Emperor Mollusk versus the Sinister Brain

January 23, 2012
With this flashy tale of alien invaders and an evil, time-hopping brain, Martinez (Chasing the Moon) delivers space opera straight out of the pulp era. Emperor Mollusk, benevolent ruler of Earth, has given up his old serial-conqueror lifestyle to settle down as “a de facto god” and “hero of Terra.” When assassins from the Celebrants of Oblivion come calling, he’s forced to take refuge at his stronghold on Dinosaur Island with Snarg, his loyal pet ultrapede, and weapon-toting Venusian commander Zala. Mollusk is pursued by the jar-inhabiting Brain, a villain bent on ruling the universe with the help of a brain gang called the Council of Egos. There’s not much plot to speak of, but killer plants, insane robots, and a dastardly plot to steal the Eiffel Tower provide plenty of slapstick action to entertain readers comfortable with the idea that nearly anything can be fixed by reversing the polarity. Agent: Sally Harding, the Cooke Agency.

February 15, 2012
More fantasy humor from the author of Chasing the Moon (2011, etc.). Lord Mollusk, a small, very smart, squid-like renegade Neptunon, grew bored with being Emperor of the solar system--he's enslaved the Earth for its own good, you see, by putting chemicals in the water, and defeated everybody else that annoyed him. He gets around using various hi-tech exoskeletons and uses a flying saucer--what else?--for transport. His only companion is his pet, Snarg, an indestructible, intensely loyal ultrapede. Retirement, however, is dull. Humans love him. He's solved the energy crisis and numerous other problems. Inventing dangerous super-weapons soon palled. He's not really that evil, so his options are limited. He can't even defeat himself--an attack by his own clone produced little stimulation. So when Zala, a reptilian Venusian warrior, arrives to arrest him for war crimes, he conscripts her as a bodyguard. Zala, however, announces a new threat to his life. Lord Mollusk ponders the list of possible offenders. Saturnites? Mercurials? He's defeated them all. The invincible assassins of a celebrated secret death cult? Well, possibly--but then, wouldn't he already be dead? (Those guys are good.) What about an ambitious newcomer, a brilliant, disembodied megalomaniac who's stolen Mollusk's own super-science? Interesting. How do you defeat an opponent that's built a machine to receive messages from the future telling him how to defeat you? Bland, and that's what this is, can be amusing but not funny--compare, for instance, the U.S. and U.K. versions of The Office. To elicit convulsive laughter requires a certain amount of acid, an admixture of pain, a willingness to give offense to make a point. Martinez doesn't have that sort of comedy killer instinct. Some chuckles, no guffaws.

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March 15, 2012

Once he was Warlord of the Earth, Conqueror of Other Worlds, and other titles too numerous to mention. Bored with the conquest routine, Emperor Mollusk has retired to live a "normal" life. But other forces in the universe have different ideas. Before long, Mollusk finds himself embroiled in a battle to stop a multitude of assassins sent after him and to prevent supervillain The Sinister Brain from unleashing a rule of terror on an unsuspecting world. VERDICT The author of Gil's All Fright Diner and The Automatic Detective brings his flair for outrageous humor, bad jokes, and plotting genius to his latest tale of a world in peril and a hero who rises to the occasion. Martinez fans and readers who love comic fantasy will welcome another glimpse into the mind of one of the genre's most gifted and imaginative writers.

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.