Last Human (Red Dwarf) [Paperback]

Grant Naylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 1995

Lister gazed out of the porthole and catalogues the series of disasters that had led him to this point in space and time: the bad decisions, the poor career choices, the unreliable friendships that had led him here - on a prison ship bound for the most inhospitable penal colony in the outer cosmos...and all he'd ever wanted was to be a soft metal guitar icon. This is the beginning of the third and eagerly awaited red dwarf novel where Lister starts out by searching for his Doppelganger and ends up having the future of the human race on his shoulders.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books, Ltd. (November 2, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140143882
• ISBN-13: 978-0140143881
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 4.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hello, How Do I Do?, August 11, 2003

By 

Greg Hughes - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Human (Red Dwarf) (Paperback)

"Last Human" is the third instalment in the Red Dwarf saga, picking up from where "Better Than Life" left off. While the first two books were collaborative efforts, this novel is a "solo" work by the Naylor half of that writing gestalt known as "Grant Naylor".

When the book begins Dave Lister, or rather "a version" of Dave Lister, has been sentenced to eighteen years Hard Thought in the penal colony Cyberia: eighteen years imprisoned in his own virtual hell. Hard Thought is a punishment where the prisoner's most dreaded fantasies are made real. In Lister's case, being trapped in a world where neighbours play Neil Diamond records full blast. That, and a whole lot of other nasty tortures.

Meanwhile the Lister we know, along with Rimmer, Kryten, Cat and a recently resurrected Kristine Kochanski, are flying in Starbug towards the Omni-zone, the point in space where all the different realities converge. They are diverted from their course back to Red Dwarf when they come across a derelict craft: another Starbug. One where the crew have been slaughtered and Lister is missing.

A dying version of Kochanski tells the others that someone took Lister. They take it upon themselves to find this other Lister and rescue him. This marks the beginning of a series of hilarious misadventures, wrong turnings and bad, bad choices, as we travel across a galaxy populated by genitically engineered lifeforms, broken down 'droids and homicidal villains.

"Last Human" makes you think about what it would be like to meet another version of yourself. Decisions are made that could produce a personality completely different from your own. This is by no means a new idea, but in this case the writer treats it with great wit and humour. Certain ideas and scenes in the novel are based on things that happened in the TV series, but it has all been rearranged and augmented. This is where print can achieve what a limited TV budget can't.

This is science fiction writing at its most humorous. Irreverent, zany and wild.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dave Lister vs. Dave Lister., August 13, 2005

By 

Michael Valdivielso (Alexandria, VA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Last Human (Red Dwarf) (Paperback)

A tad more serious, in some ways, than the other two novels, this is still a great adition to the Red Dwarf universe. Many of the parts are based on the TV series, but there is a lot of new material and a lot of wiggle-room for Doug Naylor to play with. With over 300 pages, there is a lot of humor and ideas packed into each chapter. Being published in 1995, I am a tad sad to see there are not more books out there!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Last Humans, August 29, 2008

By 

General Breadbasket - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Human (Red Dwarf) (Paperback)

There's a few last humans in Doug Naylor's Red Dwarf book "The Last Human". There's Lister, there's a Lister from an alternative reality, there's Kris Kochanski (whose ashes had been revived thanks to the physics of the backwards universe), there's Michael MacGruder, a stranded space marine who has connections to one of the Red Dwarf crew, there's a lifeform that can transform itself into humans, and a character that is genetically transmogrified into a human. Quite a lot of humans! There's also a variety of other life, mainly the Gelfs (Genetically Engineered Lifeforms), with their odd shapes and bizarre customs, a few viruses and a gestalt entity made of pure rage.

There is a fair bit of action in the book, which kept things entertaining, and it was interesting finding out more about the Gelfs and their culture, even though techincally they're not really aliens. I enjoyed the Cyber Hell segments, where Lister is punished by experiencing a virtual reality made up of things he doesn't like (kind of a reverse of "Better Than Life"). I did notice a couple of plot threads lifted from the TV series, and they're fine bits to have in the book, as they're funny. In some ways the ending was sweet, but it left a little bit of a bad taste in the mouth due to what happens to one of the characters. It's a bit like the problem I had with Rob Grant's book "Backwards", though in "Backwards" the endings a bit more grim.

I've only read a couple of the books, but I don't think the characters are as vivid or as lively as they are on the TV series, so it's hard to get as involved sometimes. The stories that make up the book series are a seperate story to the TV series, they don't really tie in together. Might just warn you too, the book does get a bit explicit in places, a bit more than the show...

It's a all right read, but I do prefer the atmosphere of the TV series.