David BischoffBesprekingen

F/SF

F/SF

Drivel - not up to the standard of the original Bill the Galactic Hero. Worst of the sequels.

Not very good overall, I fear. The depiction of autism is dated at best and offensive at worst, and the writing nor plot satisfies. It's interesting to see the Enterprise so hurt it has to dock at a starbase, but literally nothing else about it is particularly believable, and the characters aren't lifelike either. Just not good.

An original story While reading this book, I was wondering what this has to do with the original graphic novel because it doesn't really relate it that much.
Although the main character is resurrected it doesn't happen until about half way through the book.
William Blessing is one of the main characters he is an expert and obsessed with Edgar Allan Poe the writer and poet from the 18-19th century.
At first I found his character a little boring, but one he was murdered and he was resurrected the plot for this character picked up the pace. Mick Prince and the gothiques are a group of friends who are goths and they get the idea from William's protege to break and loot the Poe collection of first edition signed books in William Blessing's library. Mick Prince is a psychopath and a murderer, he would willingly murder anyone for money or if that particular person was a nuisance with a big mouth for example.
However things don't go according to plan, after William discovered that he was betrayed by his protege Donald Marquette and the direct result of it is that his wife Amy is beaten and raped and William is murdered by Donald and his friends the Marquis and count Mishka.
William is resurrected and allowed by the crow to seek vengeance upon the people that were directly responsible for the rape and beating of his wife and to avenge his own murder.
I liked reading the parts of the book about Edgar Allan Poe and his siblings and parents.
I wasn't aware that he had any siblings because his family isn't mentioned much in books or in any adaptations about him.
If you are a fan of Edgar Allan Poe then you will love this book, because before the start of every chapter there is a quote from Edgar Allan Poe's poems and short stories.

review of
David Bischoff's Nightworld
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 8, 2017

This is Bischoff's 1st published novel, he was born in December, 1951, in Washington, D.C., I was born in September, 1953, in nearby Baltimore, this was published in 1979, Bischoff wd've been 27 at the time. So, yeah, I suppose somewhere in the back of my thoughts I tend to appraise this w/ those factoids in mind. I've only previously read his The Crunch Bunch (1985) wch was a Young Adult novel. I liked it but had already forgotten it a mere 8 mnths later. That's to be expected, I read it as 'light reading', the same reason I read this one.

Usually when I choose to read something 'light' it's b/c I've just finished something 'heavy' (in this case Mark Abley's Spoken Here - Travels Among Threatened Languages: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/548094-unfortunately-no-longer-spoken-here?... ) &/or b/c I'm in the midst of reading something 'heavy' (in this case Victor Hugo's Notre Dame back-to-back in the same bk w/ his The History of a Crime) & I 'need' a break. The 'inevitable' problem then ensues that the 'light' reading does provide welcome relief but fares poorly in contrast. Such is the case here w/ Nightworld.

So, yeah, Nightworld is 'light' alright, it has a sufficiently engrossing plot but nothing visionary, it's funny(-ish), the writing style's not about to go-down-in-history but it does its job. In the PROLOGUE the stage is already set:

"The vampire turned in the same direction, for at the base of the mountain lay the Gates.

"They gleamed with silver fire as the vampire approached and slipped its identification card into the appropriate slot. With a sharp-nailed finger, it tapped the combination.

"A voice erupted from the speaker grille . . .

""Guardian Nine Oh Sex Aye Four," it said in an emotionless monotone. "You are expected, Vampire Four Nine Bee Oh Oh. The Master awaits. Follow the red arrows to the elevator. The path has been altered since last you entered. To veer from it is to suffer damnation—"" - p 2

Here we have the vampire trope updated for the computer era. I've long since tired of traditional monster stories, having read Dracula in 1965 or thereabouts & having gotten bored w/ the tendency of hacks to beat a(n un)dead blood-sucker to death w/ a sharpened stake. Still, Bischoff has a fresh take on things & that helps save this novel: S-O-N! Save-Our-Novel!

