Science Fiction Books > 5 GBP to 9 GBP Science Fiction Books > J

Good read

Advantages: Extra material compared to film
Disadvantages: Kirk dies

Although the film may not have been brilliant, the book was and still is. The author has added scenes that could not be portrayed in the film such as the conversation between Kirk SPock and McCoy before the launch of the USS ENterprise B. This particular chapter is very moving and i have known people to cry over reading it. The book also describes things which were cut from the film due to costs or that the computers needed to do the required special ...
...book a while back and have read it many times, each time in one sitting because I have been unable to put the book down, which is a stark comparision to the film because that is no where near the standard of many of the other films such as first contact or the voyage home. ...

robjlawler 13.07.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Star Trek Generations - J.M. Dillard

The best things come in small packages

Advantages: You can get your Dresden Files fix with a whole new plot
Disadvantages: Not as witty as previous novels

Hello everyone! Long time no review! Now i'm on my summer holidays, i can catch up on my "to review" list, and i figure, where's the best place to start than with my favourite author, Jim Butcher's, latest enstallment of the Dresden Files? If you look at my reviews, you'll find a full 8 of them on this series ( i didn't review White Night as SohoBlack reviewed it first, and i agree with his opinions) So....Small Favour. the 10th Drseden Files novel. ...
...is. What else have we come to expect from Butcher? Once again, Dresden, the wizard investigator in Chicago is on the trail of killers and kidnappers, and finding himself generally out of his depth. As the last novel required a little thinking on the readers behalf (all those badddies could get a bit confusing), in this enstalment, Butcher is simplifying the plot by showing clearly who the bad guys are: with the added bonus of the reader having already ...

super-t 03.07.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Small Favour - Jim Butcher

Star King

Advantages: Imaginative, original, enthralling, funny
Disadvantages: Fantastic, incredible (or are these more advantages?)

...Drop names or references into the conversation, just to see how the other person will react. Whenever I find discussion turning to science fiction, I ask neutrally: “What do you think of Jack Vance?” Generally people respond in one of three ways: 1. If they say “Never really got on with him,” I know I’ll never really get on with them either. 2. If they say “Who?” I take it as a sign that (i) they don’t really know much about SF and (ii) they are ...
...they say “Oh yes, he’s the greatest,” I know I have found a soulmate and that the ensuing exchange of enthusiasm will run and run and run. So take your choice now in deciding whether to read on. ***************************************************** What makes Vance so special? 1. He is extraordinarily imaginative. More than any other writer in the genre, Vance gives the impression of having chosen science fiction because the familiar world is ...

torr 15.03.2004 · Read full review
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Review of The Demon Princes - Jack Vance

Buying the farm

Advantages: An entertaining read.
Disadvantages: Somewhat slower than previous book.

Kildar is the title of the 2nd book by John Ringo of the life and adventures of Mike Harmon, a former SEAL who has left the forces due to injury and other reasons. In the first book, Mike is studying history at university when he comes across a kidnap. He takes action and finds himself with a situation where some 50 American female college students have been kidnapped to be tortured and raped live on television in order to force the U.S.A. out of ...
...situation, getting himself badly shot up in the process. The American government gives him a nice reward. Following this he falls fowl again of further Islamic terrorist plots involving nuclear weapons in the U.S.A. and in France. He receives further rewards and also hatred from the Islamic groups he has thwarted. He is also not popular in France. So he has decided to take a holiday and has gone to Georgia, The country not the state. This novel ...

Coloneljohn 18.06.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Kildar - John Ringo

Worlds War?

Advantages: A very entertaining read.
Disadvantages: America to the rescue (but the authors are American)

...for a better story. Von Neumann was an Austrian mathematician and very clever scientist. Unless or until we can overcome the light speed limit, large scale colonisation of any galaxy will take centuries if not millennia. Accelerating the mass of a space ship with a human cargo and all the life support capabilities will take a very powerful power source to get any reasonable speed. Then you also have the problems with mass. (I am not going to give ...
...energy to move. Von Neumann supposed a small machine capable of self replication. Once a certain trigger threshold had been reached a more complex programming could be undertaken. This is not so far fetched as people may think. Consider the fertilisation of egg with sperm. Once accomplished all the information to complete a new adult is contained in ONE cell. Something that you can only see with a microscope. So a method of space colonisation would ...

Coloneljohn 19.09.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Von Neumann's War - John Ringo