Customer Reviews

Bill The Galactic Hero

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

You don't have to be a science fiction fan to like this book. There are no long, technical discussions of imaginary future technologies nor does the human race become different than it is now. What this book does as well or better than any other book is provide hilarious commentary on war and government as it follows the adventures of an everyman named Bill as he is drafted, sent to war, lied to, cheated and abused by every institution and bureacrat he comes in contact with. (Kind of reminds you of modern-day civilization, doesn't it?)

The simple plot follows a farm laborer named Bill as he is tricked into joining the army in a future inter-galactic war. I first read this book as a teen-ager and loved it though of course the military and the government were really our friends and not run by nut-cases concerned only with their own advancement as in the book. Well, re-reading this 30 years later after 4 years active duty and 5 in the reserves (They don't tell you that you can never leave the military if your specialty is needed when you try to resign) I find that this "satire" is a lot closer to the real military than almost any sincere book you can think of. Almost every ridiculously improbable military event in the book reminded me of similar real-life occurrences I participated in or heard about.

All in all, this book is entertaining and forces you to laugh even as identical monstrously wrong things happen in your own life. And, in case you're wondering, Bill does not triumph over the system, but ends up one more victim of bureaucracy and civilization.

This is one of the unacknowleged treasures of Science-Fiction. It's funny, biting, and to the point .It's crisp satire who dared touch sacred icons of Science Fiction like Asimov's Foundations (The planet in the central episode is clearly Trantor)and Heinlein's Starship Troopers. A little gem.

I first read this book back in Junior High, where some relative had most likely picked it up at a used book store and it some how made its way into my basement. When I read it then, it was one of the first books that I loved from the very first page, all the way through to the end. I also fondly remember it as the first book to make me laugh out loud. Now, 4 or 5 years later I have managed to find the book again and buy it new, and I love it just as much as I did the first time, if not more.

The story follows the life of a humble farmer and how he gets manipulated into joining the army of the future and the many misfortunes that follow. It's basically a satire on the future, civilization, and the military. Don't let this books cheesy cover or silly name disuade you, its worth every penny. And now that I have found out there are sequels to follow, i'm one happy man. In the same vein as Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and even Kurt Vonnegut, this game is one hillarious treasure.

Forget the series written (much later) with a co author, they are labored and derivative. This book proves that some originals are too good to ever be repeated. While it's overly tempting to read this solely as a "reply" to Heinlein's Starship Troopers (which in part it certainly is), it manages to skewer almost every cliche and convention of vintage SF. Even Asimov's Foundation Series, represented by the planet covering imperial capital gets a gentle tweak, as a question possibly never considered by Asimov himself is examined, to wit: in a planet sized city, who takes out the garbage? Still bitingly fresh and irreverent, it's harder today to understand the impact this book had when published 30-odd years ago, before it occurred to anyone that SF could be funny. But read it as an original and a trailblazer. It's a gem.

I went to a Terry Pratchett book signing, and during the Q & A he mentioned that reading Bill The Galactic Hero forever altered the way he looked at fiction. I got a used copy and had high hopes for the laughs to come.

Boy, did they! Harry Harrison turns so many outworn cliches of science fiction and rocket pulp on their ear you'll get a crick in your neck. I laughed regularly through the whole thing, with some really good ones in the middle.

BTGH is the story of a backwoods farmboy who is shanghaied into military service because he looks just the type - big and strong, but dumber than a plant. During his training period, however, we find that our hero is quicker to notice things that we expected, and learns valuable lessons that are easily applicable to life, especially if you have a job you hate. To wit:

1) Shut up.
2) When the going gets tough, it'll get worse.
3) Never, ever, ever volunteer.
4) and Shut up.

Bill is slung through various attempts on his life in the course of military service, is awarded hero status, then promptly criminalized for missing his transport (because he gets lost, and there's a map, it's a long story) and gets wrapped up in a secret organization trying to take over the government, but he's working for the government as an informant, and all he really wants to do is get back to being a Fertilizer technician.

And I didn't even mention the war with the Chingers.

