Science Fiction Books > S Science Fiction Books

Settle This Hash! Space Captain Smith

Advantages: Strong characters, good jokes, exciting action
Disadvantages: A few duff gags?

...that Victorian Britain somehow rules space through tea, moral fibre and good bearing, isn't laboured in this book, although Britain's antagonistic relationship with the French is referenced pretty frequently. The set-up comes over mostly through the character of Isambard Smith. Heroic, chivalrous, ruthless, gung-ho, quite stupid, incredibly lucky and English to the core, Smith is a fantastic comic creation who can always be counted on to say the ...
...highlight was his ranting about his school days while disintegrating Ghast troopers in one of the novel's climactic battles. He also has a strong line in catchphrases. 'I'll settle your hash' crops up several times like a public school Terminator, and a successful mission tends to lead to a line about 'tiffin'. There are also some knowing parodies of other works. Rick Dreckitt is a brilliant inverted parody of Blade Runner's Deckard - an android ...

Olly_Plimsoll 13.05.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Space Captain Smith - Toby Frost

Much read

Advantages: Thought provoking
Disadvantages: Can cause you to look at life on Earth differently

Although the language and the social mores illustrated in this novel are outdated by modern standards, many pf the ideas and concepts raised are still challenging. Michael, the hero of the book is the offspring of members of hte first manned trip to Mars. When his parents die, he is raised by the local inhabitants, until he is 'rescued' by the next mission. Michael returns to Earth, bringing with him a whole new outlook on life. During the course ...
...my ingrained opinions and taboos. it deals with sexual fidelaty, monogomy, insest, canabalism and several more...not always in a way that is flattering to the human race. This is a novel that changed the way I think. It made me consider everything that I had previously acccepted as the absolute truth. It is a novel I re-read at interval, and one that I always recommend to someone exploring the more meaningful side of sci-fi/fantasy. ...

RoseButterfly 25.04.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein

So long, and thanks for all the laughs...

Advantages: Easily the the most intelligent and well-written book of the Hitchhiker's series.
Disadvantages: Little input from some of the best characters.

...the Earth here after being so unexpectedly blown-up in the first book? On the way home, he hitchhikes (not surprisingly!) and is picked up by a robust ginger-haired man called Rufus. Nothing particularly odd about that, until Arthur glances behind him and looks upon the sleeping woman-of-his-dreams; Fenchurch (named according to the London station where she was conceived...) But, before he can find out more about her, Arthur is dropped off outside ...
...again. At length, he returns to his normal life on Earth - his apartment is still there, his friend's are still present and well and the destruction of the Earth branded as 'something funny in the water' - nothing more than a mass hallucination. It also appears that it's only been a few months since Arthur Dent's mysterious disappearance. But Arthur knows better and goes about finding the exact location of the cave he lived in, in Prehistoric Earth. ...

Sam_Garland 10.07.2006 · Read full review
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Review of So Long, and thanks for all the Fish - Douglas Adams

Robert Heinlein, First and Best

Advantages: A very entertaining thoughtful reat
Disadvantages: Not to every ones liking

Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein. Published in 1959. Very brief synopsis:- With this book you follow the life of one Juan (Johnny) Rico from his enlistment in the Federal Service, Mobile Infantry, up to his command of a platoon of these troops in an Interstellar war. Mankind is facing a Bug like alien species, something like a giant ant crossed with a spider. Johnny Rico comes from a background of wealth and privilege and through peer pressure ...
...who has completed a minimum two year service has the Right to vote. Not everybody wants to serve and thus vote. A good part of the book is taking up with his time at boot camp and the training he undergoes. Running in the background that we are not aware of is the situation that is getting steadily worse, going from normal peace time through a state of emergency to a full war. The reasons for this we are not told. This book is written in the third ...

Coloneljohn 18.04.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein

Cyberpunk like it ought to be

Advantages: I love the name Hiro Protaganist; well written, and entertaining.
Disadvantages: Rather more science than I generally like from my fiction

...read the book. Snow Crash is a drug that has strange effects on people - on most people, it seems to make them speak in tongues; on a hacker, though, it is much more serious - it seems to short-circuit their brains. The plot involves Hiro trying to find the source of the drug, and stop his friends and colleagues being affected. The origin of the drug is quite, quite incredible, though there is rather a lot of explanation involved - you can see that ...

andrewsi 15.04.2001 · Read full review
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Review of Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson