Customer Reviews

Red Claw

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Red Claw is classic pulp fiction. It is well paced, very enjoyable, and definitely worth reading by any fan of science fiction or adventure (excluding the last 2-3 pages which provide a second ending on a superfluous existential note). As the characters slowly succumb to the ravages of a foreign planet and his own nature, the title refers to Tennyson's famous couplet concerning the loveless savagery of nature: "Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw / With ravine, shriek'd against his [God's] creed."

The story itself is a basic run-for-your-life-and-get-out tale. Take the characters from "Battle Royale," place them in an off-world version of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost World," have HAL-9000 direct a constant assault with Terminators and sentient flying scalpels, and you have a feel for the story line. A well-paced escape story is supported by a thorough imagining of alien taxonomy, future governance structures, and an underlying theme of revenge.

Although the story works well as a thriller, the occasional mix of existentialism, environmentalism (No Terraforming!), and rebellion against an autonomous government is a bit tedious. Other than that, it's a great little read. Enjoy.

I found this book refreshing and enjoyable to read despite the casual sociopathy the author displays in parts. I think it was mostly because of the good writing: witty, ironic, literate, sort of Dr. Who-ish in humor. It's fun to read the writing of someone who actually knows how to write and enjoys the process. Frankly, most SF does not display this quality. Unlike one of the other readers I had no big problem figuring out the terminology or the world that was built to set the story in. I thought the characterization was pretty good. I found this book way better than Debatable Space which for some reason rubbed me the wrong way.

The first paragraph of Johannes Stauffer's review sums up Red Claw, with the kid describing a video game. That being said, there are plot holes, fragmented story lines, and characters who are just simply annoying, underdeveloped, and simply unbelievable. Especially the female characters. I can't not finish a book, so I powered through it. Terrible, no. I've read worse. But not on par with Scalzi, Heinlein, Stephenson, etc.

Much better than Debatable Space, especially without the incredibly long personal journals (there are personal journals in this, too, but they're much briefer). Some might get confused if they haven't read Debatable Space, since this has quite a few references to it, takes place in the same universe (it sometimes suggests itself as a prequel), and a couple of times mentions characters from the novel. Debatable Space's biggest problem was inconsistency and the overly frequent and lengthy personal logs, and since that's no longer a problem, Palmer's unique and intense style of writing can come through in full.

The ending is awfully anticlimactic and doesn't seem to end in the right place, though, and a few characters seemed underdeveloped. There's also way too much graphic sex, comparable to Debatable Space, which got annoying. Still, I really enjoy Palmer's style of writing and storytelling. He seems to enjoy doing it, and I enjoy reading it. I look forward to his next novel, Version 43.

I have to say I just don't get the hate for Palmer's works. It's as if some people have a grudge against him for some reason. I see a of nitpicking on details I wasn't particularly bothered by, and almost no appreciation for the things Palmer does right, and there are many. Sure, his novels aren't perfect, but they're definitely an enjoyable and well-written read.

What a complex and interesting journey. Red Claw was at times very impressive, while also at times boring--more than once I considered if the book was worth finishing. However, since I did finish it, I can only now say that the answer to whether its worth the read is: sure, why not.

There are parts of this book where the narrative is just breathtaking. I was especially impressed by how the author eventually gets the story totally embedded into the alien world of New Amazon, as well as the sub-cultures of all the characters. The Scientists, the Soldiers, the Noirs--all very interesting as well as the hints of what has become of the human race. Carl Saunders being 500 years old with an endlessly robust libido is exceptionally cool! But it takes a while for these fun details to make their debut. Most of the main characters who are not as prominent in the first half of the book really get their chance to shine later on, and there in lies the problem that makes me pull back from giving Red Claw a better review: the story is just too long and plotless, and there feels like an unnecessary separation from the first and second half. There are things that are delivered as "common knowledge" nearly at the end of the book, and it feels confusing.

Other criticism of the book would be the use of the word "and". How on earth the book got published with almost every other sentence beginning with the word "and"? (Bizarre!) I also felt that it was an error for the book to be so generous with so much detailing of the world setting, but yet things like the DR scalpels come across as undefined. Finally, I cannot figure out why the book was titled Red Claw, there is no reference to it in the story that I noticed.

Otherwise, pushing aside the complaints, there's quite a story here. The are scenes that are fantastically vivid , provoking and fun to read.

