Tim Scott, Outrageous Fortune

Outrageous Fortune

Tim Scott

Bantam, May 2007, $12.00

ISBN 0553384406

Custom-made dream designer Jonny X67 comes home from work only to find his house gone and a business card in its place. The thief apparently left him a sympathetic note: "Don't you hate it when this happens" and a phone number. The empathic cop informs Mr. X that since he had not seen a psychiatrist lately, he will wear an Odysseus Hat to insure health and safety; X knows that cannot include him as part of health and safety.

The dream architect figures nothing could get worse, but a motorcycle gang try to kill him as a test run of their strategic objective to kill God. More assaults occur with the worst being Caroline E61, a tenacious angel, using a helicopter to come from heaven demanding he buy her encyclopedia. Feeling like Job from biblical fame, X wonders why him and soon begins to postulate that his work on the Dream Virus Project to link dreams to DNA is the answer, but he needs to know how to extract himself with Big Brother watching him and the forces of good and evil ganging up on him but that remains just outside his scope.

OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE paints a zany future as Tim Scott brings humor and more darkness to Orwell's bleak future. The storyline is fast-paced from the moment Mr. X deals with the bureaucracy following the theft of his house. The tale never slows down until the final delightful somewhat rushed twist. Fans of wild witty satires will appreciate this amusing futuristic spin.

Harriet Klausner