A few years back, I saw several advertisements for a book with a decidedly unique title: “The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad,” by an author named Minister Faust. It was published by Del Rey Books, and getting heavy promotion. Minister Faust, by all indications, was a black writer and also a Canadian. I’m a Canadian, too, by naturalization rather than birth.Always on the lookout for new additions to the ranks of black science-fiction and fantasy writers, I quickly got hold of the book. A few pages in, I was hooked – not only by the quality of the prose, but also by its sheer audacity.The story is told from multiple viewpoints, with characters introduced via a data sheet like the ones used in role-playing games. The setting is Edmonton, capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. Most Canadians consider Edmonton so dull that they refer to it as “Deadmonton.” But in the Minister’s hands, Edmonton becomes as lively and lethal as New York and Los Angeles put together.“Coyote Kings” combines the past and present, technology and mysticism, hip-hop and Egyptology. There’s a myriad of plot-points to juggle, but the Minister doesn’t let any of them drop to the ground.The main characters – a pair of talented, underachieving young black men named Hamza and Yehat, and a mysterious black woman named Sherem – are multi-dimensional and compelling. So is the supporting cast, which includes a white Rastafarian. The dilemmas they face are mind-boggling, but the characters have the inner resources needed to resolve them.What they don’t have is time, which they need because the fate of the planet is hanging in the balance.When I finished “Coyote Kings,” I admired the way the Minister conjures coherence out of what could have turned into chaos in the hands of a lesser writer. And I wondered what he would do for an encore. Sometimes, a brilliant first novel becomes a pair of shoes the author has trouble filling his in or her subsequent work.I needn’t have worried. The Minister’s second novel, “From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain,” is just as good as “Coyote Kings.” However, the books are so different it’s difficult to compare them. “Coyote Kings” is stone serious, even though it flashes some far-out humor. “Dr. Brain,” on the other hand, is pure satire, as well as laugh-out-loud comedy.It’s a parody of the superhero-comics genre, told from the viewpoint of Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman, psychotherapist to “hyper-hominids” during a juncture when the necessity for superheroes is passing. The focus is on a dysfunctional super-team known as the Fantastic Order of Justice – FOOJ for short.Superhero parodies have been done before. So have dysfunctional super-beings, ranging from Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four to the Watchmen. But nobody has done it as well as the Minister. If Richard Pryor had ever written science fiction, he might have come up with something like “Dr. Brain.”The humor in the story works on more than one level. For example, there’s mention of a “Crisis of Infinite Dearths.” That phrase would be funny to a person who’d never so much as looked at a comic book. To someone familiar with DC Comics’ “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” it’s hilarious.There’s at least one laugh like this on every page. Even though “Dr. Brain” is much shorter than “Coyote Kings,” it took longer to read because I was cracking my sides so much.Some of the hyper-hominids are direct take-offs on established heroes and heroines. Omnipotent Man, for example, is what Superman would have been if he were raised by the Clampetts instead of the Kents. The Flying Squirrel in “Dr. Brain” isn’t Rocky – it’s Batman, inspired by a different species. Iron Lass is Wonder Woman as an uptight Valkyrie rather than an earnest Amazon.The Minister’s imagination spawns plenty of original super-beings as well, such as Xman, who has the power to turn his spoken words into reality; and Brothafly, who is nothing like the Superfly of blaxploitation-movie fame.“Dr. Brain” isn’t all pun and games, however. Beneath the humor, the Minister takes on issues such as racism, homophobia, political correctness and the cult of celebrity. The satire almost – but not quite – overwhelms the serious aspects of the book.That’s two winners in a row from Minister Faust, who is shaping up to become a one-man New Wave in the SF genre. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
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