James Polster

We�??ve been Punkƒ??d!

It seems that lots of the interesting stuff that happens on Earth is caused by Pom Trager, an arrogant time travelling alien who plays tricks on us and shows the results on his reality TV show called The Prankster. While humans think that significant historical events are happening, or that our culture is advancing, aliens on another planet are laughing at us.

When one of his tricks goes awry, Pom Trager gets trapped in Santa Fe. To escape, he needs to get to San Francisco fast. He gets some help from a human woman who thinks he might be crazy. Unfortunately, they attract the attention of a sheriff who decides to pursue.

The Prankster has a cute (though not original) premise, some adventure, one touching scene, and a twist ending that wasnƒ??t all that surprising. Itƒ??s a pleasant enough way to spend a few hours ... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/the-prankster/… (més)

Book Review - The Prankster by James Polster
The Prankster
James Polster
Novella
Trade Paperback
122 pages
Publisher: 47North
Publication Date: July 10, 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1612183633
Advance Readers Copy – Uncorrected Proof

With a skewed take on game shows, slick advertising, televised practical jokes, and the very human need to be entertained James Polster’s The Prankster holds a mirror to our singular obsession with vanity and our excessive need for constant diversion and distraction.

In a far off galaxy on an alien world, The Prankster, the most popular reality game show in the universe, suffers a slip in time and the host and his assistant become trapped in the very place they’ve spoofed on live television for many years. Pom Trager has become accustomed to using the Earth, and many of its most famous people and places, for his show’s pranks and practical jokes to boost ratings. But a system glitch traps him on Earth and an ever-closing window of time gives him less than 48 hours to get from New Mexico to San Francisco. Since air travel will mess with the time/spatial continuum an old fashioned road trip is the only way they can travel. A mistrustful Earth woman accompanies them on their journey as a relentless and suspicious sheriff follows their trail. With only one chance at rescue the two time travelers must either make it to their destination in time or become forever trapped on an Earth lost in the past.

Recommended for Science Fiction fans, time travel freaks, talk show activists and anyone interested in a fast-paced, character-driven story that pokes fun at the human need to be constantly immersed in entertainment.

Recommended Reading – He Walked Among Us by Norman Spinrad, Year Zero by Rob Reid, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Wrack & Roll by Bradley Denton and My Favorite Band Does Not Exist by Robert T. Jeschonek.

Back in June of 2011 I reviewed Polster’s The Graduate Student http://thealternativeone.blogspot.com/2011/06/book-review-graduate-student-by-ja... for this book review blog. This is what I had to say about the author then:
“James Polster has, in my opinion, a home-spun, blue-collar humor that reminds me of some throw-back Kurt Vonnegut/Hunter Thompson/Carl Hiaasen construct. He takes turns at being subtly and blatantly humorous with both high-brow twists and guttural turns - sometimes, in the same scene. Once you read his bio page you’ll ask yourself if art, in this case, isn’t imitating life. (It is, BTW since Polster actually travelled the Amazon River basin, lived the life of a grad student, and worked for a major television station.) I found a certain underlying level of comfort in Polster’s writing style. By that I mean he creates an intelligent story that is easy to read, contains fast-paced language, and is both clever and humorous. However, The Graduate Student is not a laugh-out-loud belly romp but rather is filled with delightful servings of understated, intelligent, thinking-man humor.”
It’s no less true with The Prankster.

3 ¾ stars out of 5

The Alternative
Southeast Wisconsin

About the Author (from Amazon.com):

Equal parts novelist, journalist, explorer, and movie producer, James Polster draws on his rich cultural experiences to craft highly entertaining stories with social significance. From profiling Indira Gandhi and Donald Trump, to covering the World Championship of Elephant Polo in Nepal, to navigating the Amazon River and living among jungle cannibals, Polster’s adventures have given him a unique perspective on life that infuses his work with witty depth.

A graduate of Harvard and Columbia universities, Polster has written A Guest in the Jungle, The Graduate Student, and Brown, which received the Critics’ Choice Award and was named by Publishers Weekly as a Best Book of the Year. He lives in Los Angeles.

