The Halcyon Drift [Mass Market Paperback]

Brian M. Stableford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1972

In a galactic culture that extends from quasi-Utopian worlds like New Alexandria to vermin-infested slums like Old Earth, starship pilots have become the great romantic heroes of the day. When Star-Pilot Grainger is rescued from a shipwreck, he finds himself pressed into reluctant service to fly the Hooded Swan, the prototype of a new kind of interstellar ship. He's also picked up an alien parasite that's determined to share his brain. Under these dire circumstances, can Grainger possibly stay out of trouble? Not a chance! Hooded Swan, Book One.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: DAW; 1st edition (November 1, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879970324
• ISBN-13: 978-0879970321
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,169,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not exactly a Dodo, April 25, 2003

By 

K. Maxwell "katmax1" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Halcyon Drift (Star-Pilot Grainger, #1) (Paperback)

This is the first of six books about star-pilot Grangier (no first name) and his ship the Hooded Swan (aka the Dodo). When we are introduced to Grangier he has just spent the last 2 years stranded on a rock in space after his ship crashed.

Back in civilisation he finds himself in heavy debt as a result of his rescue, with no work and an alien mind-parisite which he calls "the wind" as company.

Grangier is a laconic and practical person. He runs into a bit of luck and finds himself recruited as pilot for an experimental ship, "the hooded swan". He is not thrilled about this as he values his freedeom and the thought of being "owned" for 2 years to pay of his debt is not a happy one for him.

This book is basically an introductory novel. Its enjoyable to read and well written, and the story revolves around a race into a nubela for a lost treasure ship of space "the lost star".

The books in this series are:
1. Halcyon Drift
2. Rhapsody in Black
3. Promised Land
4. The Paradise Game
5. The Fenris Device
6. Swan Song

Written in the 70's these are still entertaining novels, and if you like laid back heroes and classic style SF these are worth looking for, but start with this first book to get the best out of the series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Explorer and adventure novel of the inner and outer cosmos, October 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Halcyon Drift (Star-Pilot Grainger, #1) (Paperback)

This is the first of a series of 6 books on the the spaceship pilot Grainger and the crew of "his" fantastically advanced spaceship, the "Hooded Swan".

Grainger crashed his previous ship on a empty planet. He got finally rescued but picked up an intelligent mental parasite, the "wind", with which he has a hard time to get along, as he feels his body invaded. The rescue turned out to be worse than expected as through bad luck and intrigue he ends up with a two year "slave" contract with the man of power and driving force behind the construction of the "Hooded Swan", Titus Charlot.

The six books describe missions of the "Hooded Swan". There are certain constants in them, e.g. the discussions between the wind and Grainger whether the wind is actually more of a benefit than a threat, run-ins of Charlot and Grainger, some strange biology on the planets they vist during their missions (Stableford is/was biologist), etc..

In this book all the characters are introduced, the unique ship is described, the politics of the future world is outlined, and then the first mission is pulled through. This makes the book rather condensed, as are most of the later ones, reflecting somewhat the character of Grainger, who is not the guy who loves idle talk.

The novels typically spent a lot of time explaining what are the motives and characters of the people in them. This is intersparsed with the actual action. Consequently, the speed is changing sometimes abruptly from a contemplation of the motives of certain human beings or the aspects of some fascinating plants and civilizations to the action and adventure plot. The fighting is mostly between humans, these are no monster novels.

I like the novels a lot, especially the wry humor and the intense study of the motives that make humans do what they do. The biologcial stuff is more than sideshow though, as could be expected from a novel written by someone whose first calling was science.

Matthias H. Hettler

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent author, wish I could find more of his books., January 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Halcyon Drift (Star-Pilot Grainger, #1) (Paperback)

I've only found a few of Brian Stableford's book, & only in used book stores. I've never found one I didn't love. I whould like to find the rest of this series (I've got two), and his earlier series "The landings of the Daedalus misssion"