{"id":4661,"date":"2018-02-17T14:04:30","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T19:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.e357.net\/beingernest\/?p=4661"},"modified":"2018-05-01T12:42:47","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T16:42:47","slug":"patently-absurd-the-files-of-the-retropolis-registry-of-patents-by-bradley-w-schenck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/patently-absurd-the-files-of-the-retropolis-registry-of-patents-by-bradley-w-schenck\/","title":{"rendered":"Patently Absurd: The Files of the Retropolis Registry of Patents by Bradley W Schenck"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Patently<\/a>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\u00a0capable\u00a0of 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.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Radio Planet Books Paperback\u00a0 ISBN\/ITEM#: 0999650904<\/strong>
\n Date: 13 March 2018\u00a0 List Price $14.75<\/strong>
\n Amazon US<\/a>\u00a0\/ Author’s Blog<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0Kickstarter Campaign<\/a>\u00a0\/ SFRevu<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0GoodReads Review<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

With any luck, you\u2019re already familiar with Bradley W Schenck\u2019s terrific vision of a retro science fiction city, which he\u2019s aptly named \u201cRetropolis.\u201d It\u2019s full of rocket scooters, robots, feats of super-science, and plenty of mad scientists. It\u2019s like the places William Gibson channeled in his short story, \u201cThe Gernsback Continuum<\/em>,\u201d realized in glorious detail. But wait, there\u2019s more.<\/p>\n

Schenck isn\u2019t just a visionary illustrator, he equally at home telling the stories behind the images. In Patently Absurd<\/strong>, 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\u2019s real job, keeping an eye out for \u201cCode Reds,\u201d inventions that \u00a0could ruin your whole day. Things like the sun exploding, Earth\u2019e stopping it\u2019s rotation, weaponized whales revolting against humans (they do hold a grudge). Those sorts of things.<\/p>\n

Ben is assisted, by the Registar\u2019s exceptionally well-connected robot secretary, Violet. Or maybe it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The stories that make up Patently Absurd<\/strong> were almost all published individually on Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual (https:\/\/thrilling-tales.webomator.com\/<\/a>), which the author uses to post his stories. The last tale, The Enigma of the Unseen Doctor<\/em>, is previously unpublished.<\/p>\n

Patently Absurd<\/strong> may not be serious science fiction, but it\u2019s great stuff, and it\u2019s 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\u2019s fun.<\/p>\n

Though this collection completes a story arc, there\u2019s nothing stopping Schenck from adding more tales for a sequel, so here\u2019s hoping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4661"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4666,"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4661\/revisions\/4666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e357.net\/beingernest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}