Earth Vs. Everybody
by John Swartzwelder
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Book Summary Information
Author: John SwartzwelderEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2009-03-17
ISBN: 0982273606
Number of pages: 138
Publisher: Kennydale Books
Book Reviews of Earth Vs. Everybody
Book Review: A Dumb And Disappointing Book
Summary: 2 Stars
John Swartzwelder's farcical novels haven't been great from a literary standpoint, but they've still been real funny to read and have had entertaining stories as well. Based on everything I had read about "Earth vs. Everybody," it sounded like it would be one of his best books. Instead it was the complete opposite. The story gets off to a good start, but it sputters away quickly and the plot becomes an absolute mess. This time Frank Burly decides to give up his detective business and joins a criminal organization run by this person nicknamed Buzzy who's from outer space and his body is made up of electricity. After a while, Burly recognizes he's not very good at anything he tries to do for the organization, so, understanding how dangerous Buzzy is, he decides to contact the intergalactic police so they can arrest Buzzy. This brings a lot of attention toward Earth as many aliens from many planets come to watch the trial. They then start warring with each other and Buzzy is able to escape using Burly as his shield. This may sound like a long and interesting plot, but it makes up less than half of this short 133 page book.
The story really becomes stupid after that and really loses its focus. There aren't many jokes for the rest of the book, and the jokes that are there aren't very funny. To top it off, the ending is real slow, unfunny, and anticlimactic. That has been a gray area in all of Swartzwelder's books, but this ending is probably his worse.
Overall, "Earth vs. Everybody" is a real disappointing book. There are some funny things Burly says every now and then both in the dialogue and the first-person narration, but it seemed like most of the jokes in this book were too stupid to make people laugh. There are also some parts of the story that make it too unrealistic to take seriously or to even consider funny. For example, there are a few times when something happened to Burly that should have easily killed him, but he always survived and always seemed to be okay. Simply put, there are a lot of dumb things that happen in this story that prevent it from being funny or at least entertaining to read. It's bad enough that the plot is real weak and unorganized. This is easily Swartzwelder's worse novel.
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