The Platypus of Doom & Other Nihilists — Arthur Byron Cover

NEBULA NOMINEE AUTHOR'S BRILLIANT, PROFOUND, ZANY, OFF-THE-WALL SF EXTRAVAGANZA!Unclassifiable, brilliant, takes weird to a whole new level! Highly recommended! -Goodreads 5-star reviewSPECIAL BONUS: Reprinted for the first time ever since its original 1973 appearance in the anthology Infinity Five, the first story set in the universe of God-like Men, IN BETWEEN THEN AND NOW.From the My Reader's Block review blog: The Platypus of Doom: This gigantic, bow-tie-wearing space monster can grant the winner of the great game* his or her heart's desire. Sounds great, right. Well, you know the old adage....Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. [*The great game appears to be ping pong, by the way :-) ]The Armadillo of Destruction: An immortal creature that feeds off the powerful negative energy of hate. He's often on the lookout for a new energy source--which always ends badly for the source. Leopold Janifer thinks he has found a way to beat the Armadillo's system. Is he right?The Aardvark of Despair: Can Davis, a mean-streets private eye who has been flung through a time vortex into the future, help Dr. Bishop and his family shake off the suicidal depression that the Aardvark instills in its victims?The Clam of Catastrophe: Will the Clam, the goddess of love, teach the first and most long-lived consulting detective to love and then turn it into disillusionment. Or will the detective find the solution the one of man's oldest problems?When you meet these monsters, never fear, for there are godlike men in this book to defeat them!There is, under the near-farcical trappings, an examination of such things as love, hate, motivation, and the meaning of existence itself. Cover manages to pose his questions with a light touch that offers food for though as well as entertaining stories. - My Reader's Block reviewsFour absolutely staggering novelettes, saucy and sharp and fun. Cover plays games that are worthy of Philip Jose Farmer (until it was proven otherwise, I thought that Cover *was* Farmer!) The Platypus, et al, are small-g gods, interfering, in an Euripdean fashion, with the fates of mankind. The stories have hidden depths and riddles that reward the effort of solving, but, mostly, they entertain. This is thoughtful stuff, but also highly readable. -Amazon verified reviewFor fans of Diskworld and Xanth!Cover image: Ron Miller; Design: Frankie Hill