This is one of those reviews where I have almost nothing to say about the bk b/c it's plot-centric & I don't want to be a spoiler. The stage gets set further:

""Centuries ago, this world was a colony of an empire in space. For reasons of its own, that Empire designed this world in a style which belonged to a time centuries past on the Homeworld. But then, the Empire suddenly died, or, at any rate, lost contact with this world.

""Styx's technological facilities, which were quite extensive, were regulated by a machine called a Computer, situated somewhere deep below the surface of the planet, For some reason, the Computer malfunctioned, doing strange things to the environment, manufacturing hideous creatures, and recreating terrible mythological conditions modeled on the many legends of Homeworld's myth-rich past."" - p 17

Right, likely story.. That's a good enuf premise for a bk to sprout out of, esp if it pleases Satan: "This was the most important task ever set before the hoofed little fellow, and above all else it wished to do a good job, to please the Master. Pleasing Satan meant long hours immersed in pleasure-center stimulation. Did Bischoff get to immerse himself in "pleasure-center stimulation" after pleasing his publisher? Or did someone like Penelope come along?:

"But those lines of her face seemed designed, rather than a random collection of parental characteristics. They were that perfect—smooth, symmetrical, aesthetic yet specially accentuated into an idealization of facial structure." - p 93

Yeah.. wassup w/ Penelope?! No doubt, yer average reader figures out pretty early what her story is but.. I won't ruin it for you. &, no, she's not "Miss Jones".

"Fierce pride pulsed through the memories. Strong hatred for the Divine throbbed through them. Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven. Better an independent entity in tortuous solitude than a lackey to some other Consciousness." - p 110

It's odd. That's the 2nd time the "Better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven" has been quoted in my presence in the last yr. My retort is: Better to not rule or be ruled. I mean: Why wd I want to rule in Heaven or Hell? Or anywhere else? Or serve anywhere either? Neither Masters nor Slaves. N'at. For that matter, better an independent entity in sociable solidarity than a lackey to some other Consciousness.

The story follows a pretty standard line: bucolic-hero-gets-life-disrupted-&-goes-on-hero's-journey-to-come-back-a-better-man. N'at. What the heck, I like this myth. I prefer it to hero-goes-out-meaning-well-& gets-psychologically-&-partially-physically-destroyed. I think of James P. Blaylock's The Elfin Ship & The Disappearing Dwarf &/or Esther Friesner's Majyk By Accident & Majyk by Hook or Crook & Majyk by Design - not that those are 'classic' examples or anything.

"His had been a placid life before, secure, reliable, steady. He knew who he was, who his parents were, who his God was, and how he related to all. He had a solid, tangible place in his world. His world was an important wheel that fit into the machinery of what he knew. Indeed, he was able to look nostalgically at the events of only two weeks ago, before the advent of Turner in his life. The Oliver Dolan who had those experiences seemed tangibly altered from the youth now suffering from insomnia." - p 116

This having been published in 1979, tape was still cutting edge technology. I know that my space ship will have VHS no matter what.

"The captain let that pass. He walked to an instrument panel between a pilot and copilot who were busily supervising orbital insertion, drew a small cassette from the breast pocket of his uniform, and slotted it.

""This little recording was made specifically for you, to be viewed upon near-arrival on Styx," Worthington said, punching 'play', "Check the video."" - p 130

You can tell this spaceship is less technologically advanced than mine wd be b/c they're using mini-dvs, a storage unit w/ a very limited lifespan. That must be why the captain punched the play button instead of more gently pressing it. The thing is that that type of frustration-venting just tends to make matters worse.

The character that saves & disrupts Oliver Dolan's life is Geoffrey Turner:

"010101111—TURNER, GEOFFREY: PRESENT PSEUDONYM OF HISTORICAL MANDROID PRODUCED 2266 AD. LAST IMPERIAL DUTY: SUPERVISION OF WORLD-SCAPING OF PLANET STYX OF STAR SYSTEM AZ108063. PREVIOUS NOTORIETY: NOVELIST FAMED FOR WORKS OF SCIENCE FICTION—'THE TIME MACHINE' (1895); 'WAR OF THE WORLDS' (1898); 'FIRST MEN ON THE MOON' (1901) FURTHER INFORMATION: 010101110 — WELL, H. (HERBERT) G. (GEORGE)." - p 141

H. G. Wells, homage has been pd to him in many a story. I wondered whether "Geoffrey Turner" was an in-joke name, such as the name of a Wells character, but I haven't reached any satisfactory conclusion.

