Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains [Hardcover]

Harry Harrison (Author), Robert Sheckley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1990

Bill, the galactic hero, is sent on a suicide mission to a planet from which no one has ever returned. En-route, he must cope with the likes of Captain Dirk of the starship Gumption. Harry Harrison's previous books include "Bill, the Galactic Hero", while Robert Sheckley's include "Mindswap".

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz; 1st Ed. edition (April 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575047577
• ISBN-13: 978-0575047570
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,740,722 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pointless, But Maybe That's the Point, May 3, 2004

By 

C. T. Mikesell (near Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bill, the Galactic Hero, Vol. 2: On the Planet of Bottled Brains (Paperback)

This, the third installment of Bill the Galactic Hero, is by far the most pointless (or least pointed, depending on your point of view) yet. Among the disparate sci-fi references are Star Trek: TOS, Han Solo & Chewbacca, time travel, cyberpunk, and likely several others. Any one or two of these could be utilized in a first-rate parody - but that book would be a distant cousin several times removed from this book. What we have here, instead, is a hodge-podge of tangential references that momentarily amuse (if that) but come nowhere near providing a satisfying story. If you're a fan of the printed word you might like this book, because that's really all it amounts to: words printed on paper with the usual punctuation thrown in to form sentences. There's a vestigial plot, an intrusive narrative structure, faux profanity, alleged sex, and such low-grade humor that the puns in Book 2 seem like Mamet in retrospect - all of which I'm sure appeal to some audience out there, I just don't think I'm a part of it anymore.

Most of my frustration with the book is that plot points are raised, but never go anywhere. For instance, we are presented at one point with the Alterna-Crew of the USS Enterprise (cleverly renamed here the Gumption) from the "Mirror, Mirror" TV episode. We encounter them once, and they're referred to a couple more times, but nothing actually happens with them beyond getting Bill from plot point 1 to plot point 1.1 - and we really could have gone from point 0.9 to 1.2 and never noticed anything amiss. Likewise, we're told that the Alien Historian is trying to alter the past to create a future without war - and that he's succeeding; but we never encounter a single instance of an altered timeline as we travel from cover to cover. If these were isolated instances Harrison and Sheckley might be forgiven, but nothing of consequence ever takes place in the book and large sections could be removed without affecting the story on either side of it.

If you have a few hours to kill and are given the choice between reading this book or taking up self-dentistry, check to see if you'll get any anesthetic first. You won't want to read this book without it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Read the first, Bill the Galactic Hero; skip this one, January 29, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains (Paperback)

I read the first one about 6 months ago. A all-round good time, one mishap after another, the first book you wanted to see want would happen next, BUT this one! Jumps from one story line to another, with unbelievable plots, I know that it is Science Fiction but the authors could at lest try to make it believable. I felt it was three or even four books that were not related to each other, I would not recommend this one at all. I will try one more of the series, but if the next one is just as bad no more.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good no-brainer, May 4, 2001

By 

V. Wolf (Omaha) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains (Paperback)

This is a good book for when you want to read something that has a plot and characters and all that literary stuff, but you don't want to have to actually think.