This book is a very quick read, and very entertaining, and required reading for any Terry Pratchett fan. I gave it four stars, beacuse it's the first in a series, and I really dislike having to read books in order, especially if there's more than two. But if you like your fiction with a good satiric twist, and non-stop, panic-addled action, find a used copy like I did, and give Bill the Galactic Hero a try.

I have a long history with Bill the Galactic Hero, but it took me two decades to read it. Stick with me; this is relevant to the review.

I first saw Bill the Galactic Hero in my local Waldenbooks as a teen in the `80s. I had spiked hair and wore parachute pants. I laughed out loud after flipping through some of the chapters and decided that I would buy it. When I went to purchase it, I suddenly realized I didn't have enough money. So I put it back, determined to buy it later.

When I walked past the shop clerk, I was accosted. He asked me to empty my pockets. He thought I was stealing books (STEALING BOOKS!). I was horrified and furious. And no, I didn't steal anything. But I sure as heck wasn't going to give that store my money.

Two decades passed and I forgot just about everything about the book, including the title. I just knew the character had a generic name and was really messed up--something was wrong with his arms. Then one day, while browsing Amazon.com, I stumbled across Bill the Galactic Hero. I put it on my wish list and one year later Bill and I were reacquainted.

What's even more interesting is that I live in Harry Harrison's place of birth, Stamford, CT. I'm not sure if I should be proud or if Harry should be concerned.

Anyway, I learned a few things right away about Bill the Galactic Hero, just by judging the book by its cover. None of the artists commissioned to create the covers actually read the book. How do I know this? Because I read the frickin' thing. Take a look: http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/hh/n06-1-thumbs.htm

The cover I have shows Chingers (the "bad" guys) as seven-inch tall lizards with ray guns. Only in the book, they have four arms, not two. Poor Bill does end up with two right arms, but they are NOT on the same side (one cover gives Bill two left arms AND puts them on the wrong side). We know this because of one of the funniest lines in the entire book. I'll let you decide for yourself when you read it.

But I'm getting ahead. The plot takes place in a far future where robots are plentiful and people use a fake curse word for everything ("bowb"). Basically, Bill is a naive farm boy on a rural planet who gets forcibly pressed into military service. He ends up being a "fusetender," trained to change out fuses on a gigantic spaceship that he has never actually seen the outside of. In fact, Bill doesn't know anything about ship-to-ship combat and instead has to interpret what's going on by temperature changes in the room. When the shields go up, it stops everything from going in and out--including heat--such that the fuestenders strip down just to survive the sweltering temperatures. That slight rumble in the deck plates? That's a torpedo firing. You get the picture.

This is probably the most interesting part of the book, as we see war as it truly is...boring, interspersed by horrifying moments of sheer terror. Despite the fact that Bill isn't on the front lines (and in a space war, where ARE the front lines?), he's still at risk of dying. Which leads up to how Bill loses his left arm and gains an additional right arm. It's a lot funnier than it sounds.

The plot spirals from there. Unfortunately, the book's not as engaging when Bill is away from the military. Harrison is at his excoriating best when he's blasting the jaded, backstabbing, monotonous culture that is military bureaucracy. Bill learns fast and we learn with him: War is hell, and then you lose a limb. And get it replaced with one that doesn't fit right.

That said, the book is harsh on its characters. Just about everyone Bill meets, even those characters that seem to have an actual plot significance, die at the drop of a hat. They get blown up, immolated, shot, beaten to death, or eaten by a snake. Bill's world is brutal, but it moves so fast that you might have difficulty caring about who is who.

There's quite a bit of real science interspersed throughout the humor, especially the ridiculous problems of waste disposal on planet Helior. When I described the problems to my wife (an environmental studies major), she pointed out that the book must have been written in the `60s. It never occurred to me that the book was that old, but sure enough, checking the originally copyright confirmed that Bill the Galatic Hero was written at a time when the draft was in full effect and most people couldn't conceive of any possible future that didn't end in a natural or man-made holocaust. Bill the Galactic Hero is truly a product of its times.

But it's still pretty funny.

Ultimately, the book ends on an extremely sour, angry note. By then, Bill's transformation is complete. The number of sequels that came afterwards surprised me. Bill the Galactic Hero was written with a point in mind: that the military is a horrible place. Once Harrison got that point across (and believe you me, he gets it across), you have to wonder where he will take Bill next.