""Of course, her activities took decades. Bust she was in no hurry—she was effectively immortal. And when the revolution came, not a shot was fired, not a person killed. There was no coup as such. Over the years and under the careful guiding hand of the computer Victoria, society began to emulate British Victorian society. English became the standard language of the world—British English. The sort we speak now." - p 145

But are the characters speaking "British English"? I actually didn't notice any instances of clear Americanisms OR Britishisms. I didn't notice any colour vs color of theater vs theatre.

Anyway, the hero gets his opportunity for pay-off but doesn't even obtain "orbital insertion". Too bad.

""You're safe," she said. About her torso she wore a skin-tight glossy sheath ornamented with strips of dazzling, winking lights and gemstone clusters. This material rose to a point just below her breasts, which were bare beneath the translucence of a silky top. Her legs were wrapped in the gauzy nothing of a full, sweeping skirt speckled with mirror-beads that shone in the light." - p 193

review of
David Bischoff's The Crunch Bunch
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - August 31, 2016

When I bought this I didn't realize it was aimed at teens, I just thought it might be light reading, funny. It IS aimed at teens, that's ok, at least lit aimed at young people isn't generally depressing - once it's aimed at adults it's 'ok' for it to be so morbid & miserable that the reader feels like killing themselves. Like after witnessing a movie by Fassbinder. He DID kill himself. No wonder. This is an Avon Flare novel, apparently Avon's YA (Young Adult) imprint. I reckon in YA novels the characters may kiss but may NOT go any further. It begins:

"Although I've never seen Brandon Torrance smoke any dope, the guy usually acts like he's stoned out of his mind.

"I mean, take the very first time I saw him. We're both tenth-graders at Eisenhower High and we got stuck in the same chorus class together." - p 11

This was published in 1985. Apparently pot-smoking was common enuf by then to be acceptable as something to be referenced in a YA novel - as long as it's not encouraged. Fine.

"I think it was the second week of school that I brought my science fiction book into chorus class. The science fiction book started everything I'm going to tell you about, really." - p 12

Apparently promoting the reading of SF is also ok. After all, this is an SF bk. I think that's kindof interesting. Do you ever think about the possible significance of ingesting plant substances & their synthesized derivatives? Of course, we do it every day. You are what you eat, you are what you get high on. Sometimes I think that when people get high on plants they become plant-like. When they do it too much they become 'vegetables'. Loco Weed (Jimson Weed) is notoriously dangerous for you in that respect. Of course, I'm oversimplifying but I remember taking peyote & finding myself imagining putting down roots & sensing things telepathically. I thought of myself as thinking like peyote.

So what happens to you if you read SciFi? You're probably already a bookworm or you wdn't be reading it in the 1st place. I read an enormous amt of SF & I'm ok.. aren't I? I don't hear any reassuring affirmations people! Maybe that's b/c we're not actually in a conversation here.. altho in SF we cd be - wch is one of the fun things about it.

There's some parent-spoofing here, the POV is sympathetic to the teen character. The mom isn't that different from my own, except that my mom probably doesn't know what "perverse" means:

""William, I can't believe you. You're getting so twisted, so perverse! Where is the nice little boy who used to sing in the youth choir at church? Where is the pleasant little fellow who used to do his chores so uncomplainingly? I realize you're older now and feel it necessary to show us that you're independent. But you're still only fifteen, and I'm still your mother. God Himself and the government give me the right as your mother to oversee your growth, and I honestly just don't like the path your feet are on!"" - p 18

Our hero, the above-harangued Bill, gets sucked into being Brandon's friend b/c Brandon's sister has a good SF collection:

