Windowpane

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 3. MÄRZ 2003

The Age of Aquarius returns magically, replete with love, peace and paranoia, in this wispy flashback fantasy from Perry (Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire). Its hero, Flint McLelland, is a self-described "old hippie who wants to bring back the sixties." Living hand-to-mouth as a street performer playing old rock tunes on his charmed flute, footloose Flint rambles across the country seeking artifacts that mystically evoke specific years of the decade. Along the way, he gathers a small group of disciples, each fallen away from the counterculture, and informs them "when I have all the pieces, the spirit of the sixties is supposed to start to flower once more." His only obstacle is the Logician, an evil avatar of science and reason, who midway through the tale imprisons Flint in a psychiatric hospital and, in the guise of concerned Dr. Lojia, labors to convince him that he is really delusional patient Gerrard Hammond. Perry never makes it clear how the '60s will reassert themselves, or why, as his characters momentarily relive Vietnam, drug overdoses and radical bombings in addition to the Summer of Love, they would even welcome those years back. Though it has its moments, this draught of '60s lite largely proves that nostalgia isn't what it used to be.