Customer Reviews

Next Of Kin

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Eric Frank Russell remains my favorite SF writer; the only one who could make me both laugh and cry. There's no crying in this book, based on the short story that to this day received the highest "anlab" rating ever recorded for a story published in Astounding/Analog magazine. Russell's unique voice came from a blending of British reserve and humor with American slang and culture, as if John Cleese had been signed to play Sam Spade. Though Russell's science was pure '50's and often suspect, you won't care as you giggle, then chuckle, and finally roar your way through this story...which was inspired by an actual incident involving an English prisoner-of-war confined in a Turkish jail. Here's a perfect example of a superb "cross-over" SF story that could be filmed on a modest budget...I keep seeing Mel Gibson in the title role.

Most of Eric Frank Russel's books have one thing in common, the quick witted humans outsmarting the dim-witted aliens. And this is no exception to the rule. While this may seem rather predictable and boring he always manages to avoid duplication. Each time the basic plot is worked out in a new and refreshing way.

Do not read this book if you want to read serious science giction or military science fiction. That is not what this book is about. It was written to tell a story that should not be taken seriuos and that leaves a smile on your face. And this is exactly what it does, and brilliantly so.

This time the aliens being outwitted are on the other side of an intergalactic war, and they have made the unfortunate mistake of capturing and imprisoning an earthling. But that was not their biggest mistake, the biggest mistake was teaching him their language. For once they learn to communicate their war is as good as lost.

I am not a big sci-fi fan. I rarely read the stuff. Except for the occasional Star-Trek, I rarely watch it. When my dad handed me his copy of this book, I opened it with some trepidation...until I nearly split my gut laughing. Now, this kind of humor isn't funny to everyone. Neither my mom nor my husband finds it nearly as funny as we do. They mainly use words like "goofy" which it is, but as that was the intention, it is absolutely brilliant.

In this story, Leeming is taken prisoner by lizard aliens, far beyond the boundaries of friendly space, and effects his escape, not in a desperate attempt to plunge over the walls, but by calling on his Eustace.

What's a Eustace? I would never give it away. You'll have to read it for yourself and find out.

I also recommend this book to English teachers who are having a hard time weaning their students away from conventional word choices. Even the few swear words are mostly made up!

It has been several years since I have read "Next of Kin," but I have recommended it to every reader I know, whether they are fans of science fiction or not. Unless I am mistaken the story was written in 1954, long before manned space travel, and it is obvious by the description of the spacecraft and the perceptions of space travel. This does not in any way detract form the story, but in some way adds a bit to the humor. John Leeming is the main character. He is assigned to a remote area in outer space to act in some type of military capacity (either diplomacy or intelligence). But he is visited by misfortune and crash-lands on an alien planet which happens to be at war. Leeming finds himself imprisoned and labeled a spy. The story is a slow read until this point (approximately one full third to half of the book), but then the plot takes off into a wildly hilarious sprint that becomes increasingly more ingenious until the finale. Leeming has absolutely nothing at his disposal to aid in escape except for a block of wood and some copper wire that he strips from his prison bed, visual and audible observations from his cell window, and the most important element of all: superstitious and incredibly gullible captors. Leeming sets out on a journey of wit that convinces his jailers that invisible beings are poised to trample them into nothingness at his beckoned call, and that their allies are "nuts" (a term that takes on a whole new world of meaning, hence the creative genius of this work once you read the story).

This book is what all science fiction humor should be. The closest I have found are from the stories of Terry Pratchet's "Disc World" and related series', and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," although "Next of Kin" is far superior to them, at least as a stand-alone story. I HIGHLY recommend this story to ANY reader! It is thoroughly entertaining!

Takes some standard genre subjects - science fiction, espionage, war - and blends them with Russell's quirky humor to produce a brilliantly entertaining book.

The deadpan humor about the universal nature of red-tape and the crass stupidity of both sides in the conflict comes across as fresh today and must have seemed startling at the height of the cold war.

Eric Frank Russell at his irreverant best! This is one of very few books that made me laugh aloud the first time I read it. The hero is a scout pilot why while flying a new scout ship, get captured by the enemy. A long way from home, he has to use "both his heads" to escape. A very imaginative way of getting out of jail. I love this book.

