SCIENCE FICTION

KALIFORNIA by Marc Laidlaw (St. Martin’s Press: $18.95; 256 pp. ) “Kalifornia” is a very funny novel, its breathless, careening plot encompassing Official Crones, Kali worshipers and Celestial Mechanics in Holy City; Thaxter H.J. Halfjest, Reverend Governor of California, “the most flamboyant entertainer since Liberace”; and transgenic animal-people like sealman Cornelius, who becomes the ultimate, if equivocal, hero here.

The story centers around a once-popular soap-opera family, the Figueroas, and itself plays with typical melodrama conventions. TV, however, is long gone, and people themselves are wired, most only for receiving, others--like the RevGov, Poppy Figueroa and cyberhunk brother Sandy--for sending. What they see and hear, you see and hear. And Poppy’s baby Calafia, being born as the novel opens, born live on Poppy’s new show, will be the first child (ominous organ music, please) born to the wires.

Kidnapings, pursuits, plots and counterplots ensue. Laidlaw obviously had a great time with this book; so will its readers, and I hope it has many.