The title of the collection and the titles of some of the stories are goofy wordplay—and it’s this surface silliness that put me off from reading it, if I am honest—but the work itself is beautiful and perverse and provocative.
“Alien Stones” and “Death of Dr. Island” and “Toy Theatre” are dense and beguiling, the sort of stuff that I liked most about Book of the New Sun and Fifth Head.
(“Three fingers” is goofy but fun; “Befana” just hammy.)
@lucasrizoli I found "Three fingers" absolutely pointless, but you have made me curious to re-read “Alien Stones” and “Death of Dr. Island” and “Toy Theatre” as I don't remember them at all. Did I skip them? Time to find out.
@AndreasD, I dug the cheeky unmasking. Different strokes for different folx—at different times.
I believe a lot of the stories in IoDDaOSaOS (phew) were republished in later collections as well.
@lucasrizoli "IoDDaOSaOS" that was a mouthful! :) Yeah, you might be right there. I do have other collections, but I have not looked at them in a while.