"A whole section of shelf was devoted to old pulps. Above these I saw Keith Laumer novels, Robert Heinlein novels, Anne McCaffrey novels. A saw Piers Anthony books and Isaac Asimov books and Ray Bradbury books. And fantasy! She must have had every fantasy written in the last century. Tolkein. Donaldson. Even the Gormenghast trilogy by Peake." - p 23

Interesting. Of course such a list appeals to me. Are these Bischoff's favorite writers? OR were they his favorite writers when he was a teen? OR are they all published by Avon? That doesn't seem to be the case, at least w/ the ones I have in my personal library by Laumer, Heinlein, Asimov, Tolkein, & Peake. OR all they all considered age-appropriate? Heinlein's a total lech so I have my doubts about him & Peake, well I love his Gormenghast Trilogy & read it while I was in my mid-teens but, contrary to what I wrote above, it's a bit grim (as I remember it). I remember Bradbury as being pretty menacing & grim too.

I like reading bks that feature computers as main frames (Ha ha! Get it?!), uh, as main framing devices, & I like reading ones from the early days of when home computers were becoming available to well-to-do families (not mine!), 1985 in this instance:

"I got up. Kinda dazed. I followed her over. "Bulletin board?" I muttered.

""Yeah. We can just hook old Apollo here to bigger outside computers where other programmers will be able to see that we need help. We connect it through a modem."

""Modem?"

""Yeah." She tapped a strange-looking box. "A modulator-demodulator. Digital audible, analog signals, and all that. You can link up computers vis telephone lines with them."" - p 33

My how things have changed in the last 31 yrs. I wonder if the-youth-of-today (in richer countries) wd find this so prehistoric as to be annoying. Let no child be w/o personal GPS coordinates!

This was written in the Reagan era, a time when any pretense of intellect in a president was apparently no longer a requirement for the job. The mom continues to represent the Reagan era values (except that she knows funny words like "capitalism" wch my mom wdn't've):

""Well, well, well," my father said. "Talk about coincidences! There's an article in the paper today about the fact that the president is helping to introduce a bill into Congress that will cut appropriations to radio-telescopes and the space program."

""High time," my mother said. "Why throw all our money into outer space when we should spend it spreading Christianity and capitalism throughout the world."

""What?" I cried.

""Yes, indeedy! Your man Doctor Amos Hagar is even quoted." Dad began to read. " 'I suppose it's just as well. I'd have to explain to extraterrestrial life why the richest country on Earth elected a B-movie actor to its highest office.' " My father shook his head." - p 39

The teens conceive of a way around this dilemma - complete w/ philosophical justification:

"You've heard the question: If a tree falls in the middle of a forest, but there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?

"Similarly, if Brandon and Courtney and Bill don't get caught trying to fake a message from outer space by crunching the computer of their friendly local radio-telescope, is it a crime?" - p 53

Yes, this involves hacking, always a favorite subject of mine:

"Nope. This business wasn't going to be easy, no matter how simple that War Games movie makes it look." - p 55

That got me to wondering: what was the 1st computer hacking movie? I noted that "Mr. Bischoff wrote the novelization of the movie War Games" (p 143) & that might be the earliest one I remember, maybe the 1st one I saw. SO, I looked it up online.

Wikipedia provides this list:

Hacking

* The Italian Job (1969)
* Sneakers (1992)
* Hackers (1995)
* The Net (1995)
* Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
* Takedown (2000)
* The Score (2001)
* Swordfish (2001)
* Foolproof (2003)
* The Italian Job (2003)
* Firewall (2006)
* Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
* Untraceable (2008)
* The Social Network (2010)
* We Are Legion (2012)
* The Fifth Estate (2013)
* Algorithm: The Hacker Movie (2014)
* The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz (2014)
* Open Windows (2014)
* Who Am I – No System Is Safe (2014)
* Mr. Robot (2015)
* Blackhat (2015)