If you were a fan of the somewhat juvenile Harry Harrison Deathworld books then you'll thoroughly enjoy this. It's a sophisticated take on survival in a hostile environment when you're fighting yourself, your fellow humans, an egomanical corporation and the planet itself. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the book. The author does take some liberties such as why the hell you'd build a planetary base so far from your one permament link to orbiting support systems and what happens to Carl in the end is sudden, unexpected and completely off the wall. I would very much recommend this as a fun, fast-paced reading adventure.

Professor Richard Helms leads the classification of the animalia and plantae found on recently discovered New Amazon. The planet is a nightmare with its acid rain and the discovery of "kingdomshifters". Still even with the hostile orb seemingly at war with the outside occupiers, the team of scientist protected by genetically enhanced human commandos and gigantic robotic soldiers finish the cataloguing of this alien ecosystem.

The invaders plan to burn everything to the ground so they can terraform New Amazon into a place for humans to live without wearing protective helmets. Instead of the final solution, the crew is attacked by a flying seemingly invincible monster forcing them to find shelter in the deadly jungle. Survival of the fittest means betraying your friends and lovers as the rain forest proves lethal as does the robots. As the human number dwindle Helms fails to take the helm as the commandos with weapons overwhelm the scientists,

Although this tale has a pulp feel with an over the top of Mt Olympus satirical stripping away civilization story line, fans will enjoy this tale that is the Lord of the Flies in outer space. The story line is fast-paced and filled with dark humor starting with Dr. Baal's opening "whatever" diary and never slows down as terraforming becomes terror forming. Filled with several twists, readers will enjoy Red Claw as the scientists argue how to classify gryphon, Godzilla, and seditious killing robots while the mercenaries argue how to survive the hostile ordeal with pathetic intelligentsia leaches unable to set up camp.

Harriet Klausner

Very good fast read with some interesting twists. I am not good at writing flowery reviews nor do I usually take the time but I enjoyed this book, and hope others will too, so we get more like it from Mr. Palmer.

Red Claw by Philip Palmer- This is Philip Palmer's second book, his first being Debatable Space. This is a science fiction based story.

Red Claw is about a colony of soldiers and scientists that are to categorize all the species of a planet, in this case, the planet is called New Amazon. After the categorization, the team is to terraform the planet, which would destroy all life in order for the planet to become more "Earth-like." During a routine exploration, a small team comes across a Godzilla creature, which they quickly subdue and capture for examination. During the examination, the robot's, called DR's, within the colony start to turn on their human masters, slaughtering all but a handful. These handful are forced to escape and hopefully, with the help of a famous scientist, survive. However, during their travel to a safe-house the group is whittled down by the creatures and the environment of New Amazon. Upon reaching the safe-house, they celebrate, which turns into yet another massacre. Now out of the handful that remained from the first attack, only about a dozen survive. Forced to flee, the survivors find out that someone isn't who he seems and the reason behind the robots going haywire links with the false person. It's up to the team to pull together and defeat the robots and their leader and to conquer the New Amazonian jungle.

Negatives:

1) Explanations/ Descriptions. Within the first few pages you are thrown into a world were you have no idea what is happening at all, and I mean at all. There is no real background on what is going on, what these alien species are, what these "DR's" are, nothing. It makes the story almost unbearable to read. I just found it frustrating and just utterly pointless to list off all these species, only to mention them maybe once or twice throughout the story. Then you have the attempted, half-hearted explanations and descriptions of things. For example, a lot of the creatures have simple names, such as Two-Tails. That's really all the description the reader really gets. Of course, here and there you get a little tidbit of information (if you're lucky) about this or that. A little more effort would have gone a long way in this department.

2) Short, Pointless Scenes. There were times when you get a scene that doesn't add to a character or the plot. For example, in the first chapter, you get a scene in which one character is just moving his hands to lower these "Dravens" (which I still have no idea what they are). It doesn't set up anything, or add to anything, seeing as the previous two scenes pretty much summed up what just happened. Were these scenes really necessary? No. I really think that it would have benefited if they were removed and some descriptions were added in their places.

3) Profanity. Now I don't have any problem with cursing at all. But this book is just to much. And needless to say, it's pointless. Honestly, do I need to read the f-word almost every few sentences? Profanity does have a purpose, to emphasize a point. Yet when I read this book, I honestly felt like I was reading something a middle schooler, who just discovered cursing, would write. It bothered me like nothing else. And it got old fast. Seriously, if you're going to use the f-word, at least use it to stress a situation and not in everyday language. It's just juvenile in the way it was used.

