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Members Reviews Popularity Average rating Mentions 11 56, 3. Add to Your books. Recently added by Maria-Doherty , monkeybrother , annarenas23 , JanetNoRules , datrappert , andrlik , reenum , SleepySheep , doodlebug Books with Noble Titles No current Talk conversations about this book. Mind numbingly pointless office that may be hell; zombies crawling in the ceiling; human sacrifice; lots more zombies crawling around in tunnels, all in office attire; a romance; a mystery; a ghost cat; an over the top battle.
JanetNoRules Sep 17, After watching Hynes' excellent writing course from the Teaching Company, I decided I should read one of his novels. I have a vague memory of there being creatures under his office building? JenneB Apr 2, Those familiar with Hynes's academic horror-satires won't be completely disappointed. I really have no idea what book the other reviewers read. You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data. International Horror Guild Nominee Novel, Not to go on all-Fours; that is the Law.
Are we not Men? Not to suck up Drink; that is the Law. Not to eat Flesh or Fish; that is the Law. Not to claw Bark of Trees; that is the Law. Not to chase other Men; that is the Law. Wells, The Island of Dr. To Mike and Tom a couple of hardworking guys. One brutally hot summer's morning, Paul Trilby -- ex-husband, temp typist, cat murderer -- slouched sweating in his t-shirt on his way to work, waiting behind the wheel of his car for the longest red light in central Texas. References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English None.
If he were to be honest with himself, Paul Trilby would have to admit that he's having a bad life. His wife left him. Three subsequent girlfriends left him. He's fallen from a top-notch university teaching job, to a textbook publisher, to, eventually, working as a temp writer for the Texas Department of General Services. And even here, in this land of carpeted partitions and cheap lighting fixtures, Paul cannot escape the curse his life has become.
FICTION TITLES SET IN THE WORKPLACE:
For it is not until he begins a tentative romance with the office's sassy mail girl that he begins to notice things are truly wrong. Strange sounds come from the air conditioning vents, the ceiling bulges, a body disappears. Mysterious men lurk about town, wearing thick glasses and pocket protectors Kings of Infinite Space is a hilarious and horrifying spoof on our everyday lives and gives true voice to the old adage, "Work is Hell. Amazon Kindle 0 editions. CD Audiobook 0 editions. Project Gutenberg 0 editions.
Google Books — Loading Swap 1 have, 10 want. Popular covers see all 7 covers. The writing and the story line were irritating and ultimately completely pointless. May 08, Erin rated it it was ok. I read this clear through to the end and kept saying to myself, "When will start getting good? Oct 05, Matty Dalrymple rated it it was amazing. A story that manages to be both funny and creepy, bolstered in the audiobook by a fantastic narration by Adam Grupper!
Feb 08, Anne Green rated it liked it. I enjoy this author for his quirky humour, intelligence, wit and frequent flashes of brilliant writing and so despite the weirdness of the plot, I kept reading. Good ending and glad it's over. Don't get me wrong I like the book. It just moves at slow pace. I definitely recommend it, but its definitely slow with just enough suspense to keep you turning the pages.
Sep 15, Johnathan Alesso rated it really liked it. The author has a keen, clever wit that infuses his characters and fictional ambience with life. His acute prose keeps this book alive despite the strange plot turns. He has an uncanny ability to draw interest to the most otherwise boring protagonist. May 15, Jane rated it it was amazing. Twisted, warped, and brilliantly funny.
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Jan 02, Roxy Reno rated it really liked it. The Office meets iT and funny till the very last line to boot. Aug 13, Renee Leech rated it liked it. Its concept is great - indeed a combination of Office Space and the X-Files as the blurb on the back of the book states. The pivotal egg-shaped men, who all look basically the same and never sweat in the Texas heat, are introduced early and are humorously intriguing. The main character, Paul, is an asshole and knows it. He has sunken through the ranks of academia by cheating on various women and "Are We Not Men?
He has sunken through the ranks of academia by cheating on various women and is forced to start over as a temp typist in a government office where he dates the uneducated, Oklahoman mail-girl who certainly - of course certainly - makes up for what she lacks in intellectual prowess with various forms of physical prowess. Paul has a lot of negative things to say about academia gender theorists are all terrible snobs , autodidacts like "The Colonel," for whose self-teaching the PhD-holding Paul has no respect, and power-driven, micromanaging female office workers.
I have experienced the last of these, and to be honest, they are utterly soul-sucking creatures. If the author intended for Paul to redeem himself, he didn't succeed. But he did succeed in being funny, and addressing male anxieties about women in power as well as the way that power makes jerks of all of us.
The book also speaks to the means - however limited - by which we all try to improve our station in life. There is probably some extended metaphor going on in the ending of the book, which I did not care to decipher because I was hoping for a much better ending. Maybe I would have gotten it if I had read H. Wells, to whom the egg-men seem to be a tribute. Aug 11, Bondama rated it it was amazing. I love this man!!
Matter of fact, he helped my nephew with his masters' thesis on Flann O'Brien. This book is set - not in the academic world that Hynes normally writes about, but in Austin, in cubicle-world. It's amazingly well-written - the main character is reading "Seven Novels of H.