Motion picture

* Tron (1982)
* WarGames (1983)
o IMSAI 8080
* Prime Risk (1985)
* Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
* Defense Play (1989)
o IBM Personal Computer XT
* Sneakers (1992)
* Hackers (1995)
* The Net (1995)
* Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995)
* Masterminds (1997)
* 23 (1998)
* Entrapment (1999)
* The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
* Takedown (2000)
* Swordfish (2001)
* What's the Worst That Could Happen? (2001)
* Code Hunter (2002)
* Bedwin Hacker (2003)
* The Italian Job (2003)
* The Incredibles (2004)
* Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
* Firewall (2006)
* The Net 2.0 (2006)
* Live Free or Die Hard (2007)
* WALL-E (2008)
* WarGames: The Dead Code (2008)
* Robot & Frank (2012)
* Disconnect (2013)
* Algorithm - The Hacker Movie (2014)
* Chappie (2015)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_about_computers#Motion_picture

It's not really clear to me why War Games us under "Motion Pictures" instead of "Hacking" since both categories are about motion pictures that involve hacking. On TechWorm's "11 Best Hacking Movies That You Should Watch Right Now" website there's this list:

#1 Algorithm (2014)
#2 WarGames (1983)
#3 Hackers (1995)
#4 The Matrix (1999)
#5 Takedown (2000)
#6 The Italian Job (2003)
#7 Live free or die hard (2007)
#8 Blackhat (2015)
#9 Untraceable (2008)
#10 Eagle Eye (2008)
#11 Fifth Estate (2013)

- http://www.techworm.net/2016/03/10-best-hacking-movies-watch-right-now.html

At any rate, it seems that the 1969 version of The Italian Job is the earliest of the lot so now I'm curious about that one. I can always use more entertaining explication:

"Astronomers have been using radio-telescopes seriously for only a little over twenty years, but the instruments have proven marvelously useful. Optical telescopes can only pick up so much. The ideal lens-and-mirror-type getup would be out in space or on the moon or anywhere so that it doesn't have to contend with the Earth's atmosphere. Thanks to the ionosphere and dust and junk, lots of starlight doesn't make it through. But radio waves do. In fact, a lot of starlight can't get through the huge clouds of interstellar dust hanging through most parts of the universe. But radio waves do." - p 61

Interesting, right? What if it were to be discovered that there's something even better than radio waves to monitor?

As part of Bill's distraction routine during one part of the hack, he evokes conceptual ceiling art:

""Uh, just a moment, Mr. Martinez," I said, desperately grabbing his sleeve. "Is there any way I can get some of this graph paper with these markings and take it home with me?"

"He thought for a moment. "Not these particular sections. Maybe I can scrounge up some for you in the trash somewhere, though."

""That would be really great. A whole bunch, too. I think it might be a kick to uh, well, put some of this stuff on my ceiling."

""Your ceiling?"

""Oh, yeah. Ceiling art is all the rage at school. And besides, it's so . . . conceptual. Kind of like a paper planetarium. Looking at the radio waves from the stars. Yeah! I like the idea more & more! Just think . . . it will be a great excuse to get girls to come into my bedroom. Come and stare at the stars, I'll say. I'll be absolutely irresistible!"" - p 67

Welp, that's a perfect excuse for a tangent. Way back somewhere between 1978 & 1981 I made a present for my girlfriend. It was multiple large sheets of paper with a painted outline of the state of Maryland. These had some sort of backing skeleton w/ a central pivot point. I hung them from the ceiling of her bedroom in such a way so that each one cd spin separately & so that all of them cd be seen at once. I thought it was great! My girlfriend, on the other hand, being of a more portrait-preferring mentality & not liking things that moved very much, didn't like it. As far as I know, she destroyed it. Interestingly, my body of surviving 'art works' wd be at least twice as large if it weren't for the censoring viciousness of my various girlfriends. It's too bad, really, b/c I've made some very nice things that've been destroyed by them. Ahem.

The above cd be taken as a generalization about women. Bischoff's observation below definitely jives w/ my experience:

"So when Bill Keester, the wallpaper kid, starts holding hands in the halls with the cutest junior in school, heads start turning and tongues start wagging. Who was this guy? Isn't Courtney Torrance the girl big Morgue Waggoner has his eye on? How could she ignore one of Ike-o's Psychos and go for a klutz like that? Maybe he's not such a klutz. And you know, come to think of it, he is kind of cute.

