Ahem. Enough name-dropping...except to mention that this, along with The Kruton Interface, was a book that I bought mostly because of DeChancie's inimitable net-personality(and I'm told he's not that different in real life), since I didn't care much for Castle Perilous when I read it a few years ago.
This one clicked a lot better than Kruton. Perhaps because it hadn't started out as a stage play, perhaps because of Bischoff's participation...
The book is intended as a spoof on old 30's pulp serials. (If you have any doubt, the book ends TO BE CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT THRILLING INSTALLMENT!!!!!) Not having read many of these, I have to judge it mostly on its own merits. It's still pretty funny.
Dr. Demopoulous is a scientist years ahead of his time, with a Groucho Marx-like wit, a 'big lug' of a lab assistant named Troy Talbot, a well-endowed assistant named Diane Derry(Warning: Much Sexist Humour Concerning Feminine Body Parts). Dr. Vivian Vernon, his rival, and Geoffrey Wussman, the department head, are out to see his funding cut...until he actually gets his time-space machine working, and send them hurtling off into the middle of a war between alien races like the Dharvans and the Asperans(not to mention the Quaaleuds)...
Not exactly a laugh a minute, especially when they keep trying to advance the plot, but it will keep you reading. The Firesign Theatre would probably do a splendid job of it, although it may be a bit low-key for them...
I'm waiting for the NEXT THRILLING INSTALLMENT!!!!!
%A DeChancie, John
%A Bischoff, David
%T Dr. Dimension
%I Penguin/New American Library/Roc
%C New York
%D June 1993
%G ISBN 0-451-45252-6
%P 284 pp.
%O Paperback, US$4.99, Can$5.99
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The Den of Ubiquity / Aaron V. Humphrey / alfvaen@gmail.com