Rereading There and Back Again because I picked up a nice pre-signed copy at Borderlands Books when I bought The Wild Girls.
This is Pat's space-opera homage to The Hobbit -- but here it's not Bilbo, it's Bailey Beldon, a norbit (I think I read somewhere that the word was coined for Pat by Ellen Klages) who ventures forth from The Restless Rest, his cozy home in our solar system's asteroid belt, in the company of Gitana, a mysterious female wizard-like figure, and Zahara, with her group of "sibs" (female clones).
What I love about this book is that I usually get caught up in all of the stuff Pat herself has dreamed up - the 'pataphysicians, the space travel through black holes, etc, the base 12 math, etc.
-- and I forget about the underpinnings to Tolkien. But when there's a more clear or obvious reference (such as when Bailey finds his "ring" and goes through the riddles scene)
I think - "Oh cool, that part is familiar - that's how she tied that in..."
I had forgotten that this book, like "Adventures in Time and Space..." and "Wild Angel" has a "mysterious Murphy" -- here, it is "The Curator" who presides over a host of artifacts which sound suspiciously like they could also be Exploratorium exhibits!
I like the cover as well - maybe because every time I look at it, it reminds me of Annie Lennox, who is another of my favorite people.
I also love the character of "Fluffy"! Read the book to find out who (or what?) Fluffy is!
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