Feb 22
Tracy Comments: I never would have read this book if the cover hadn’t been ripped off. H. P. Lovecraft goes to Australia.
Published 1976
Tracy Comments: I never would have read this book if the cover hadn’t been ripped off. H. P. Lovecraft goes to Australia.
Published 1976
February 22nd, 2017 at 12:15 pm
“Howard you like to paint a cover about a talking duck… billed platypus?”
February 22nd, 2017 at 12:42 pm
The Other Nihilists, I assume, are the Kangaroo of Chaos and the Dingo That Ate My Baby!
February 22nd, 2017 at 1:13 pm
@Bibliomancer, Also the Emo Emu, and the Cassowary of utter destruction.
February 22nd, 2017 at 1:52 pm
The Australian version of Steve Gerber’s Howard the Duck?
February 22nd, 2017 at 1:54 pm
In space, no one can hear you quack.
Do platypuses quack?
February 22nd, 2017 at 2:01 pm
If these nihilists don’t say ‘ni’ then it isn’t zany.
February 22nd, 2017 at 2:12 pm
Points for Mr. Adams, he did put the poisonous spurs on the hind feet.
February 22nd, 2017 at 2:19 pm
@Dead Stuff, yeah, but he loses points for putting 2 spurs (the male has only one spur located on the back left leg), also Platypodes do not have a bottom bill, under the top bill is a mouth.
Still I guess if you’re a Platypus of doom you can be as biologically incorrect as you like. Probably one of the perks of the job. 🙂
February 22nd, 2017 at 2:24 pm
Check out the subtle details of the Ellison blurb. He’s only quoted for the words “fresh, invigorating talent.” He’s probably not even referring to this book.
February 22nd, 2017 at 2:59 pm
It’s 2 AM in Australia. Looking forward to our GSS Aussie mates chiming in on this in a few hours.
February 22nd, 2017 at 3:10 pm
@B. Chiclitz – When it comes to blurb writing, this is how I roll!
February 22nd, 2017 at 4:29 pm
In a Sydney suburb some men stride into the Duderino’s bathroom, take a platypus off its leash and throw it in his bathtub. “We’re nihilists cobber. We couldn’t give a xxxx about anything.”
February 22nd, 2017 at 4:52 pm
After Dr Doofenschmirtz renounced evil at the end of ‘Phineas and Ferb’ there had to be a karmic realignment among the monotreme secret agent community.
(In case you missed the last decade https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSCKrDP7TLI )
February 22nd, 2017 at 4:55 pm
Re. Tracy’s comment: dunno about Lovecraft, but… https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/gene-deweese/charles-fort-never-mentioned-wombats.htm
February 22nd, 2017 at 4:59 pm
Is the platypus a distant relative of Donald Duck, by any chance? Because he looks familiar.
February 22nd, 2017 at 5:12 pm
Hey, I just noticed—it’s an Arthur Byron cover!
February 22nd, 2017 at 5:14 pm
@RayP: In a Sydney suburb, some platypi stride into the Macca’s bathroom, take a yobbo off its leash and throw it in the sink. ‘We’re nihilists, ya bogan. We couldn’t give a xxxx about anything.’
February 22nd, 2017 at 11:35 pm
If you were an aquatic monotreme and suddenly found yourself IN SPACE, you might be likely to become a nihilist, and doom-y.
Still no excuse for the polka dotted bowtie.
Also, big ups to Tag Wizard for our new “Platypus!” tag to go with “Unicorns!”
February 23rd, 2017 at 6:07 pm
The other creatures were the Armadillo of Destruction, the Aardvark of Despair, and the (I kid you not) The Clam of Catastrophe, who was female. I actually liked the book… it was imaginative, flip, and wisecracky, in a college-kid way.
February 24th, 2017 at 3:55 am
For something more euphonious, try googling the ‘demon duck of doom’, Bullockornis; it’s more the right size and still Australian.
I have to point out, unfortunately for the joke, that it’s a MONOtreme.
February 25th, 2017 at 3:28 pm
Is the Platypus supposed to be menacing the viewer with doom? It looks more distressed to me…like it’s realized there’s gravity and it’s doomed to fall.
Then again, I have to give it some sort of credit if it can make me “shudder, laugh, and think twice” all at the same time. (See top blurb) Maybe that explains the expression on its face, if it’s doing all that, too.
February 25th, 2017 at 6:12 pm
The pose is familiar: does it have the size-to-strength ratio of a platypus?
February 25th, 2017 at 6:49 pm
@Tat: African or European?
February 27th, 2017 at 7:58 am
@HB: Indeed, we might be looking upwards, wherein we see the spaceship and a plummeting Platypus!, which if it lands upon you would be your doom. The expression on its face looks like it’s already falling. Maybe it was kicked out of the spaceship/flying car sans parachute — the background could just as easily be clouds in a dark blue sky.
February 27th, 2017 at 8:57 am
Why this vehement anti-platypus bias? Just because SOME platypuses are nihilist doesn’t mean all of them are. If you’re not careful, a Twitter mob might accuse GSS of hating all ducks.
(Yes, I know the platypus isn’t technically a “duck” but logic has never stopped a Twitter mob before…),
February 28th, 2017 at 12:46 pm
@A.R.Yngve. Ah, but by conflating platypi with waterfowl YOU have become part of the problem. No wonder these magnificent monotremes have sunk into nihilism!
#DuckbillsArentDucks #MonotremesNotMallards #PlatypusErasure
March 1st, 2017 at 9:58 am
#GoodShowSirRules
🙂
June 4th, 2017 at 9:09 pm
Conventional wisdom among scientists I know is that the platypus is the only poisonous mammal. This is not true: Hatian solenodons, water shrews, short-tailed shrews, slow lorises and vampire bats are also poisonous, and one species of hedgehog may be. Source: Nekaris et al., Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins including Tropical Diseases, 2013, 19:21 pp. 1-10.
So, now you know.