. But I felt the ending was definitely worth it. Other reviews were disappointed in the ending but I thought it was great. Also, the part where he goes into his lecture about knowing who you are was the point of the whole book! It was essential! I loved it!

I had a great time reading this. It is worth it, despite the relatively pathetic ending. Many of the ideas made me laugh out loud, and anyone who has been burgled will sympathize with the phone number on the card left at the scene- 1-800-AARRGHH! The four horsemen were fairly useless, and taking them out would have helped the novel, I think. Otherwise, a very good beginning to what I hope is a prolific career.

Johnny X, dream architect, is not having a good day. Not only is he experiencing the mother of all hangovers, got into a terrible fight with his girlfriend, but he shows up where his house is supposed to be, only to find out it's been stolen. The only thing the thieves left him was a card. It says: "Don't you hate it when this happens?" and has a number. As if this isn't bad enough, an encyclopedia saleswoman shows up and tries to sell Johnny a set. She's a limpet salesman and just won't take no for an answer. And so we follow Johnny as he tries to unravel what has become of his life. He even turns to his friends for help; surfer Mat and techno-geek Tad do the best they can to help him, but Johnny is convinced the whole mess has something to do with his job and his boss, Habakkuk. Will Johnny ever find his house again? His life? Who are the four motorcycle riders after him? For a debut novel, OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE is pure genius! Author Tim Scott takes us for a ride we will never forget as we travel with Johnny as he unravels what has happened to him. The world building in this story is fantastic. Never overwhelming, but always just enough to keep me enthralled with the story and able to keep up with the talking elevators, Skin Media and Jab Tabs. The action is nonstop from the first page and just doesn't let up. All these characters are unbelievably richly portrayed. I loved the musically themed housing. The ending took me totally by surprise and really makes the story. This is one you don't want to miss!

"Outrageous Fortune" is a work of absurdist science fiction comedy, in the hallowed tradition of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. It's a hard genre to pull off. There is a fine line between successful bizarre comedy and painfully lame silliness, and it takes a deft hand to make it work. I'm happy to report that Scott succeeds, at least 90% of the time. The story is set in the not too distant future. The narrator, Jonny X67, is having a Very Bad Day. His house has been stolen, he is being chased for unknown reasons by the self-styled Four Bikers of the Apocalypse, as well as being stalked by a very persistent Encyclopedia saleswoman. If it sounds confusing, well, it's supposed to be; that's where the funny comes from. A bewildered Jonny sets off on a mapcap race through a deranged urban landscape, trying to determine, between trips to the bar, what the heck is really going on. I especially enjoyed Jonny's trip to the Zone Traffic Police headquarters. His struggles with the monolithic, inhuman, yet basically inept bureaucracy is like a scene from the movie "Brazil;" it is both absurd and frightening at the same time. The book is flat-out funny; I giggled and snorted throughout. Scott is a clever writer with a light, wry touch. Though reminiscent of Douglas Adams, Scott has a style of his own. Sure, there are joke-telling elevators and a hangout called The Most Inconvenient Bar in the World. But Scott is less heavy-handed than Adams, and can at times be poignant and even moving. And the opening line is a classic. The only real disappointment was the ending. Having bought into the ridiculousness of Scott's world for 300 pages, we suddenly find out it all has a neat, rational explanation. It was contrived, I thought, and something of a cop-out. So, subtracting a star for the ending, we're still left with a 4-star read filled with originality and wit. Enjoy!

Custom made dream designer Jonny X67 comes home from work only to find his house gone and a business card in its place. The thief apparently left him a sympathetic note: "Don't you hate it when this happens" and a phone number. The empathic cop informs Mr. X that since he had not seen a psychiatrist lately, he will wear an Odysseus Hat to insure health and safety; X knows that cannot include him as part of health and safety. The dream architect figures nothing could get worse, but a motorcycle gang try to kill him as a test run of their strategic objective to kill God. More assaults occur with the worst being Caroline E61, a tenacious angel, using a helicopter to come from heaven demanding he buy her encyclopedia. Feeling like Job from biblical fame, X wonders why him and soon begins to postulate that his work on the Dream Virus Project to link dreams to DNA is the answer, but he needs to know how to extract himself with Big Brother watching him and the forces of good and evil ganging up on him but that remains just outside his scope. OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE paints a zany future as Tim Scott brings humor and more darkness to Orwell's bleak future. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Mr. X deals with the bureaucracy following the theft of his house. The tale never slows down until the final delightful somewhat rushed twist. Fans of wild witty satires will appreciate this amusing futuristic spin. Harriet Klausner