Bobby's Girl [Paperback]

J. D. Austin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2001

Here comes Bobby's Girl. She's beautiful, bright, surprisingly strong--and not human. She is Ket Mhulhar, a high-ranking official from another world, sent to Earth for her own safety. She's found a home working with her filmmaker boyfriend, but now it looks as though her enemies have found her.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Ace; First Edition edition (April 3, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441008232
• ISBN-13: 978-0441008230
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,298,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little cheesy, but I like it, April 5, 2001

By 

Melissa A. Horn (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bobby's Girl (Paperback)

Well, the cover and the blurbs don't do this book justice. I had to read a little bit of it before I decided to buy it. It's not a profound book, but it's a good fun read. It kept me interested, and laughing out loud at a couple of spots. The good guys are good, and the villains are not too villainous.

I like to read military fiction, and it seems to me as if the author knows what he's talking about, without delving too deeply into the nuts and bolts. The whole Hollywood schtick rings true too. Overall, I would maybe call it space opera, with a little bit of unapologetic Deus ex Machina.

I would definitely not turn up my nose at further books by this author, who, I see by looking at the copyright page, is Joshua Dann, who has other books listed on Amazon.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, fast paced story, May 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Bobby's Girl (Paperback)

I just finished reading Bobby's Girl and it was great. Fast paced and an easy read, it was difficult to put the book down once I picked it up. The main character, General Ket Mhulhar, is a strong and honor bound woman - who is incredibly loyal and loving to her friends, both old and new. Ket, or Kathy as she is known on Earth, leaves her war torn planet and ends up in on the set of a movie in Los Angeles.

The author has an eye for detail and makes you feel as if you are with the characters in any setting, whether its in a bar on Earth or war torn Thradon. As with Ket, all of the main characters in the book are, someway or another, loyal and honorable - whether they are Ket's boyfriend Bobby or the "bad guy" Celin Kwa.

This is a book that deals with action, love and war, but it is free of any violence and bloodshed that may be considered graphic and therefore I think this book is suitable for younger readers as well, not just adults.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Apocalypse Troll Lite, April 30, 2001

By 

Michael Weber "fairportfan" (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bobby's Girl (Paperback)

I'll begin by saying that whoever J.D.Austin is, i would guess that he or she has seen military service, and probably in the Navy, at that. About half of the important human characters in this book are Navy vets, and, to this Navy vet at least, they ring true -- written by someone who knows whereof they speak.

That aside, this is a cheerful romp through some of the same territory that my brother (David Weber)'s "Apocalypse Troll" covered a lot more seriously.

The storytelling is neatly divided between a current action story set on Earth and a series of flashbacks set on Planet Thradon, beginning two years ago as the latest in a series of wars between the planet's two largest nations has go badly indeed for the larger of the two.

To begin: General Ket Mhulhar has been on diplomatic duty, and consequently is not in her home country when the big coup goes down; as senior surviving military officer, she is suddenly Premier. But it's not safe for her to stay. The Space Force is going to send her away to a distant planet, which only one ship on the whole world can reach. Knowing she is safe, they can base a Resistance movement on that fact.

But, she has to be disguised surgically to match the inhabitants of her new foster world. Which is, of course, Earth. Working from pictures, the doctors do as well as they can.

Possibly too well.

As the one Thradonian who has actually *been* to Earth looks at the unconscious form lying on the table, he bemoans the fact that with those looks, keeping a low profile on Earth may be difficult -- "Terran males" he explains "go to sleep hoping they'll *dream* about girls who look like that!" On the other hand, he allows, she *is* headed for the one place on Earth where beauty and oddity hand-in-hand are taken for granted -- Los Angeles.

But it's too late to change -- into the ship and off she goes, arriving two years later on Earth, where she is taken under the wing of a retired couple. A retired couple whose son is a successful independent film writer/producer/director (think Tarentino, from the plot descriptions of his films). A film maker whose script girl has just quit.

And "Kathy" goes to work for Bobby, soon talking him into letting her try wearing the "Producer" hat on this film so that he can concentrate on directing. And she tries to decide just what she will do when the Bad Guys manage to follow her here.

Meanwhile, back on Thradon, the military of Dalyi, Ket's home nation, are organising a Resistance.

The two stories alternate neatly, the Thadon story skipping closer anf closer to Present Day, and Kathy and her Terran friends get ready for the Arrival...

Though much of the story is played lightly, there are darker underpinnings, and some fairly serious thoughts about war and peace and patriotism and chauvinism, not to mention the responsibilities of honor and friendship.

The characters, human and Thradonian alike, though mostly lightly sketched are still acceptably plausible -- one of them is a retired Master Chief Petty Officer who was a Seaman Apprentice aboard the Forrestal off the coast of Viet Nam the day a missile on deck cooked off and started one of the most terrifying fires ever to strike a ship that didn't eventually sink, and he *absolutely* reads like the real thing.

Both sides in the conflict on Thradon learn lessons that we haven't yet learnt fully and properly here on Earth, and it is obvious that its aftermath is going to poison Thradonian society and politics for a long time to come, even after the "Good Guys" win a (comparatively) near-bloodless victory.

But it all comes out in the end more or less for the best.

One Thing More Dept: If Austin writes any more books -- either sequels to this one or independent settings -- i hope he takes us back to "The Stupid Elf", one of the more amusing sleazy bars i've run across in fiction of film in a while. I'd like to know more about the "Elf" and Buzz, the unflappable ex-cop bartender.