ANDROIDS FROM MILK
by Eugen Egner & translated by Mike Mitchell
A Candide-like protagonist stuck in time, at the age of 17, who attracts the attentions of ineffably sinister “primate researchers”—that’s the thin premise stretched to unwieldy length in this amiable yet labored futurist comic fantasy by a well-known German graphic artist and playwright. Whimsy accumulates exponentially as “young” Reuben Hecht disappoints parental hopes for his artistic success (as a state-sponsored “official illustrator”), becomes a freelance roadie for the popular singing group Flesh-eating Fetish Bitches, and journeys to a remote “colony” where artificial humans are being created in an alarmingly unconventional manner. Some amusing in-jokes (including a throwaway reference to “a Gustav Meyrink impersonator”), but the “story” sputters out eventually. Vonnegut in his heyday did it better.