Fremder is a dark tale, half science fiction, half suspense novel. Written in Hoban's characteristic style that offers keen observations about human nature, prose that grabs you, and a weirdness that is unique, one finds oneself drawn into this story almost against one's will. The book, like all of Hoban's, contains elements that are common to all, yet it stands on its own. For some readers it may help to have read some of his other books, such as the Medusa Frequency or Kleinzeit, to not only get used to his style, but also to get to know some of the incidental characters that re-appear in Fremder from the earlier works. By no means, however, should a reader feel intimidated by this book.

The basic story takes place in 2052. Not only have we by then settled other planets and move with easy around different galaxies, but things on earth are not too good. The streets of London are the domain of gangs known as the Shorties and the Clowns. Their world is a nasty place. For citizens of a higher class, locked elevated skywalks cross the city and its streets to lead to safe abodes. It's a kind of Clockwork Orange world, only worse, and more advanced at the same time.

Fremder Elijah Gorn was the first navigation officer on the deep-space tanker 'Clever Daughter'. The tanker has vanished into thin air with six crew members. Gorn, for unknown reasons, is the only survivor, who is hurtled into space without the requisite space suit, but manages to survive this unusual journey through the deep freeze that is outer space. What happened, Gorn either does not know or will not tell. Since he is the narrator of the book, he slowly unravels not only the mystery of his last deep space journey, that ended on his 30^th birthday, but his family history. It, we learn, really is the key to the strange happenings in his life.

The three requisites to reading this novel are an open mind, an interest in mystery novels, and a curiosity about science and science fiction.

Her Name was Lola is a very different book, though it is unmistakably a Hoban work. It is a love story, but having been written by Hoban, it has its oddities that we do not usually associate with this genre. But then, that is what one expects from this author. It also takes place very much in our own time, and the London he writes about is very recognizable.

The protagonist of this tale is Max, who shares some common elements with Hoban. Like him, Max is perhaps better known for writing his children books than for his novels. While in his kid lit the heroine is a badger called Frances, Max's is Charlotte Prickles, a hedgehog. When we first meet him, he goes through his morning routine, like so many of us, which includes throwing out junk fliers that arrived in the mail, and trashing spam in his e-mail, and finally trying to re-connect with what he has worked on the day before. And what that reveals is that he has been working for eight days and yet still has no page one for his new novel.

His mind tells him to give things a rest, and so he is off on a trip from his Fulham home to Russell Square tube (subway) station, and thence to a restaurant on Southampton Row to meet his friend Seamus. Bang, we are right in the middle of Max's daily life, and in the middle of London, with all its familiar places. Typically Hoban. And what follows is also typical in that it involves an experience that we can best describe as 'other worldly'. Here Hoban does what he does best, take us from reality to unreality, and yet make it all seem real.

Max's life is very entangled. He loves the very British, aristocratic Lola, yet he cannot resist the in-the-face Texan temptress, Lula Mae. Of course, the end result is something more than Max had counted on, but that should not be revealed here.

In his quest to break a writer's block, Max goes to a shop to buy a particular recording of Monteverdi's Orfeo. This is how he meets Lola, who in my mind has a rather peculiar name for an aristocratic Brit. Max is an outsider in her world, ruled by her father, Lord Bessington, who is none too happy about his daughter's involvement with the writer of middling success.

What fascinates about this novel is the manner in which Hoban moves sideways as well as forward in his story. The sideways part appears in that what happens to Max, Max invariably uses as an experience that happens to Moe Levy, the character in the book that doesn't want to be written. The story also moves sideways because we see Hoban mirroring himself in some aspects, especially his dual fame as writer of children's books and as writer of unusual adult fiction.

The story takes us out of London to Dorset and to Scotland, it introduces us to classical Indian music, and the sarod. It shows us that often, if we do not resolve our problems, they will haunt us in the most unexpected ways. Just how everything resolves itself is the fascinating aspect of this novel. There is, after all, a resolution at the end, but just what kind will not be revealed here.

Her Name Was Lola is a novel that must be approached with no pre-determined expectations of any kind. Some may call it a bit balmy, to use a good British term, but by being so, it also is a lot of fun. As I said at the beginning, once bitten by Hoban's style or approach, by his wacky view of the world, his fine command of the language, and his sharp observations, there is no turning back. One just has to like his work, and Her Name was Lola is no exception.