of truths culled largely from the journalistic sources Vidal enjoys satirizing." He described Kalki as "an apocalyptical extravaganza that craftily combines feminism, homosexuality, mysticism, science fiction, fiction science, the second law of thermodynamics, the first law of survival, high fashion and low animal cunning" and its plot as "diabolically clever." Orson Scott Card, writing expressly from a genre perspective, faulted Vidal's narrator as "intensely boring," but praised the apocalyptic conclusion: "Kalki left me with the haunting feeling that there was something grateful about four billion people leaving life suddenly, without panic, without a chance to soil their last moments with repentance or greed." References External links Novels by Gore Vidal 1978 American novels Novels set in California Random House books American alternate history novels 1970s LGBT novels LGBT speculative fiction novels American post-apocalyptic novels