Filthy humanoid race! Capture their spaceship and maroon thousands of humans; just leaving them to die on a nasty deserted alien planet, will you? You should know humans are tough and they'll be back to bite your *ss but GOOD for that nasty behavior! May take a while, though; and therein lies the story......
Yup; the Seven Samurai, Magnificent Seven etc. Except a couple of them do survive the fighting. It's really more like the Dirty Dozen where a bunch of misfits go on a suicide mission to absolve personal transgressions, or to get out of other problems. Good if you like lots of sword and sandal action without a detailed plot. The characters are even interesting and richly developed. As a twist, in the end, you'll likely have some reflection over who actually had the moral high ground in the conflict.
Just read this as a pulp adventure. The denizens of this desert like world clanking around in their various machines which define their "clans" have a pretty hard life, fighting and killing each other regularly over resources. Then it gets worse! They must face a nasty robotic threat to them all.
This novella is interesting. On the surface, the story is kind of simplistic. But I think there are some (probably)very sarcastic and disturbing undertones which speak to our nature. I won't openly analyze them, but a couple of hints are the protagonist's constant compulsively fixation to the penny with the cost of everything, and the anti-romantic ending, where he slips into total dependency.
The Japanese are out to regain their world hegemony and are attacking the very foundation of the American way-corporate America! (kind of an exaggeration of their somewhat predatory behavior in the 80s when they undersold US companies at a loss to drive them out of business and then bought the leftover husks.)But this is on a much grander scale. First they must make lots of money....then........
Fast paced, very interesting characters, lots of good cultural content, well crafted, good read all around.
This trilogy is a fun read. Set in a neat created world which has 4 main races.
1.Delvers-humans who are attuned to nature, are very, very fast and love to delve and discover.
2. Elves
3. Dwarves
4. Algors. Lizard like gentle mind linked desert dwellers.
The protagonists are a Quaker-like Delver, a couple of elves; one with a very short fuse, a human captain of the town militia and an evolving mage who is just learning to use the newly returned magic.
The denizens are frequently at odds, but unite in the first volume temporarily and send their heroes to destroy an orb which is deeply buried and guarded by traps. It has prevented magic from the world but now may fall into the wrong hands.
The book deals with the return of magic and it's magical monsters such as goblins, The warring between races (and those monsters) and the moral issues of deciding to co-exist and manage adversaries and evil, try to modify them with reason and action or simply destroy. Arguments are common between the main characters who have very different moral compass.
All this occurs in a fast paced easy to read interesting storyline. If I have one criticism, it's the dialogue. Somewhat stilted, and the characters frequently seem to take instant offense at statements which seem bland and non confrontational-seems a bit contrived.
This is a great book, especially for teenagers. It was the first book I read as a young teenager that got me started in a science career and a lifelong addiction to science fiction. In 1952 there was no widespread use of computers and Lieutenant Foster has to use a "space slid rule" to calculate the planetary physics of moving an asteroid to earth while in a space environment on the asteroid itself. Just to give you an appreciation of how much things have changed in the past 58 years. Nevertheless, this fast moving and exciting story is a great adventure, and those are always up to date.
After an asteroid collision involving a spacer and his wife, she wakes to find she is an armless, legless, blind, deaf chicken-less egg (as the song goes). Aliens have picked them up just in time to save their lives and their medical officer is reconstituting their bodies. She awakes to the soothing reassurance of the alien physician to that effect. But she is totally (and almost ridiculously) obsessed with her looks, fearing her husband will reject her. The caring alien doc has a problem; he has to find a template of her so she looks like she did before the accident. He's a sensitive "guy" and does "his" best. So how does she turn out? Does her hubby still love her?
normb’s book reviews
Fast paced, very interesting characters, lots of good cultural content, well crafted, good read all around.
1.Delvers-humans who are attuned to nature, are very, very fast and love to delve and discover.
2. Elves
3. Dwarves
4. Algors. Lizard like gentle mind linked desert dwellers.
The protagonists are a Quaker-like Delver, a couple of elves; one with a very short fuse, a human captain of the town militia and an evolving mage who is just learning to use the newly returned magic.
The denizens are frequently at odds, but unite in the first volume temporarily and send their heroes to destroy an orb which is deeply buried and guarded by traps. It has prevented magic from the world but now may fall into the wrong hands.
The book deals with the return of magic and it's magical monsters such as goblins, The warring between races (and those monsters) and the moral issues of deciding to co-exist and manage adversaries and evil, try to modify them with reason and action or simply destroy. Arguments are common between the main characters who have very different moral compass.
All this occurs in a fast paced easy to read interesting storyline. If I have one criticism, it's the dialogue. Somewhat stilted, and the characters frequently seem to take instant offense at statements which seem bland and non confrontational-seems a bit contrived.