Patently Absurd is the most fun I’ve had since they took away my rocket scooter. Written and illustrated by Bradley W Schenck, it’s a series of short stories chronicling the adventures of Retropolis Patent Inspector Ben Bowman and his robotic associate Violet as they strive to a) keep the super-sience zoned to the Research District within bounds, and b) to get the new Registrar, of which there’s one approximately every chapter, to get Violet out of her position as secretary and where her talents can do some good, as an inspector. You’ll love the retro world that Schenck has created, both in glorious images and thrilling tales that are more than capable of holding up their end. The illustrations are both front plate and accompaniment to the text, and you’ll discover how much you missed this combination, which I haven’t seen since the YA days of Tom Swift Jr.
Radio Planet Books Paperback ISBN/ITEM#: 0999650904
Date: 13 March 2018 List Price $14.75
Amazon US / Author’s Blog / Kickstarter Campaign / SFRevu / GoodReads Review
With any luck, you’re already familiar with Bradley W Schenck’s terrific vision of a retro science fiction city, which he’s aptly named “Retropolis.” It’s full of rocket scooters, robots, feats of super-science, and plenty of mad scientists. It’s like the places William Gibson channeled in his short story, “The Gernsback Continuum,” realized in glorious detail. But wait, there’s more.
Schenck isn’t just a visionary illustrator, he equally at home telling the stories behind the images. In Patently Absurd, we follow patent inspector Ben Bowman as he does both the overt mission of the Registry, issuing patents to the mostly mad scientists that create the super-science that fuels Retropolis, while taking care of it’s real job, keeping an eye out for “Code Reds,” inventions that could ruin your whole day. Things like the sun exploding, Earth’e stopping it’s rotation, weaponized whales revolting against humans (they do hold a grudge). Those sorts of things.
Ben is assisted, by the Registar’s exceptionally well-connected robot secretary, Violet. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Violet would really like to move up from her desk job to become an actual investigator, a job she seems more than suited for, but somehow a long string of Registrars have refused to to promote her. Oddly they never stay in the job long before they retire, transfer, or just plain disappear.
The stories that make up Patently Absurd were almost all published individually on Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual (https://thrilling-tales.webomator.com/), which the author uses to post his stories. The last tale, The Enigma of the Unseen Doctor, is previously unpublished.
Patently Absurd may not be serious science fiction, but it’s great stuff, and it’s stuffed with the tropes that made the pulp era pulsate like a mutant alien squid, albeit with a nod towards modern sensibilities. Maybe, in its own way, it is serious science fiction, camouflaged as whimsy. No matter what you decide to call it, it’s fun.
Though this collection completes a story arc, there’s nothing stopping Schenck from adding more tales for a sequel, so here’s hoping.