Psycho Shop
Psycho Shop is a book written by Alfred Bester & Roger Zelazny. The book was published in 2013 and is listed under the Fiction category. For readers who want to quickly understand what this title offers, this page gives a clear overview of the book, including its description, author information, page count, ratings, and ISBN details.
The full title of the book is Psycho Shop. When available, the subtitle is , which gives extra context about the theme, focus, or main idea behind the book. According to the available description, “A dark acid curio, brisk, fast, memorable, a rare improvisational duet from two of our best.”—Greg Bear “Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction.” —Harry Harrison, author of Adventures of the Stanless Steel Rat “Let there be light, and let there always be Roger Zelazny.”—Philip José Farmer, author of To Your Scattered Bodies Go From Publishers Weekly: This odd novel, left incomplete when Bester died in 1987, was finished by Zelazny, who himself died in 1995. In his introduction, Bear refers to Bester (The Deceivers) and Zelazny (Donnerjack) as masters of SF jazz, geniuses of improvisation, and the book has that feel to it. The plot is full of bizarre twists and turns. Neat ideas surface and disappear in an eyeblink and characters transform radically from one page to the next. Alf Noir, an investigative reporter, is sent to Rome to look into the mysterious Black Place of the Soul-Changer and its enigmatic proprietor, Adam Maser. Alf discovers that Maser is a Psychbroker, a sort of pawnbroker of the spirit, dealing in emotions, talents and psychological traits. Want more courage, the ability to see into the infrared, an understanding of ancient Persian? Maser will trade it to you for your mind-reading ability, or a rare coin, or perhaps for the secret of the collective unconscious. Alf discovers that Maser isn’t human, but a highly evolved cat from the far future. Nothing is what it seems and no one can be trusted, not even Maser’s sexy assistant, an evolved snake with whom Alf has an affair. There’s much fun to be had here, but the book doesn’t represent either writer in top form. Bester’s style in the first part of the novel seems dated, and things don’t gel until Zelazny takes over halfway through the book. Vintage has brought Bester’s finest work back into print, and for this it deserves praise, but this novel is most likely to appeal to Zelazny’s much larger readership.
This book has 207 pages, making it useful for readers who want to know the approximate length before starting. It has an average rating of 3.6, based on 727 ratings, which can help readers understand how other people have responded to it.
For cataloging and reference purposes, the ISBN-13 is 9780679767824, while the ISBN-10 is 0679767827. These numbers are helpful when searching for the exact edition of the book online, in libraries, or in bookstores.
The book cover image can be viewed here: http://books.google.com/books/content?id=X9OCDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&source=gbs_api.
Overall, Psycho Shop by Alfred Bester & Roger Zelazny is a title that may interest readers looking for books in Fiction. Whether you are researching new books, comparing editions, or building a reading list, this page gives you the most important details in one place.
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