"Suddenly, all the girls were looking at me. And they were talking to me, too! Like "Hi, Bill" and "I'm giving a party, Bill. You and Courtney have got to come." All this from females who wouldn't give me the time of day before. And from the way they looked at me I knew they wouldn't have minded at all if I came to those parties alone." - p 81

Still, women, like humans, can be seen as entertainment w/ the right degree of detachment:

"The big alien shook its ugly, wrinkled face and made a sighing sound.

"Norwrack said, "Please understand, we have nothing against human beings. Actually my ally and I, stationed here in this Solar System as we are, find ourselves rather fond of you. You creatures are so much more entertaining than the last intelligent life we surveyed."

""Rock people!" X said. "Didn't move around too much."" - p 117

This book is solid mediocrity from beginning to end. There are a lot of interesting ideas and I did read all the way through it, but the whole time you get a TV Movie script vibe from the whole thing. The book is trying to be funny and deep and exciting and doesn't quite live up to any of them.

COLECCION "CINCO ESTRELLAS" Nº 107

Mariko Noguchi's story continues in Hunter's Planet. After spending some time amongst the Predators (Yautja), she returns to a human colony. Soon, she is tapped by a billionaire who is creating a hunters' planet where the prey are bioengineered and lethal. However, like similar stories (from Island of Dr. Moreau to Jurassic Park), messing with the natural order of things to create monsters often backfires. And it does backfire here as well. Noguchi is the only one able to handle the crisis, but she has to take over the planet and once again run with Predators to overcome. It is something her boss is not about to allow.

Fans of the franchise will like this book. Anyone wanting a quick escapist adventure read will like it as well. Those wanting more insight on the Predators and their society will find it here. A bit slow in the middle, but once the pace picks up, you read right through the end. By the way, I think if the movie makers would have used some of these stories in the AvP movies, instead of the barely passable stuff they hoisted on us the movies would have been much better.

Twas a silly book

One of my favorite books of all time. Bought it as a child and have since purchased it several times when my copy falls apart. A simple but great little story. The type of tale that has its own place in your heart through the years...particularly if it is one of the first things you ever read.

Read this when I was sick from school as a kid. The world was much scarier back them with nuclear war hanging over us.

I couldn't finish it. I couldn't even ever get into it. It just seemed a little too forced, a little too '80s, a little too Battlestar Gallactica, a little too dorky to me. It's like the author was trying too hard to be sci fi cool and didn't quite pull it off. He should have eased off the transmission just a touch.

The book had potential. When her beloved super scientist brother Cal Shemzak is abducted by the mysterious Jaxdron aliens, with whom humanity has been at war for some five or more years now, super cyborg agent, blip ship pilot, feisty Laura Shemzak talks her way onto a very top secret spaceship for the purpose of finding him. Only to to be attacked and boarded by pirates while on the way to that ship. She attacks the pirates, holds one hostage, demands the pirate captain take her where she wants to go, and is pretty much laughed at. The captain, one charismatic yet annoying as hell Tars Northern, in charge of the Starbow, a pretty awesome ship, and his bizarre crew of humans, aliens, and robot pirates/mercenaries, may or may not help her.

Okay. I can partially buy that, I guess. But since the pirates were just taking freight off Laura's ship, why couldn't she have stayed on that ship and continued to her destination to pick up her super ship to go off in search of her brother? Why hijack a group of ultra-dangerous pirates and ask them to take you to another location just cause you need a quick ride? That seemed odd. And Cal. His character seemed a little too stereotypically one dimensional for my liking. Immature, naive, brilliant, no real depth, coward. Pretty unlikable. And their society of "Friends." Haven't we seen such cultures portrayed relentlessly in sci fi books and movies throughout the decades over and over again until it's become quite tiring? Something a little more original might have been preferable. And frankly, the incest thing threw me just a bit. Trust me, I'm no prude and God knows I've read enough Heinlein (and even de Sade) to have seen the worst, but many male sci fi writers are freaking perverts, I've discovered over the years, and to write of these siblings' love as though it were proper and good and balanced and healthy and as though society was the sick entity for looking down on them for their incestuous relationship... Well, that's just a little bit too much for me to swallow. I can handle a little taboo to some degree, but to be so ho hum about it strikes me as odd. Finally, Laura. She was a super agent for the Federation. She could go anywhere, do anything. She had the training, the hardwiring, the cybernetics. And yet she could go off at a moment's notice. Wouldn't you have thought they would have done personality profiles on their agents and psychological testings? Wouldn't you have thought they would have "conditioned" their top agents they've invested millions or more in to ensure they wouldn't fly off the handle and go rogue? To see Laura go nuts when she learns of her brother's capture and insistence upon personally going off into alien territory to rescue him without aid is incomprehensible.

