The Secret of Life
by Rudy Rucker
A 60s college student learns he’s a saucer alien in this hilariously intelligent tale of adolescent angst and romance from Rudy Rucker.
Conrad Bunger is one of those wild guys you think won’t make it to legal drinking age. But, thanks to the strange powers he manifests in times of crisis—he can change his face, shrink to the size of a thumb, fly around the Eiffel tower, and hand out joints to everyone at the student assembly—not even the most ghastly mishaps interrupt his quest for visions, beer, and love.
Gradually, Conrad awakens to his true identity as an energy being from outer space. As if he hadn’t suspected it all along. Now, as he faces his true nature, he learns his ordained purpose: to proceed incognito and to reach the ultimate prize—the Secret of Life.
Problem is, he’s having too much fun to keep it together. Even with the government out to kill him . . .
Night Shade Books’ ten-volume series with Rudy Rucker collects nine of the brilliantly weird novels for which the mathematician-turned-author is known, as well as a tenth, never-before-published book, Million Mile Road Trip. We’re proud to collect in one place so much of the work of this influential figure in the early cyberpunk scene, and to share Rucker’s fascinating, unique worldview with an entirely new generation of readers.
Conrad Bunger is one of those wild guys you think won’t make it to legal drinking age. But, thanks to the strange powers he manifests in times of crisis—he can change his face, shrink to the size of a thumb, fly around the Eiffel tower, and hand out joints to everyone at the student assembly—not even the most ghastly mishaps interrupt his quest for visions, beer, and love.
Gradually, Conrad awakens to his true identity as an energy being from outer space. As if he hadn’t suspected it all along. Now, as he faces his true nature, he learns his ordained purpose: to proceed incognito and to reach the ultimate prize—the Secret of Life.
Problem is, he’s having too much fun to keep it together. Even with the government out to kill him . . .
Night Shade Books’ ten-volume series with Rudy Rucker collects nine of the brilliantly weird novels for which the mathematician-turned-author is known, as well as a tenth, never-before-published book, Million Mile Road Trip. We’re proud to collect in one place so much of the work of this influential figure in the early cyberpunk scene, and to share Rucker’s fascinating, unique worldview with an entirely new generation of readers.
FictionScience FictionCyberpunkHard Science FictionAlien ContactHumorous
RELEASED2019
PUBLISHERNight Shade
LENGTH288
LANGUAGEEN
Rudolf "Rudy" von Bitter Rucker is a writer and a mathematician who worked for twenty years as a Silicon Valley computer science professor, and published a number of software packages. Rucker is regarded as contemporary master of science-fiction, and received the Philip K. Dick award twice. His forty published books include novels, collections, and non-fiction books on the fourth dimension, infinity, and the meaning of computation. A founder of the cyberpunk school of science-fiction, Rucker also writes SF in a realistic style known as transrealism. His 2006 *Mathematicians in Love* was an example of a transreal novel. His early cyberpunk four-book series was republished in 2010 as *The Ware Tetralogy*. Rucker’s 2007 novel, *Postsingular* was something of a return to the cyberpunk style, as was the 2009 sequel, *Hylozoic*, in which every object on Earth comes to life. Rucker’s autobiography, *Nested Scrolls*, appeared in 2011. Recent novels include *Turing & Burroughs*, *Return to the Hollow Earth*, and *Million Mile Road Trip*. [(Source)][1] [1]: https://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/about/
The Secret of Life
by Rudy Rucker
A 60s college student learns he’s a saucer alien in this hilariously intelligent tale of adolescent angst and romance from Rudy Rucker.
Conrad Bunger is one of those wild guys you think won’t make it to legal drinking age. But, thanks to the strange powers he manifests in times of crisis—he can change his face, shrink to the size of a thumb, fly around the Eiffel tower, and hand out joints to everyone at the student assembly—not even the most ghastly mishaps interrupt his quest for visions, beer, and love.
Gradually, Conrad awakens to his true identity as an energy being from outer space. As if he hadn’t suspected it all along. Now, as he faces his true nature, he learns his ordained purpose: to proceed incognito and to reach the ultimate prize—the Secret of Life.
Problem is, he’s having too much fun to keep it together. Even with the government out to kill him . . .
Night Shade Books’ ten-volume series with Rudy Rucker collects nine of the brilliantly weird novels for which the mathematician-turned-author is known, as well as a tenth, never-before-published book, Million Mile Road Trip. We’re proud to collect in one place so much of the work of this influential figure in the early cyberpunk scene, and to share Rucker’s fascinating, unique worldview with an entirely new generation of readers.
Conrad Bunger is one of those wild guys you think won’t make it to legal drinking age. But, thanks to the strange powers he manifests in times of crisis—he can change his face, shrink to the size of a thumb, fly around the Eiffel tower, and hand out joints to everyone at the student assembly—not even the most ghastly mishaps interrupt his quest for visions, beer, and love.
Gradually, Conrad awakens to his true identity as an energy being from outer space. As if he hadn’t suspected it all along. Now, as he faces his true nature, he learns his ordained purpose: to proceed incognito and to reach the ultimate prize—the Secret of Life.
Problem is, he’s having too much fun to keep it together. Even with the government out to kill him . . .
Night Shade Books’ ten-volume series with Rudy Rucker collects nine of the brilliantly weird novels for which the mathematician-turned-author is known, as well as a tenth, never-before-published book, Million Mile Road Trip. We’re proud to collect in one place so much of the work of this influential figure in the early cyberpunk scene, and to share Rucker’s fascinating, unique worldview with an entirely new generation of readers.
FictionScience FictionCyberpunkHard Science FictionAlien ContactHumorousSpace ExplorationTime Travel
RELEASED2019
PUBLISHERNight Shade
LENGTH288
LANGUAGEEN
Rudolf "Rudy" von Bitter Rucker is a writer and a mathematician who worked for twenty years as a Silicon Valley computer science professor, and published a number of software packages. Rucker is regarded as contemporary master of science-fiction, and received the Philip K. Dick award twice. His forty published books include novels, collections, and non-fiction books on the fourth dimension, infinity, and the meaning of computation. A founder of the cyberpunk school of science-fiction, Rucker also writes SF in a realistic style known as transrealism. His 2006 *Mathematicians in Love* was an example of a transreal novel. His early cyberpunk four-book series was republished in 2010 as *The Ware Tetralogy*. Rucker’s 2007 novel, *Postsingular* was something of a return to the cyberpunk style, as was the 2009 sequel, *Hylozoic*, in which every object on Earth comes to life. Rucker’s autobiography, *Nested Scrolls*, appeared in 2011. Recent novels include *Turing & Burroughs*, *Return to the Hollow Earth*, and *Million Mile Road Trip*. [(Source)][1] [1]: https://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/about/
