Customer Reviews

Anti-Grav Unlimited

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A wonderfully entertaining and somewhat thought provoking work of "tounge-in-cheek" science fiction. Kind of reminiscent of some of Heinlein's work.

Phil Hunter has just discovered the invention of the age--working antigravity--when he's laid off from his job, the entire department shut down. Phil decides this is what he's been waiting for--a chance to become fabulously wealthy with his own company, Anti-Gravity Unlimited. With anti-gravity, not only is space flight a cheap possibility, perpetual motion is also possible. With a couple of anti-gravity rods, it's easy to hook up a generator and create unlimited electrical current. All of mankind's environmental problems are solved--as are any issues with poverty. Phil sees a new utopia--until his house is blown up and all of his former co-workers are listed as killed in the paper.

On the run, Phil heads for his best friend's house, only to discover that his best friend has abandoned his long-time girlfriend (and clone)--where a hitman disguised as a bag lady tries to gun both of them down. Together, Phil and Nikki try to figure out how to stay alive for long enough to mass produce enough anti-gravity rods to allow him to start his business. Still, where on earth can they hide if the entire world corporate government is after them?

Author Duncan Long creates an intriguing dystopic future where corporations have taken over the government and are gradually replacing workers with robots, forcing the masses into poverty. Long adds charm to the story by having Phil accept this world in a matter-of-fact way. Sure everyone goes armed and expects to run into ambushes if they travel the interstates. Sure, armored bag-lady hitmen are going to be out there. Long keeps his writing and his narrative simple. ANTI-GRAV UNLIMITED wasn't (I don't think) targetted as a young adult novel, but it could have been.

I kept expecting to see some big reversal, a black moment, but things seemed pretty easy for Phil and Nikki. Because Phil made a big deal about his best friend (the one who'd cloned Nikki), I anticipated that Craig would play an important role--as an antagonist. Instead, the primary antagonist didn't seem especially frightening.

Unlike some other dystopic novels written during this period, ANTI-GRAV UNLIMITED doesn't really push the envelope and make us question society's directions. It's simply a nice old-fashioned story about one guy trying to get rich and get the girl in the face of overwhelming odds. Nothing wrong with that--I enjoyed it.

Reminds me of the Heinlein books that got me started in SF (think 'Have Spacesuit, Will Travel').
I hope the typos mentioned by others were simply the result of a hasty data entry from the original print edition to the digital one. I never saw the original so I cannot say for sure. Only a couple of them are glaring enough to take the reader out of the story but I hope they get cleaned up before this entertaining book ever gets the reprint it deserves.
As for the suicidal 'bag ladies' I assumed they were 'programmed' with the same drug used on the Lincoln character. The bad guys were certainly portrayed as ruthless enough to expend a few pawns to keep their secrets.
Finally, If Duncan Long ever sees this I urge him to write a sequel. The ending certainly deserves one. It sure looks like he planned one. Let's hope he still has his notes.

This is one very good book :) I've had the pleasure of being able to have read this book since it was oiginally published, a estimated 32 times. It has a good plot and a large amount of excitement and suspense. The way the author wrote this book from the point of view of the main character telling you his own story and recent history, gave me the feeling that he was giving an interview to a young journalism student while on his "death bed", if you know what I mean. However the author ended the book in a way that could mean that there SHOULD be more books continuing where this one left off... Now for a final note to the author: PLEASE continue with this book's storyline I would be most gratefull :) Thank You.

Basically, it's a future-dystopia with a positive outlook. Corporations rule the Earth and prevent any technological development that might improve people's standard of living, wanting to keep us all as humble peons (sound familiar? *cynical moment*).

All is well in the land of rampant capitalism, when an inventor comes up with anti-grav rods that are a source of almost free, unlimited power (perpetual motion, yes!). While dodging corporate hit-men, who are actually hit-bag-ladies (for reasons never explained) he flies his van around and...well...you can read the book.

It's not great stuff - the bag ladies and their willingness to commit suicide at the drop of a hat were hard to swallow, and when we finally met the Big Bad, he was over-the-top and cliche-ish. Also, while I usually like romance subplots, this one was two-dimensional and the book would have been better off without it, IMNSHO. The ending is somewhat abrupt, too. And there are some wince-worthy typos, but you can fix those in the digital copy.

I think the real problem with it is the fact that it's got oodles of plot, but not really any *theme*. Nothing to make you think, nothing that really touches your heart and soul, no characters you fall in love with, or remember years later.

To be fair, there are good things about Antigrav Unlimited. It's entertaining enough to keep the pages turning. I probably won't ever reread it, but despite the cliches, it's a reasonably fun read. And it *is* a free download from www.baen.com's Free Library, so you can't beat the price. Give it a try sometime when you're out of things to read.

To the reviewer who's read it an ungodly number of times - well, I guess there's someone for every book, and I admit that I like a few that are less than original myself. They're...comfort food.

I thought that this book was decent, but only decent. I can't really say specifically why, but I found the writing style to be a touch sophomoric. I never really got the sense that the protagonist was in real danger, and everything he wanted to do seemed to come too easy for him; I didn't find the villains terribly well-realized either.

That being said, the entire book can be read for free, courtesy of Baen's Free Library, and it was at least diverting and entertaining enough to be worth "free". I probably wouldn't pay money for it, though.