Published synopsis:
Neville Lansdowne fell off the world.Actually, he did not so much fall off as let go. The world had been moving so quickly lately and Neville was finding it almost impossible to keep up.
Douglas Adams meets Lewis Carroll (with just a touch of Gulliver's Travels) as Neville wanders through an asteroid field, meeting a variety of eccentric characters and experiencing some most unexpected adventures.
Review:
When the world is going so fast you can no longer keep up with it, you sometimes have to simply let go. That’s what Neville did. He let go.Floating out into space to an asteroid field, Neville finds others who for whatever reason had also let go or had fallen off. There he might find a place for himself. If he can just stop the impending destruction of it all.
Can the concept of religion be reduced to the worship of kitchen appliances? Can self-centered, oblivious people be led towards caring about the greater good? Can those who only want to float through life experiencing the happy moments and ignoring the bad be convinced to look at the bigger picture? According to Jonathan Gould, all of these things can happen.
In Doodlings, Jonathan Gould creates the story of a man who just wants to live a simple life. He wants to be able to enjoy the small joys and stop having to run all the time. People are so busy trying to keep up with the world that the little things in life are all but lost.
But as much as Neville wants this simple life, he has trouble finding his place amongst the asteroids. All that changes when the unthinkable is about to happen and he is driven to prevent it. He convinces those with differences in how they worship and who or what they worship to work together. He helps some of the characters see past themselves. Others, he must accept the fact that they are simply incapable of being helpful on their own and figure out how to make that work for the greater good. As for himself, he figures out there is more to him than he once thought. He may have not been born to lead, but he proves that when there is a need, he knows how to step up to the challenge and save the day.
In a Douglas Adams style where the absurd can happen and does, Doodlings is a short story about hope. Maybe there is hope that one day, despite our differences, we can slow the world down and work together to solve its problems. I would certainly like to see that happen. I thank the author for a review copy and I give the book 4 stars.
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