The Red Tape War

In designing their book as a round robin, Chalker ( The Return of Nathan Brazil ), Resnick ( Second Contact ) and Effinger ( When Gravity Fails ) seem to have been more interested in presenting the next author with a challenge (``Write your way out of this!'') than they were in continuity, plot or character. Millard Fillmore Pierce (most names are pseudo-significant, such as the battleship Mahatma Gandhi, captain Nathan Bolivia) appears in five different guises, each a member of a different species from a different parallel universe; all of them speak English and most of them intend to take over the human Pierce's galaxy. That none succeeds is largely due to red tape: so many forms must be filled out in order even to fire a shot that battleships carry hundreds of bureaucrats to support each soldier. What could have been light entertainment is defeated by the authors' arch, feckless comments to one another--with discussions on writing the book included as part of the book. Only a blindly dedicated fan will be pleased with this collaboration. (Apr.)