Thanks to NetGalley and Adrian Stride for this Advanced reading copy.
The Trivial matter of the Universe is what I’d call farcical sci fi. I mean that in a good way.
This is the debut book from Indy author Adrian Stride and follows the adventures of a man from earth named Felix who is so completely insignificant the universe doesn’t know what to do with him. It is actually explained to him along the lines of him being the opposite of the butterfly effect.
Through shenanigans Felix is sent back through time and each time he dies the universe unsure what to do with him just spits him back out again. What makes it more interesting is Felix has a symbiotic relationship with a super AI from the future named Alfred, who was once the first AI police officer but got caught moonlighting as the crime lord Alfredo and was subsequently imprisoned in a deep hole on Mars.
The other 3 main players in our story are the avatars of Death, Marriage and Birth who initially are AI super computers who effectively harnessed all knowledge in their respective fields before gaining sentience.
The three end up travelling to earth and intercept Felix who is travelling through time and has arrived at a pivotal point in human history.
In terms of the book itself, I found it a little slow to warm up and the plot threads appeared a bit disjointed. However my patience was rewarded when the characters come together resulting in a rip roaring good time.
Adrian Stride has been compared to the late great Sir Terry Pratchett and I can certainly see why. The humour is both biting and at times hilarious. It switches from childish to cerebral in the best possible way.
For example the personification of birth wakes in a human body and tries to gain a sense of its surroundings, it looks down and says “sand” looks up and says “sky” looks down again and says “Willy.” This childish piece of humour was at the perfect point in the book and actually made me choke on my coffee.
I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books like Discworld or the Bobbiverse and would ask that you stick with it beyond the first few opening chapters. The world building there is necessary for the ensuing hilarity.
**4 out of 5 stars**
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