Warp by Lev Grossman

First published in 1997; reprint editon published by St. Martin's Griffin on September 20, 2016

Young Hollis Kessler spends much of his time arguing with his friends about the science of Star Trek and saying clever but pointless things like “Lies are like these little peepholes into a better world.” He also has random thoughts, generally in the form of quotations from works he’s read or seen, all of which he inflicts upon the reader. That’s sort of interesting -- the world in Hollis’ head is certainly more interesting than the world he barely inhabits -- but clever writing and a series of references to pop culture aren’t enough to sustain a novel.

Trading on Lev Grossman's success with The Magicians trilogy, the publisher describes Warp as Lev Grossman’s “lost origin novel.” Had it not been for Grossman’s later success, this book would have stayed lost, and deservedly so. Grossman even admits to posting fake reviews on Amazon to boost the average star rating when it first came out, presumably because actual readers know a bad book when they encounter one. It strikes me as self-indulgent and pointless, although the prose certainly evidences a writer who knows how to craft an entertaining sentence.

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