The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad

Every closet geek and every secret Trekker should read this book, but so should everyone who enjoys a stylistic tour de force. The characters are unforgettable, the slang infectious (I'll be calling chumps "jimps" for the rest of my life), and the whole thing is just incredibly charming. People say _I'm_ blatantly Canadian, but Minister Faust takes Canuck SF to a whole new level. E-town, here I come!

I was not aware that Edmonton, Alberta features a vibrant black and immigrant community (my own poorly-traveled ignorance), and that's the setting for this riotous fantastical pop-cultural novel. Minster Faust gives us a fast-moving, brainmelting story populated by a wide variety of multicultural geeks and goons in E-Town. The events rotate around two excellent main characters, Hamza and Yehat, a moody writer and a brainy engineer respectively, who are down-and-out working dead-end jobs and reveling in a realm of comics, movies, sci-fi nerd TV, role-playing games, and all other forms of geekitude. The brokenhearted Hamza soon falls stoopid in love with the beautiful and mysterious Sherem, who claims to be an archeologist just returning from an expedition to Egypt where she learned about ancient languages and old African kingdoms, hence blowing poor Hamza's mind with exotic trivia. It turns out that Sherem wishes to recruit Hamza and train him, a la Obi Wan and Luke, to fight a millennia-old archeo-narcotic cannibalistic conspiracy. Faust's construction of this eviltacular nogoodnikery gets a little bit out of hand, and some dark passages in the build-up to the story's climax don't mix too well with the lovable humor of the rest of the novel. However, rest assured that Faust is a master of bodacious language, with a lot of heart and hipness and laughs, and his characters are uniformly fascinating. This especially applies to Sherem's true nature and the deep, complex friendship between Hamza and Yehat as the self-styled Coyote Kings. This has gotta be the most creative and offbeat debut novel to come along in a while. [~doomsdayer520~]

Finished 'Coyote Kings a few weeks ago and starting it again - FUN book. The initial attraction for me was that it was set in a city where I used to live coupled with a good review from Analog Magazine. Once I started reading and got into the book (and it was only a couple of pages to get hooked - it grabs you from the very beginning) I was bowled over by how appealing the characters were and what a fun read it was. It's a book with an extremely interesting narrative and the writer has strong descriptive ability-you really KNOW the characters and like them alot. After I finished reading it, I found that it was also named one of Sfsite.com's Best Reads of 2004, and deservedly so. Very pleasant read.

Bravo Minister Faust! This novel breaks through to a whole new genre of literature...Let me try: An amalgum of Noir, Sci-Fi, Anime...It leaves the door open and defies any ultimate 'wrapping ups' because it shines as a book so ingenious, so well written, so thoughtful, intelligent and compelling! I was fortunate to obtain a pre-release copy of Minister's book and by page 8 I was call'n people to give them a heads-up about a New Writer on the Horizon! By page 26 I was mass-emailing folks!:) Truly this work embodies everything you look for in a good read--and I must say the 500+ pp seemed daunting initially, but I was laughing and "Ahh-Haa-ing" so much by (again page 8), I began to consciously S-L-O-W-D-O-W-N so as to savor the gift of such original, insightful and truly entertaining reading! Beyond the obvious genius of Minister Faust's book, I was struck by the true life substance and (just as) true-life cleverness and wit and likeability of his main characters Yehat and Hamza. The story unfolds and you are rapt in the nucleus until it is O-vah! And I suspect its End is just the Beginning! Bravo! And thank you Minister, for making heroes out of people I could readily identify with today! You R.O.C.K. :)

Hamza Senesert has a BA in English lit, but uses it to wash dishes alongside of peers who cannot speak English. He does write poetry when the muse hits him so one can claim perhaps he is just a part-time slacker. His roommate Ulysses "Yehat" Gerbles shares much in common with Hamza as he too is a part-time loafer. Ye lazy bones earns bread clerking at a video store where he has developed a 5-L life taxonomy system based on his patrons as he enjoys inventing things. Hamza falls in love with Sherem, who he admits must have come out of one of those Mummy videos as she is an odd duck. She persuades her Coyote Kings (aside to those as lazy as our heroes - the royals are Hamza and Ye) to help her find and safeguard an ancient Egyptian relic with special properties. Their pals Kev and Heinz are also searching with the Kings, but they work for Sherem's enemy, who want to dine on Hamza's brain that possesses special prowess. THE COYOTE KINGS OF THE SPACE AGE BACHELOR PAD is a wild satirical tale that needs some time to understand what is going on even with the epilogue at the beginning at least until readers realize that they have no idea. The plot spins out of control yet with all that gyration, fans who appreciate a way out wacky tale will stay the course. Nothing is sacred as Minister Faust skews anything and everything through the antics of his likable idlers and the immediate support cast who usually bring out the worst in the royal slackers. Harriet Klausner