The DNA Cowboys Trilogy

[Irene Wilde]

Is anyone familiar with "The DNA Cowboys" Trilogy by Mick Farren? I'm contemplating reading it, but trilogies required an investment in time, and I really don't know much about it. Only that a friend thought highly enough of it to call his band "Billy Oblivion & the DNA Cowboys."

Opinions?

Irene Wilde

 

[Carlos]

I am intrigued

The DNA Cowboys trilogy is a glorious psychedelic mandala of images, characters and events, with nods and references to cultural archetypes ranging across A Clockwork Orange, Hitler's Bunker, vintage s/m porn, gunfighter movies, HAL-9000, Lord of the Rings, Elvis Presley, 1984, the Battle of Stalingrad, Bruce Lee and the Shaolin temple, The Glass Bead Game, the Foundation trilogy and the court of the Borgias, to name but a few.

From here

It's supposed to have a cult folllowing. Was out of print for a long while but was reprinted last year.

I'm interested to hear peoples thoughts as well if they have read it.

 

[Litany]

I've read it. It's an easy read, and it's enjoyable, but I don't think it deserves cult status to be honest. I suppose maybe, that if you originally read it at the time it was written it was probably a lot more significant that it is in an age when taking drugs is a little sad and not really all that daring and when sex is no longer particularly shocking, and I've read so much sci fi now that it takes something really good to stand up and be recognised as great.

When I read all the blurb about it I was a little reticent. It made it sound like it was going to be a difficult read. But it wasn't, so if you're interested then definitely grab a copy. As trilogies go, it's not that long. It's a big book, but so's the type. It's a fun story.

 

[Irene Wilde]

Thanks for the feedback. My chum would have definitely read it when it initially came out, and it sounds like it's in perfect keeping with his character.

Irene Wilde

 

[Litany]

Well, if you're of the right age to have read it when it came out, it will probably appeal to you more as well.

And looking back at my post, it seems I completely missed out the word 'drugs'. My excuse is that I was high on sugar at the time and my fingers were very jittery and my brain was occupied with lofiter thoughts.

It's very much a book of the time, I think. But I am not a person of that time. I found it to be a fun story, but it didn't resonate with me on the level that I think it must for people who were around at the time it was written. It was probably a lot more ground breaking than I found it as well. But then, that's always part of the problem with reading classics, cult or otherwise, so many years after the event.

The first part was the best, the third was the weakest. But again, it was a fun story, it was full of interesting ideas, so even if you strip all the cult stuff away it's still a book worth reading.

 

[Irene Wilde]

I don't quite date back to the court of the Borgias, but I'm definitely of an age and background that would make this book appealing, even if my chum hadn't chosen to take his stage name from it. Still, I'm a bit skeptical that Farren's Captain Oblivion will turn out as colorful as the living, breathing version.

Irene Wilde