I imagine I would have appreciated this book much more if I was in the military or a teenager. In either case, it was certainly an educational experience for my inner writer. For anyone who wants to glorify war (Harrison's looking at you, Heinlein) in word, song or deed, Bill the Galactic Hero will shamelessly mock them until they change their mind.

And if not, well they were stupid bowbs anyway.

I first read this book back in Junior High where some family member most likely found it at a used book store and some how it made its way into my basement. When I read it then it was one of the first books I truly enjoyed page for page. It was certainly the first book that ever made me laugh out loud. Now, 5 or 6 years later I have found myself a new copy of the book and it is just as great as I remembered it. A hillarious take on the future of war. This story follows a gentle farmer through the many obscure misfortunes that make up his life. Very similiar in style to Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, or even Kurt Vonnegut. It's really hard to find, but if you can get your hands on it I deffinatly recommend it.

I once met a woman in a bookstore who was in the process of buying Harry Harrison's 1965 classic "Bill, the Galactic Hero." She told me that she'd read it many times already, and that it was the funniest book ever. Well, I've never forgotten that conversation, and had long been meaning to ascertain whether or not this woman was right. It took me almost 20 years to get around to this book, but having just finished "Bill, the Galactic Hero," I must say that, well, it IS very amusing indeed. In it, we meet Bill (no last name is ever provided), a simple farm lad on Phigerinadon II, who is shanghaied into the galactic emperor's army to fight in the war against the lizardlike Chingers. And what a grueling odyssey Bill goes through before all is said and done! He experiences a boot camp from hell, serves aboard the starship Christine Keeler and is almost killed, gets lost on the planetwide city of Helior, becomes a sanitation man, a revolutionary, a spy, fights on a swamp planet that's almost as nasty as Harrison's original Deathworld, and on and on. Harrison keeps this short novel moving along furiously, and the level of invention is very high throughout. It is most impressive how just about every page features some amusing incident, laff-out-loud line (and I am not an easy person to make laugh out loud) or imaginative detail. The story is a very violent one, a scathing commentary on the madness that is war and the crazy institution that is the military, and part of the story's humor comes from the joking, nonchalant manner in which horrible proceedings are described. But there is much that is just inherently flat-out funny: The characters drink Heroin Cola and eat chlora-fillies (part chlorophyll, part horse wieners). There's a rock band called The Coleoptera (beetles). The combatants use flintlock ray guns. There is a Robot Underground Resistance (RUR!), and some characters are named Schmutzig von Dreck (I guess it helps if you know some Yiddish), Gill O'Teen and Eager Beager. Still, as I said, this is a brutal tale, and the reader would be well advised not to grow too attached to any character, as at least half the cast gets offed before the book is through. And that brutalization extends to our main man Bill, who becomes less naive and more animallike as the novel proceeds. This is a tale told with almost Alfred Bester-like panache and marvelous satiric detail, but at times the detail is a bit sketchy; I'm referring to details of geography here, and background history and character. With so many incidents to cram into the book's short length, many of them seem a bit rushed, and characters come and go without leaving much of an impression. I suppose what I'm saying is that Harrison might have expanded his book a bit; that it's almost too concise and to the point. Still, the story certainly does entertain. But getting back to that woman in the bookstore...IS this the funniest book that I've ever read? Well, I must admit that no book has ever made me laff more than John Kennedy Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces" (1980), and that Kurt Vonnegut's "The Sirens of Titan" (1959) may be a worthier sci-fi comedy than this one, but "Bill..." certainly does hold its own in that august company. After all, any book that provides big laffs and a positive message isn't to be sneezed at...

I haven't read a book such as this in many years. You felt sad for Bill the way he was enlisted in the army. Harry Harrison kept Bill's adventure always interesting and exciting. Never a dull moment. What amazes me the most is Harry Harrison in-depth understanding of the military. This story is a must read.

This is a classic (originally published about thirty years ago) parody of RAH's "Starship Troopers". As parody and satire, it works very well; a bit less so if you want to read it as a simple "adventure book". A needed counterpart to all militaristic science-fiction, good, or bad.