Customer Reviews

O Pioneer!

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Boring. This book is far oversold by the reviews above. The story is passable and the aliens are not at all compelling. Better than 80% of science fiction novels, but still only passable.

I enjoyed this book. It appealed to my bizzare sense of humour. I agree with the previous review that the plot was a bit predictable, but I thought it had a couple of interesting twists. The characters were ok but not out of the ordinary. It was a bit difficult to get into at the start but I found that I was fairly involved at the end. I would advise anyone that it is definitely worth a look.

"O Pioneer" tells the story of Evesham Giyt, a futuristic hacker, who decides to immigrate to the new frontier, a newly inhabited planet named Tupelo. One thing Evesham wasn't aware of when he came to the planet - it is NOT empty. The planet is already inhabited by 5 other sentient races, each with its own characteristics. In addition, it seems there is some kind of a conspiracy going on the planet, and there's no one able to stop it - except Evesham!
This is a real cute book. Very relaxing and enjoying. The aliens are really a delight to read about, so diverse - yet very consistent. But the bad thing about the story - it's very predictable from first to last page - there's no catch or anything. And the story gets a bit slow at times - which is annoying, since the book is very short anyway (~250 pages). Nevertheless, it's still worth a read to any sci-fi fan, if only for the aliens. One last comment, I am a Star Trek fan, and I'm really getting tired that all aliens there are nearly identical in appearance and behavior.. this book shows there are more possibilities to this often underexplored genre.

I have never read Frederik Pohl before, but then I noticed "O Pioneer!" sitting on a shelf. I bought it and enjoyed it. The nonchalance of the main character is very humorous, and the aliens described through a human's eyes is funny. The sloth-like aliens were particularly enlightening, and the 'sex' party scene was engaging. I guess I'll look into more Frederik Pohl books, but this review is only from the standpoint of a one-time reader of Pohl. Well, take a lookee see at "O Pioneer!" if you like irreverant humor in sci-fi writing.