Frankly, not much about this book makes much sense. Laura constantly takes stupid risks, is a reactionary, usually for no good reason, seems nearly as immature as her brother, and neither protagonist seems particularly likable to me, at least not enough to finish the book. I've read the 10 Goodreads reviews and was surprised to see several positive things said in the four and five star reviews, but noted the book as a whole as a sub-3.5 rating. That's probably being generous, in my opinion. If handled well by a decent author, this book had the potential to be okay, I think. Not great, but okay. But it wasn't. And as a result, I think it's largely a waste of time. Not recommended.

Imagine the best of [a:E.E. Smith|4477395|E.E. Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1315184002p2/4477395.jpg] or [a:John W. Campbell|5410853|John W. Campbell|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1333994237p2/5410853.jpg], get rid of the racism, misogyny, & update the science a bit & you have a pretty good idea of the basics.

I'm stretching a bit to give this 4 stars, but I love space opera & that's what this is. Witty, fast paced with an almost magical plot, it's a lot of fun. The characters start out as caricatures, but are developing into real people. There is a fun heroine & an intriguing 'bad' guy who might actually be good, but the final vote hasn't been cast yet.

That's it, just dumb fun, but it is a lot of fun. On to [b:Galactic Warriors|2349070|Galactic Warriors|David Bischoff|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1299386973s/2349070.jpg|2355781]!

Another fun space opera romp. These books should definitely be read in order, but they're quick, fun reads, so that's no problem.

This pretty much winds up the story arc of this space opera, but there is still plenty left for the heroes to do. Another fun romp. On to the next & - currently - last of the series, [b:The Planet Killer|14290997|The Planet Killer|David Bischoff|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337900296s/14290997.jpg|19932664].

The first thing that I noticed about this novel was that none of the characters really acted, or what was even more glaring, spoke like themselves. Data was the only one who even remotely seemed like himself. I think that the author was trying to get a certain character to sound more erudite while others sounded more 'down' with the lingo and less formal. I don't think it worked.

In general the writing just seemed clunkier than the average Star Trek novel. Which made it a bit hard to get into.

The story was basic enough. Enterprise answers a distress call from a science station, and from there chaos ensues thanks to a new and interesting life form. Not a very unique Star Trek plot, though it does have its own different twists (and the autism subplot was interesting).

Still the writing was very hard to get past so that the book could be enjoyed. Instead at every turn and every new page I tripped over wrong sounding characters and mostly bad writing. A shame.

I'm not completely sure, since I was only 7 or 8 at the time, but I think this was the first Time Machine book I checked out from our school library and read through to the end. It wasn't assigned by my teacher, and therefore I didn't have to read it. (And as a running around outdoors kind of kid, reading appealed to me about as much as watching C-SPAN.) So I may not have bothered at all except that I remember getting pulled into the story after just a few pages. "Wow," my childhood self probably thought, "I didn't know reading could be fun!"

I'd be lying if I said I became a lifelong reader right then—that wouldn't come for another 10 years—but I suspect the seed was planted.½

Takes all the typical fantasy elements, such as a pseudo-medieval society, mythical creatures, and a damsel in distress; and blends them with typical science fiction elements such as interplanetary empires, robots, and planet controlling computers. It's a fun read with a few surprises that make it memorable.

