Demon Clown Baby

If you haven’t read The Man Who Folded Himself, by David Gerrold, it’s worth checking out. It’s probably the definitive time travel novel. I don’t agree with everything in it, it’s pro-homosexuality and anti-christianity, but since most of society these days is anyway, I see no reason to let that stop me.

It’s a first person story of a young man named Dan that receives a timebelt as his inheritance. He can travel to any period in history, which he does, but the primary use to which it is put is to go back in time, or forward, and socialize with alternate versions of himself. He is therefore almost the only character in the entire book.

It’s a quick read, but thought-provoking, and if you have trouble enjoying other time travel stories, this might be for you. At last, time travel done in a non-paradoxical and non-stupid way, most especially it is nothing like the schlocky tv and film time-travel that most people seem to think is what science fiction is about.

David Gerrold wrote The Trouble with Tribbles, a famous Star Trek episode, and I used to hang out on his CompuServe forum quite a bit back in the day, before unchecked prejudice from other forum members drove me from it.

I had checked out the book at the library because it was out of print. It’s in print now, and I just got a copy, hence the review. Now I eagerly await the 3rd Star Wolf novel, also by Gerrold.