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From: donn@utah-cs
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: TIK-TOK by John Sladek
Message-ID: <2451@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Sun, 30-Jun-85 18:48:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: topaz.2451
Posted: Sun Jun 30 18:48:53 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 1-Jul-85 08:14:59 EDT
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: donn@utah-cs (Donn Seeley)

John Sladek's TIK-TOK (DAW, c1983, DAW edition June 1985) is a robot
whose 'asimov' circuits don't seem to function quite right.  Everyone
in Tik-Tok's cheesy future takes it for granted that robots can't
misbehave, which is just as well because without these obedient slaves
their tottering civilization would collapse instantly.  Tik-Tok can
lie, steal and kill without the least suspicion coming upon him,
because who would expect that a mere robot could perform these
quintessentially human acts?

Tik-Tok's narrative is an out-and-out farce, with ample slapstick and
an abundance of parodies.  The story alternates between Tik-Tok's grim
upbringing (he was raised on a Mississippi plantation and taught to
sing excruciatingly bad imitation Stephen Foster songs) and his brutal
present (as he discovers that society rewards his outrageously criminal
behavior).  Woven through the story is a dark and bitter cynicism, and
many of the laughs will also make you cringe; when I finished the book
I was left with a distinctly unpleasant aftertaste...  Of course this
is exactly the kind of tension which Sladek intended to produce, but
that doesn't make it any easier to assimilate.  In the end I'm not sure
whether I enjoyed the book, and I'm not even sure whether I was
supposed to...  You takes your chances if you buy it.

Donn Seeley    University of Utah CS Dept    donn@utah-cs.arpa
40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W    (801) 581-5668    decvax!utah-cs!donn