Super Extra Grande by Yoss, translated by David Frye, 156 pages Dr. Jan Amos Sangan Dongo is an extreme version of a large animal vet. Set in a distant future in which Latin Americans pioneered quick space travel (go across the galaxy in a matter of hours!), Super Extra Grande tells of Dr. Sangan's escapades with the tsunami (an alien whale-like creature that's easier measured in kilometers than feet or inches) and the laketon, a single-celled organism that is often hundreds of kilometers in diameter. Both of these tales focus on the doctor, who is larger than life himself, being eaten and expelled by these creatures. And along the way, he attempts to help avert a political catastrophe among the galaxy's seven intelligent races.
It's an interesting story, and the parts where Dr. Sangan is navigating through these huge beasts are scientifically compelling, similar in style to The Martian. However... there are two major stumbling blocks for me. First, the recognized human language is Spanglish, which is left as-is in the text. For someone with only 7th-grade Spanish under my belt, it was not exactly easy to follow. Second, Dr. Sangan (and, I'm suspecting, Yoss) veers toward misogyny WAY too much. And seems really obsessed with the reader knowing the doctor's sexual tendencies, despite the total lack of sex in the book. That gave me the creeps WAY more than the detailed descriptions of the tsunami's digestive tract. Not really sure I can recommend this one.
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