Black Hat Blues by Gene KendallMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This was one of the strangest books I’ve read this year. I loved The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe but, unfortunately, not this book. It was OK, since much of it reminded me of Douglas Adams’ style of writing. But I found most of it hard to understand probably because the comic book style plot and genre was something that I left behind some 50 or 60 years ago. For me the pace was breathless at times, especially the dialogue and, as a UK reader, there were too many USA idiosyncrasies. However, there was a lot to appeal to my sense of humour and expectation in the novel. There is a hero and a villain and thus plenty of ‘Good versus Evil’, and action involving different universes. Maybe there were a few too many stereotypical characters and situations, for me, in the story? That said, when an old ‘avant-garde’ cartoonist’s creations come to life and begin to influence his ‘real’ world then anything can happen – most of it does in this well-written tale. Black Hat Blues will appeal to fans of the comic book genre, even, probably, to those who were reading ‘Mad Magazine’ long ago as I did, but with a slightly less jaded outlook nowadays. Recommended.
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