4) Structure. It was horrible, confusing, and caused everything to seem pointless. It just jumps around WAY to much. What I mean is that the scenes don't feel finished. They feel rushed and seemed to be cut off to soon and then you are immediately into the next scene. Nothing feels finished. Then you have the problem with jumping into someone else's viewpoint only to see them die within a sentence. Which leads me into my next point...

5) Pointless Deaths/ Characters. This is hard to really explain without talking about the characters. To put it simply, why introduce someone just to have them killed within the next few paragraphs? This happened to probably half the characters within the story. Because of that, you never really have a chance to have a relationship or start to think of so-and-so as interesting. For example, one of the neatest ideas that was presented were these humanoid species called the Noirs. Not much was said about them (look at negative point 1), yet they were fascinating. But what happens? All but two die. Oh only two left eh? Lets just make that one. Now let's forget about the remaining Noir and suddenly remember that, oh shoot, we still have the last Noir alive, better kill him off. Seriously, that happens. Another example is early in the story you are introduced to this character (I'm sorry, I don't remember her name or where it is). She seems interesting at first and all of a sudden, her rover goes down, she's injured. Her companion lives her to die. Is it necessary to introduce a character, only to kill her within a few pages? No, it's annoying and stupid. But, there are times when it is okay to do this, such as enforcing something. But does that happen in either of the cases I mentioned? No, they are utterly pointless deaths. You never get to connect with any of these characters because you never know who is next to bit the bullet.

Positives:

1) Humor. I have to give the story something, it was pretty funny at times. This is mostly due to the journal entries by Hugo, a scientist. Then some of the dialogue was humorous. For example the Beebe's conversations. The Beebe's are a husband and wife that talk to each other ironically and I imagine very quickly. I just found it funny.

2) Three Characters. There were three interesting characters. The first is Professor Helms. I can't really say why he was interesting, else I give away the story. But then again, I will not recommend anyone reading this so, basically Helms isn't who he says he is. He's the main reason why the robots went berserk and he is surprisingly noble, in a way. The second is the man I mentioned above, Hugo. Mostly because of his humor. The last interesting character is Ben. The reason is that he is a psychopath.

Side Note:

1) Noirs. I mentioned how I thought they were interesting above. Yet, I don't remember anything about them. Why is this? Because they were glanced over. Honestly, I'd like to read more about them.

2) Cover Art. I really like it. The two toy spacemen standing over those dead bugs are just funny. It really catches my eye for some reason.

Overall: 1/5

Final Thoughts:

Okay, so you may be asking why am I so critical about this story? I HATED it. It started off bad, the middle section was painful, and the ending was slightly better, but still horrible. Why? It's just confusing, petty, stupid, pointless, and juvenile. Heck, I've read horrible, disgusting fan fiction that Red Claw wished it could be. This really felt like a chore to read though. It would have helped greatly if there were more descriptions or less pointless scenes.

Two things to note on this one: First--Amazing; Second: Not a kids book by any means. Normally I wouldn't review a book that was clearly more for adults than for tweens or teens, but there was something particularly special about Palmer's imaginative world. There were Godzillas, Cyclops, people running around in full-body space suit things, and tons more.

So this is why I chose to review it here, other than that it was awesome: it reminds me of when I was a kid, playing with toys and imagining worlds for them--minus the sex and swearing. I'm sure there are many who will second that sentiment, and if for nothing else, I thought I would review it here specifically to recommend it to more mature readers who will appreciate that element.

On the literary end, it's rare to see an author who takes chances in the way a science fiction book is written. Almost all of them are completely linear, showing a dystopian future where the good guys have to fight against the government who takes their rights away and makes everyone be exactly the same--death to creativity, death to beauty and imagination. This novel still has some of that, as any good sci fi book should, but the novel really isn't about fighting the government as much as it is the human responsibility to protect a world and all its species from total annihilation (sound familiar?). At least that's one of the main themes.

The others are what makes it such a stellar read, not to mention that Palmer has written it in a somewhat unique and inventive style. The chapters only mark the passage of days as they go by, and every page is interspersed with short snippets of each main/sub main character and their point of view on what's happening at that exact moment. That tactic allows the reader to empathize with several characters and see everything from many points of view. It's a great read, and I highly recommend it to all readers 16+.

-Lindsey Miller, [...]