Milky Way Marmalade

Michael Di Certo
Zumaya Publications (2003)
ISBN 1894942213
Reviewed by Susan Pettrone for Reader Views (9/06)

This fantastic tale of Caffrey Quark and his journey across time and space is one of those books that will leave you spellbound until you finally turn the last page and find out as Quark found out, what the one thing that brought meaning to his life really was about!  Quark has endless musical connections throughout this book and they only serve to further develop his character through their use.  It is amazing how the mere mention of a song within this book can conjure up so many images for the reader that mere words would fall short of doing.  Music is after all the universal language and we see throughout “Milky Way Marmalade” language put to fantastic use by the author!

Throughout this book we meet colorful characters both in action, appearance and language such as Yin, the wonderful little “dog” he befriends, only to find he is actually another being equal in intelligence and cunning as Quark himself, Violet, a woman of spectacular beauty with, of course, fantastically “violet” eyes and a magical personality to match, POE 33, an android with a missing piece of his memory and the key to that is most important in Quark’s life and to the music itself, and of course, Angie, Quark’s computer-generated friend who spouts sugary “terms of endearment” in her quest to gain Quark’s love. The phrases Angie uses often leave the reader laughing aloud with their obscurity and oddness, but for some readers create Angie’s character as no other device could.  These characters transcend all notions of “normalcy” and it is fact their oddities that endear them to the reader and cause them to have such depth of character and definition as integral parts of Quark’s life. By the end of the book, the reader feels as though a part of Quark’s life as well, a trait that I found to be especially endearing to myself as a reader!

“Milky Way Marmalade” is a book that spans so many ages, from young teens interested in fantasy and science fiction to adults wanting to escape from the realities of 9-5 and the high price of fuel.  The adventures are many, the action dynamic and the storylines within so wonderfully woven that the transitions from one to another are seamless and wonderfully easy to follow for even the most casual reader!  I would highly recommend this book to all readers from ages 12 through adult.  It is a great book to “get away” from the world today and visit Quark in his world so different yet so very much like our own!

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