Book Review: Shaggy Planet

A Fair Trade Book

Happy Halloween, Gentle Readers! If this book isn't very scarey, at least it is full of unusual costume ideas...

Title: Shaggy Planet

Author: Ron Goulart

Date: 1973

Publisher: Magnum

ISBN: none

Length: 175 pages

Quote: “'Our Peluda government is working night and day to move you wretched people out of potential war zones, and all you do is complain.' 'As a matter of fact,' said the woman, 'you didn't even reunite me with the right husband. But the one you found is better.'”

That's one of the many throwaway lines in this ridiculous novel. If it's a shaggy-dog story, well, the title warned you. 

Peluda (“furry, fuzzy, shaggy”) is a space colony experimenting with a big totalitarian government that helps people, and not getting the experiment right. Agent Peter Torres is called in to investigate the disappearance of a government official, which coincides with a sudden up-surge in the population of a native species called hummels that look like shaggy dogs.

There's not much science in this fiction; it's a space spy story with talking robots, weird weapons including sprays that can turn a specific target into a member of a different species, and incompetent bureaucrats. Torres continually uses his enemies' competence against them and is continually frustrated by his allies' incompetence. It's funny if you're able to suspend disbelief long enough and pay attention, which I have to admit I found difficult.

If, on the other hand, you choose to read it as satire rather than either science or suspense, then it becomes as hilarious as the blurb writers promise...and although the targets of satire were relevant in 1973, I found them no less relevant in 2013. 

The author known as Ron Goulart (among other names) is still living, although retired, so Shaggy Planet is a Fair Trade Book. You can buy it here for $5 per book plus $5 per package plus $1 per online payment. (You'll probably see prices below $5 on Amazon, but if you add the eight or ten more books of this size that will fit into a $5 package, you'll start cleaning up on shipping charges.) Upon receipt of a money order for $10 (plus $5 for each additional book in the package) by Boxholder, P.O. Box 322, or Paypal payment of $11 (plus $5 for each additional book in the package) at the address you get by e-mailing this web site's published e-mail address that you're interested in Shaggy Planet, we'll send $1 per book (by him) to Goulart or a charity of his choice. In addition to browsing this web site for more Fair Trade Books (click on "A FAIR TRADE BOOK" at the bottom of this post) you might want to check the Wikipedia entry for Goulart's other pen names and publications--he was quite a prolific writer. 

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