Wells on his breaks, and the author is I love this man!! Wells on his breaks, and the author is SO damn good in how the world of Wells begins to parallel the main character's workaday world. He started out getting his Phd at a prestigious university in the Midwest -- fell down, affairs and just plain laziness - never finished his book, wound up writing textbooks, fell again, and by the time the novel opens, he's a temp typist connected with one of those endless entities produced by the University of Texas, this one having to do with supplies of some kind -- He starts seeing things, hearing things, and the progression to straight out horror is funny, scary and absolutely not to be missed.
I would recommend this book - as well as others by this writer, as something you will not want to miss. Perhaps I should be giving this book more credit. After all, yet again I judged a book by its cover.
KINGS OF INFINITE SPACE
This is not the sort of thing I would ever voluntarily read. And yet it held its own fairly well. So basically, humor and satire are usually out. I found myself irritated in that I morally objected to rooting for t Perhaps I should be giving this book more credit. I found myself irritated in that I morally objected to rooting for the main character - I found him despicable and wanted to hate him, but landed somewhere close to indifference. The detachment this fostered led to a kind of "lets get this done with" feeling, and by the time I got to the book's climax, I got the impression that the target audience was perhaps measurably less intelligent than I I mean, I thought the author had gone and said what was happening in a funny, if slightly roundabout way, and figured he had said it, only to turn the page and find him spelling it out.
But it was humorous and slightly satisfying, if somewhat slimy. Aug 07, Todd rated it liked it Shelves: I purposely bought this book without reading most of the back cover summary. I was merely in the mood for an "office life is stupid" book, and this seemed like that book. It's still an office novel, but with more. I can't say "with a difference" nor "with a twist", because it's not really anything we haven't seen before. Fortunately, I also enjoy that type of book, so I enjoyed reading this.
I I purposely bought this book without reading most of the back cover summary. I will say that I felt the sex scenes were thrown in and fairly unnecessary. It's not that I'm a prude, but sex scenes for the sake of titillation never sit well with me. Does the sex advance the story? If yes, then fantastic; throw in all the sex you want to.
Then a little more.
KIRKUS REVIEW
As long as it makes. If no, then have the characters jump in the sack and end the chapter. We'll fill in the blanks. At any rate, I'll definitely look into more books by this author. But perhaps at the library, rather than the bookstore. I'm not certain I'd repeat read this book.
Feb 25, Devon rated it liked it. Honestly, having come off of my Christopher Moore high, I was really looking for a novel to fill that void: This book was okay. I think I only laughed out loud once. The main character got to be a little tedious in the way Hynes kept going on and on and on trying to set up what a loser he was because of his fall from grace. I found myself not really caring about the characters- not because they were successfully set up It was okay.
KINGS OF INFINITE SPACE by James Hynes | Kirkus Reviews
I found myself not really caring about the characters- not because they were successfully set up that way, but because for the most part they were flimsy and transparent. The only character I truly cared about and believed was Charlotte, the ghost cat. See what I mean? It was a quick read, but once I finished, I sadly didn't feel excited to read more of Hynes's work. I ended up skimming through parts of it, silently mouthing "blah blah blah. Jun 08, Mark rated it liked it. The build-up is very well done -- excellent characterizations, strangely mysterious goings-on, a love relationship that is very satisfying -- but once the weirdness starts taking center stage, it's just not convincing to me, and I found myself counting pages with 80 left to go, wondering if the whole remainder of the book would be a slog.
It pretty much was, with developments there being too predictable and at the same time overly descriptive "how many pages left?
The very end rewarded the time spent to finish the book, and I can't help but feel that maybe this would have been a better movie than a novel. Three stars for a mostly fun and satisfying read. Nov 25, Christopher Fulbright rated it it was amazing Shelves: Kings of Infinite Space grabbed me from the description on the back of the book. A technical writer, in Texas, whose work life is hell? Hey, this main character and I have a lot in common! Minus the part about him being haunted by his dead cat. After I read the first page, I knew I was going to love this book, and it certainly delivered.
- Un voyage dans la littérature des voyages: La première rencontre (Espaces Littéraires) (French Edition).
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- Kings of Infinite Space!
Awesome character development, genuinely creepy goings-on, and real laugh-out-loud moments. The ending went pretty far into strangeland, but it was still a fa Kings of Infinite Space grabbed me from the description on the back of the book. The ending went pretty far into strangeland, but it was still a fantastic read, one of my favorites in recent years.
There's a blurb on the back of the book that says "Office Space meets the X-Files" and I think that's about dead on. I loved it, and I'll probably read it again soon. Nov 04, Jacki rated it liked it. This book was really all over the place. I bought it at a used book store, not really knowing anything about it.
I thought it would just be this funny little 'office life' story. It starts as that, but even in the first chapter, you're given hints that there's more. By the end, we're dealing with human sacrifice, ghost cats, zombies, the whole works. Strange book, not my usual style, but I enjoyed it somehow.