Here's a question for all those high-school football stars who don't have a care in the world: What do you do when you realize your teacher is an alien? Freak out, because it's much worse than that :)This is a playful look at an American high-schooler's life. Lots of SF action and good story telling. If you enjoy books with strange plot twists and a humorous take on American lifestyle, give this a read. Highly recommended for all fans of David Bischoff.

I'm in a special position to write a review because it was my privilege to work with David Bischoff and help him republish this as an eBook with Hotspur Publishing.Book #3 in the series, THE MACROCOSMIC CONFLICT is a lot of fun. It's classic space opera, with a kick-ass heroin named Laura Shemzak. She's not only a cyborg, with incredible strength and agility, but she's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. There is a love interest between her and her brother, Cal Shemzak, but don't get too grossed out by that. Cal and Laura are siblings because they were born from the same Federation cloning vats. Or were they? As the adventure unfolds, you'll need to decide what's true and what's not.Then there's captain Tars Northern, a strapping Space Pirate who is smitten by Laura's beauty and courage. But his first allegiance is to his starship (The Starbow) and his loyal crew. Will love prevail as Tars and Laura fight treacherous forces lurking in both the Galactic Federation and the enemy Jaxdron empire? You'll have to read all the book's in the series to find out.I found it an absolute blast to not only read this book and the others in the series, but to work with David and re-edit the book for today's readers. We made sure all the technologically dependent scenes have been updated, so that after almost three decades out of print, you'll find the ebook version as fresh and fun as ever. It's also fun to read the old paper versions too, just gloss over the parts that don't take your iPad/iTouch/Android wireless world into account :)

I'm in a special position to write a review because it was my privilege to work with David Bischoff and help him republish this as an eBook with Hotspur Publishing.Book #2 in the series, GALACTIC WARRIORS, is a lot of fun. It's classic space opera, with a kick-ass heroin named Laura Shemzak. She's not only a cyborg, with incredible strength and agility, but she's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. There is a love interest between her and her brother, Cal Shemzak, but don't get too grossed out by that. Cal and Laura are siblings because they were born from the same Federation cloning vats. Or were they? As the adventure unfolds, you'll need to decide what's true and what's not.Then there's captain Tars Northern, a strapping Space Pirate who is smitten by Laura's beauty and courage. But his first allegiance is to his starship (The Starbow) and his loyal crew. Will love prevail as Tars and Laura fight treacherous forces lurking in both the Galactic Federation and the enemy Jaxdron empire? You'll have to read all the book's in the series to find out.I found it an absolute blast to not only read this book and the others in the series, but to work with David and re-edit the book for today's readers. We made sure all the technologically dependent scenes have been updated, so that after almost three decades out of print, you'll find the ebook version as fresh and fun as ever. It's also fun to read the old paper versions too, just gloss over the parts that don't take your iPad/iTouch/Android wireless world into account :)

This book is not only beautifully written, but a very captivating fantasy novel with lots of humor. If you're looking for something different, I highly recommend you give this book a read.

I'm in a special position to write a review because it was my privilege to work with David Bischoff and help him republish this as an eBook with Hotspur Publishing.Book #1 in the series, THE INFINITE BATTLE is a lot of fun. It's classic space opera, with a kick-ass heroin named Laura Shemzak. She's not only a cyborg, with incredible strength and agility, but she's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. There is a love interest between her and her brother, Cal Shemzak, but don't get too grossed out by that. Cal and Laura are siblings because they were born from the same Federation cloning vats. Or were they? As the adventure unfolds, you'll need to decide what's true and what's not.Then there's captain Tars Northern, a strapping Space Pirate who is smitten by Laura's beauty and courage. But his first allegiance is to his starship (The Starbow) and his loyal crew. Will love prevail as Tars and Laura fight treacherous forces lurking in both the Galactic Federation and the enemy Jaxdron empire? You'll have to read all the book's in the series to find out.I found it an absolute blast to not only read this book and the others in the series, but to work with David and re-edit the book for today's readers. We made sure all the technologically dependent scenes have been updated, so that after almost three decades out of print, you'll find the ebook version as fresh and fun as ever. It's also fun to read the old paper versions too, just gloss over the parts that don't take your iPad/iTouch/Adroid wireless world into account :)