THE ROAD TO MARS

This novel by the former member of Monty Python is a science-fiction comedy, an espionage novel, and an exegesis on the nature of humor as understood by an android who looks like David Bowie. Idle, a master at comic timing and delivery, reads his own story of a comedy team and their companion robot, who are caught in a conspiracy while doing the entertainment circuit between Earth and Mars. The three-hour abridgment leaves choppy gaps in the story line, but the story and the writing are brilliant--thought-provoking and side-splitting--and Idle’s performance is delightfully out of this world. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 00]