“★★★★★ An amusing and unexpectedly crazy ride – a perfect and hilarious follow-up to Where the Hell is Tesla?” — AudiobookReviewer.com-SOMETHING CALLED THE “BLUE JUICE” IS COMING. FOR ALL OF US.-Luckily, me (Chip Collins), Pete, Nikola Tesla, Bobo, and FBI Agent Gina Phillips are here to kick its ass, and send it back to last Tuesday. Maybe. Or maybe we’ll fail, and everyone in the multiverse is … Tuesday. Maybe. Or maybe we’ll fail, and everyone in the multiverse is doomed. (Seriously, you might want to get that underground bunker ready.) Either way, I’ve got to get home to Julie and find out… woah, I’m not about to tell you that right here in the book description! TMI.
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WARNING: If you haven’t read Where the Hell is Tesla?, I apologize in advance, as you might get completely freaking lost. If you do, just call my apartment, I’m usually around, and I’ll fill you in. (If I’m not stuck in the ITA.) – Chip
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It’s a light, fun read for a sci-fi book that doesn’t take it self too seriously. The characters are funny and I enjoy the personality he has given to Tesla. Chip seems to really start to grow up in the book, and this is a continuing theme. It’s a nice touch. He does a great recap of the first book in like two paragraphs that I found to be a great refresher in a witty way.
I read the first book a few years ago and only recently discovered that this is a series. I listened to the audiobook, which is also narrated by the author, Rob Dircks and he does a great job with the voices. Despite a video Dircks published advising authors on how to narrate there own books, I don’t think I could do as good a job as him. I will definitely be reading/listening to the third book in the series soon.
“Please enjoy this fictional document which spins tales of imaginary events that could never, ever happen. Ever.”
Rob Dircks’s Don’t Touch the Blue Stuff! (Where the Hell is Tesla? Book 2) follows our friends from Where the Hell is Tesla? into yet another Scooby Doo-like adventure in time. This time Chip is yanked out of his wedding to help save Pete (and his countless permutations) from the “Blue Juice”, some bizarro exterrestrial plasma consciousness that is sucking in everything it can find like it thinks it’s the Matrix.
Basically, if you loved the humor and adventure of Where the Hell is Tesla?, then it’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll also get a kick out of Don’t Touch the Blue Stuff! (Where the Hell is Tesla? Book 2). If not? Ehh, your loss. I personally thought it was slap your momma awesome.
As a bonus, we get a stronger dose of philosophy in novel #2, as Chip fights to find his true identity as he visits world after parallel world where he’s Kind of a Big Deal, and comes to the realization that his home iteration is more of an underachiever than he first imagined. He attempts to walk in his other selves’ much bigger shoes, and finds the fit isn’t all that bad after a while.
“You probably think you’re the center of the universe, right? What if I told you that not only was there no center, but that there were so many universes there couldn’t possibly be a center. What if I told you that at this very moment, there were versions of us, infinite versions, not fighting like rats over an old piece of pizza, but sitting like men at this exact table, talking out their differences and reaching a compromise? What if I told you that if you blow this world to smithereens, there are infinite other versions that don’t, and that make it work, so what’s the point? And what if I told you I’ve already seen entire universes collapse, and that being king of the world doesn’t mean shit? It’s like being king of a speck of dust.”
“What if I told you that the only thing that matters, the only thing, is love?”
You never know with sequels… Fortunately, you don’t have to worry about this one – Dircks’ second in the Tesla series delivers every bit as well as the first (and if you haven’t seen that review, look for it – I rave like a fangirl, teehee).
Chip and Pete and Bobo and Julie and Nikola are back – but not only are they back, they’re back with a vengeance. The new adventure is even more madcap, yet still oddly relatable, than the first; somehow, Dircks’ has this fantastic ability to take these guys that should, by rights, irritate the hell out of me (in real life, they would – Chip would be beyond irritating and Pete too perfect by half) and make me love them and cheer for them and hope beyond hope that they’ll keep coming back for more…
The new additions to the cast – from a sanctimonious by-the-book FBI agent who turns out to have hidden depths, to a demigod cockroach with the soul of Mr. Miyagi and the voice/attitude of your best friend’s Uncle Geno, to Einstein in all his wild-haired Teutonic glory – provide a slew of new opportunities for fabulously crafted snark and pratfalls. Oh, and surprisingly spot-on insights into the human condition that are delicately layered throughout in ways that you don’t even notice until they’re past you and the lesson is learned. And it’s all delivered in the same balls-to-the-wall writing style that made the first book so entertaining.
There doesn’t appear to be any mention of a third installment – I really hope that’s oversight, because these characters and this world are too good to let go so soon…
My review copy was provided by SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) through NetGalley. Check them out – they have some seriously talented writers!