I have been on a hunt for science fiction books that work for me. I'm 61 years old, and a person who read a lot of sci-fi in the 70's. I found, though, that titles I expected to re-read with pleasure were disappointing to me. This book, which I had only recently been made aware of, was a lot of fun, and a book I could recommend to friends who like mysteries or even chick books. Written with bright sophistication, this tale of a naughty-boy type of pilot's encounter with an alien world is less a science fiction novel than a generic, humorous adventure. Reminds me a lot of the work of Manning Coles, if that helps any.

because you will laugh out loud repeatedly.

When I started to read scifi, I believed it had to be very serious to be, in general, considered a good book. Now I have read this book, I know my assumption was wrong. This is a greatly written scifi novel, the author has a great "voice", and his main character is one that will live in my head for quite some time, making me giggle whenever I see the word Nut, or read about someone named Eustace.

This is a book that belongs in a scifi lover's library, next to those very serious, excellent thick volumes of scifi novels.

You won't regret it :)

"Next of Kin" is a winning "anti-war" war book, cut from the same cloth as "Catch-22" and "M*A*S*H." I guess it's more appropriate to say that "Catch-22" and "M*A*S*H" were cut from the same cloth as "Next of Kin" since it was writting in the '50s, whereas the other two came out in the '60s.

The fundamental message of "Next of Kin" seems to be that wars are started and managed by idiots and bureaucrats. Thus, you don't win a war by defeating armies; you win it by bringing down the idiots and bureaucrats. Lt. Leeming, Russell's protagonist in "Next of Kin," understands this perfectly. He'd rather volunteer for a long-term, solitary recon. mission with little chance of ever getting home again than hang around the base and have to put up with high-ranking morons who bark nonsense at him like how an unzipped fly will lead to their side losing the war. Unlike Heller's Cpt. Yossarian or the doctors in M*A*S*H, who struggle just to endure the idiocy and bureacracy thrust upon them, Leeming, from his position as a lowly POW, can see the "illogical logic" of the military mind and exploits it for his own gain. In doing so, he inadvertently infects the enemy's entire bureaucratic war machine with a sort of "virus of ideas" which, by the last page, leaves the reader with the distinct impression that the war is finally about to end because of -- rather than in spite of -- the idiots and bureaucrats on both sides who wear the General's uniforms.

This book is another excellent bit of Russell, though to be read for fun rather than for any "message".

It is possibly set in the same universe as "Wasp" (though if so it is much further in the future, and the Sirians are now our allies) and at all events in a very similar interstellar war situation. The hero, John Leeming, is of a kind very familiar to Russell's readership, an uppity "individualist afflicted with the fidgets" who is thoroughly allergic to authority and to the military way of life in general, and has a disciplinary record like a crime sheet from Police Gazette - though an excellent combat one. Again typically for a Russell hero, he is the pilot of a one-man scoutship, who likes it that way and doesn't miss human company in the slightest. This was something that drew me to Russell as a boy, and which I suspect is at least partly autobiographical. Sent off on a reconnaissance mission far behind enemy lines, about halfway through the book he is marooned on a hostile world and taken prisoner. The rest of the novel is given over to his attempts to get back home.

Unlike James Mowry, Leeming is not totally alone on his world; in fact there are several hundred other prisoners with him. But while he does accept some help from one of them, and does his best to return the favour later, this is very much the exception that proves the rule. Leeming does everything almost as singlehandedly as Mowry, taking no part in the others' escape attempts, nor involving them in any way in his own activities. These latter are very idiosyncratic indeed, with a distinct touch of the Fortean "we are property" concept which influences much of Russell's work. I shall not give the ending away, but merely observe that (aided by certain local superstitions) they succeed beyond their author's wildest dreams, not only achieving their intended purpose, but much more besides.

If put under oath, I would have to confess that I don't find NoK quite as credible as some of Russell's other yarns. I cannot quite believe in Leeming's success the way I can in Mowry's. But if you are willing to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the fun, then it is a great read. Go get it.