Disclaimer - Received via the Amazon Vine program for review.… (més)

James Polster’s novel Brown is similar to the work of Carl Hiaasen and the Myron Bolitar novels of Harlan Coben. It is filled with quirky characters who involve themselves in outrageous adventures. The narrator Brown is a former sports writer turned unwilling detective while pretending to be a psychologist. Together with his real psychologist friend Fillmore, the characters drink their way through sexual encounters, murders, kidnapping, jail breaks, and confinement in a mental hospital.

The novel is funny and divided into short fast-paced chapters. If you like Hiaasen novels about bizarre politicians and Coben’s Bolitar novels involving a wise-cracking sports agent who gets involved in detective work, you will be happy with Brown.… (més)

James Polster
The Graduate Student
AmazonEncore
Publication Date: June 21, 2011
Trade Paperback
360 pages
ISBN: 9781935597537
Advance Reader's Copy - Uncorrected Proof

When the rainforest slams head-first into Hollywood and neuro-robotics take over where anthropology ends... well, you know something unusual is bound to happen. And, in this case, what happens is not only outlandish but amusing as well. The Graduate Student follows the chaotic antics of Blackwell James as his life takes an unexpected and improbable twist. From near-destitute, almost unemployable, jungle-trekking grad student to overnight Hollywood movie producer and director of a scientific project Blackwell is thrust into two worlds totally beyond his experience. But Blackwell has an uncanny knack of landing on his feet and then stumbling his way into success. Or so it would seem. James Polster navigates through the machinations of Hollyweird and the tricky business of advanced academics and in the process treats us to a comical view of the bizarre worlds of movie producing and graduate studies. Indeed, his main character manages to inadvertently meet Sylvester Stallone, Steven Spielberg, and Henry Winkler and green-light a movie script penned by a UCLA-based computer using cheap software and a database of action movies that have previously made boat-loads of cash. What could possibly go wrong?

The novel is broken down into three fast-paced, near-equal parts. The first section, Blackwell, introduces the reader to the main character. Loosely based on the author's own experiences this segment reveals a detailed glimpse of the life of the highly unusual and very funny gypsy-like character, Blackwell James. The second element, aptly named Odyssey, is the recounting of a hallucinogenic ménage-a-traipsing through the mind of one of the characters - a psychopath, no less. It recounts, after ingestion of a concoction made from two scared Amazonian vines, the trip one character takes to find a lost soul who has wandered too deep into the mind of an unstable and impatient movie producer/scientist who's crimes have been uncovered by the trespass. In part three, Hogeye, the antagonist comes to understand that his crimes (identity theft, larceny, and multiple murders) have been uncovered and he and his wife scheme to destroy the one man who can reveal his unlawful activities to the authorities.

James Polster has, in my opinion, a home-spun blue-collar humor that reminds me of some throw-back Kurt Vonnegut/Hunter Thompson/Carl Hiaasen construct. He takes turns at being subtly and blatantly humorous with both high-brow twists and guttural turns - sometimes, in the same scene. Once you read his bio page you'll ask yourself if art, in this case, isn't imitating life. (It is, BTW since Polster actually travelled the Amazon River basin, lived the life of a grad student, and worked for a major television station.) I found a certain underlying level of comfort in Polster's writing style. By that I mean he creates an intelligent story that is easy to read, contains fast-paced language, and is both clever and humorous. However, The Graduate Student is not a laugh-out-loud belly romp but rather is filled with delightful servings of understated, intelligent, thinking-man humor.

For those who enjoy long, sprawling narratives that take hours to read and unravel be warned. There's none of that here. In fact, some of the chapters are less than two pages in length. But Polster uses lean, impactful chapters to tell his story and spread a little humor, as well. There's something to be said about concise, crisp writing - like, "I wish I'd written that!" And Polster has developed the incredibly rare skill of succinctly putting down what he means and then quickly moving on to the next comical scene. You don't read this story as much as become immersed in it. It's hard to explain how truly difficult a feat it is to fully draw a reader in but I can tell you this, The Graduate Student is a highly accessible and amusing story that both entrances and amuses the audience. We don't just get to tag along but are jerked by the shirt collar on this remarkable ride. This one is a no-brainer, folks. Buy it, read it, be entertained by it and then come back here so I can tell you that I told you so...

4 stars out of 5

The Alternative
Southeast Wisconsin… (més)