This is my first H. Beam Piper book. It combines a survivalist tale on a backwater planet with an epic quest for high technology that leads to "Starship Troopers" style hi-technology air and space combat that reads like a pre Cold War style Tom Clancy thriller!
Brilliant fiction writing that's way ahead of its time.
Fans of the Fallout series of CRPGs or post-apocalyptic scenarios will love Hamilton's vastly imaginative and fluid writing style.
The story is a bit hard to believe at first but rapidly escalades into a crescendo of the things we love about science fiction - be they exploration, macro-engineering, starships, they're all presented in an easy to grasp format in a "what if you were there" perspective in the form of the main protagonist, Mr Kenniston.
He's a fine depiction of a man who, confronted by a rapidly degenerating environment, puts his life at stake on the line to find a way to save his community, even where conventional social circles have labelled him an outcast due to his forward-thinking.
This book was written over half a century ago but the human (and alien) society it depicts is frighteningly similar to today's challenges - be they familial, corporate, or just plain human emotions. It's a fictional world with realistic characters, and this is where Mr Hamilton's work really shines.
It doesn't try too hard to be "fantastic". It puts a seed of a "what if" scenario in your mind, and the characters grow from mere strangers to familiar personalities in just over 50 pages.
Carmen Les Toreadors’s book reviews
Brilliant fiction writing that's way ahead of its time.
The story is a bit hard to believe at first but rapidly escalades into a crescendo of the things we love about science fiction - be they exploration, macro-engineering, starships, they're all presented in an easy to grasp format in a "what if you were there" perspective in the form of the main protagonist, Mr Kenniston.
He's a fine depiction of a man who, confronted by a rapidly degenerating environment, puts his life at stake on the line to find a way to save his community, even where conventional social circles have labelled him an outcast due to his forward-thinking.
This book was written over half a century ago but the human (and alien) society it depicts is frighteningly similar to today's challenges - be they familial, corporate, or just plain human emotions. It's a fictional world with realistic characters, and this is where Mr Hamilton's work really shines.
It doesn't try too hard to be "fantastic". It puts a seed of a "what if" scenario in your mind, and the characters grow from mere strangers to familiar personalities in just over 50 pages.
Simply fantastic.