The Troika is a 1997 science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel by Stepan Chapman

Stepan Chapman

Stepan Chapman is a writer of speculative fiction and fabulation. He might be best known for the Philip K. Dick Award winning novel The Troika....

. Written in surrealist

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 style, the novel features a highly complex plot mixing fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 and science fiction. It received the Philip K. Dick Award for 1997.

Plot summary

The novel introduces three beings - a jeep, a dinosaur, and an old Mexican woman - travelling across a desert under the glare of three suns. They have been travelling for centuries though they do not know why they are crossing the desert or if they will ever reach the other side. The characters have each changed bodies several times. Their travels are interspersed with dream-sequence-like flashbacks describing various transformed versions of the 20th Century.

Major characters

• Alex - an automated jeep, who began as a man then became cyborg.
• Eva - an old Mexican woman, formerly a fish-priestess and later a whore.
• Naomi - a brontosaur who was once a military corpsicle
  Corpsicle
  Corpsicle is a term that has been used in science fiction to refer to a corpse that has been cryonically cryopreserved. It is a portmanteau of "corpse" and "popsicle"...
  
  . A daughter of Alex and Eva's.