John Grimes: Lieutenant of the Survey Service [Hardcover]

A. Bertram Chandler (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: The Science Fiction Book Club (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739414860
• ISBN-13: 978-0739414866
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,962,511 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overall Good Fun, February 23, 2005

By 

Stewart Teaze (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: John Grimes: Lieutenant of the Survey Service (Hardcover)

This is the first book from the SFBC John Grimes collections, and includes 5 separate "stories", written around the time that Star Trek (The Original Series) first appeared on television, and readers will notice a lot of similarities between the two. However, in many ways John Grimes' universe is more diverse than James Kirk's, with stranger worlds and faster women.

*** The Road to the Rim - Decent kick off to the series... Grimes is an Ensign, just out of the Federation Survey Service Academy.

** To Prime the Pump - Not a boring read, but I found the final outcome to be too unbelievable... also, some of the predictions of technology from this story written in the very early 70's are somewhat feeble.

***** The Hard Way Up - This is actually a collection of related short stories that was published in the late 60's/early 70's. Excellent reading, very entertaining.

**** Spartan Planet - Grimes is now a Lt. Cmdr in the Survey Service, and his adventures continue in this well-written story about a seemingly all-male culture that has developed on this lost colony.

***** The Inheritors - More top notch stuff... written in 1972, and the predicted technology doesn't seem as feeble as that from the earliest stories. This is another "lost colony" story, and includes cat-like humans and provides and introduction to Grime's arch-enemy Drongo Kane.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I really wanted to like this, February 27, 2011

By 

Jack Of Alltrades "Just another soul" (Loth Ethtadoth Unidoth) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: John Grimes: Lieutenant of the Survey Service (Hardcover)

I'm not sure why reading this is so tedious, but 279 pages in I'm still waiting for a reason to care about this overly formal simpleton, John Grimes.

These stories start and proceed s l o w l y with too many words, too much nautical lingo and too little action. Then they end. I mean they just end.

If there is humor or clever dialog here I must be missing it. It's just plodding flowery language that goes nowhere.

I'm not sure how this author developed a following. His main character is just a stuffed shirt. This strikes me as almost fan fiction for the Hornblower books.

I've bought two more books in the series and I'm still trying but "trying" is the word for these rambling go nowhere tales where the highlight is usually for good old John to get laid by a redhead.