The Amphora Project

By William Kotzwinkle

Book Overview

Deep in the bowels of Junk Moon, the finest scientists of Planet Immortal are nearing completion of Project Amphora, which aims to unlock the secret of immortality. The Project is run by the Consortium, twelve of the planet's most influential movers and shakers, but they aren't the only ones after immortality. Commander Jockey Oldcastle, a wise-cracking space pirate, has heard about the Amphora Project from a banished scientist who is convinced it will lead to the end of the world. Oldcastle sets off to find the project with Adrian Link, a timid botanist who wants only to tend to his plants on the Agricultural Plain, yet Oldcastle finds himself trying to unravel a strange mystery: It seems the Amphora Project is turning the citizens of Planet Immortal into crystal. As time runs out, it is up to Oldcastle and Link-- and Link's exotic, unlikely love interest --to stop their mysterious extradimensional enemy before their world is lost forever. Hilarious, wildly inventive, and featuring a fantastical cast of mutants, quasihuman robots, intergalactic mercenaries, and two-thousand-year-old immortals, The Amphora Project is a novel that combines elements of science fiction and fantasy and transcends the boundaries of both.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080214263X
• ISBN13: 9780802142634
• Release Date: March 2006
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Kotzwinkle Does It Again

I've now read three William Kotzwinkle books (not counting "Walter the Farting Dog"). In each book I've read -- and "The Amphora Project" is one of them -- he creates a fantastic world out of whole cloth, and populates it with fantastic characters who behave only as Kotzwinkle characters can. In this case, it's "The Corridor..." a place somewhere in space, somewhere in the future, where refugees from doomed Planet Earth have re-established themselves, interacting with populations (and robots) from all over the known universe. We meet Jockey Oldcastle, a space pirate... an elephantine used-weapons dealer... Kitty Liftoff, who runs the Junk Moon.... all overseen by the Consortium and the Autonomous Observer. I won't get any farther into the plot than that. Only Kotzwinkle can tell the story, so I won't even try, other than to say that the quest for immortality is involved. "The Amphora Project" grabbed me and involved me immediately and didn't let go. I highly recommend it. While I'm at it, let me also urge you to enjoy "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" and "The Fan Man," my other two Kotzwinkle tales.

I am off to read more of this guy's work he rocks!

Oh gosh I LIKED this book.. and I was going to write a review without reading the others but sneaked a peek anyway.. so now for SURE I am gonna' write this review! First, I haven't read any other Kotzwinkle (that sounded.. strange.. but YOU know what I mean), but after THIS book I AM because I liked this book! I agree that there are COOL characters in this book including the Observer: a cool objective analytical even ruthless strong female lead who sneaks up on you in the book. Her Mysterious Origin adds to her allure! But the OTHer characters are cool too, especially Lizardo and Oldcastle.. hm.. this will either put you off or intrigue you more.. but those two remind me of an intelligent "A Team" set in a future earth galaxy empire combat instead of a wwII african desert combat.. but the same "competent though irreverent" feel is there. ANYway the backround about ancient aliens and their immortality scam was just that to me.. a fun backdrop for the main and secondary characters to play against.. especially cool to me were the individual motivations of The Combine who invested in the Amphora (Immortality) Project totally taken in by the scam but unable to see it because of their hopes and fears.. ow! that hit close to home to me (wince) but felt all too authentic! But Hey the story ends happily, humanity remains saved and SOME of the characters hook up and learn lessons, and OTHers don't (of course!) and I am off to read more of this guy's work, he rocks!