Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future [Import] [Paperback]

Mike Resnick (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Legend paperbacks (January 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0099446006
• ISBN-13: 978-0099446002
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,898,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm Mike Resnick, and I am, according to Locus, the trade paper of the science fiction field, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. I find this surprising, because I have always considered myself a novelist; at least, writing novels is how I pay my bills.

To date I've sold 62 science fiction novels (plus one mystery, and nine non-fiction books (all of them about writing or science fiction or both). I've sold upward of 250 stories, and even a couple of screenplays. I've edited more than 40 anthologies, and served stints as the consulting science fiction editor for BenBella Books, and the executive editor for Jim Baen's Universe. I've won 5 Hugos, and been nominated a record 34 times; I've also won a Nebula and other major awards in the USA, France, Poland, Croatia, Spain and Japan, and have been shortlisted for major awards in England, Italy, and Australia. My work has been translated into 26 languages so far.

My daughter, Laura, is also a science fiction and fantasy (and romance, and travel) writer, and won the Campell Award (for Best New Science Fiction Writer) in 1993. I met my wife Carol at the University of Chicago in 1960, married her in 1961, and next year we celebrate our 50th anniversary.

My 2010 books include BLASHPHEMY, a hardcover from Golden Gryphon Press; THE BUSINESS OF SCIENCE FICTION, a trade paperback co-authored with Barry N. Malzberg, from McFarland; and coming in December, THE BUNTLINE SPECIAL, a trade paperback from Pyr. I also created five e-books in 2010, collections of my Hugo-winning and Hugo-nominated stories. I'd tell you what I do in my spare time, but I don't seem to have any. :-)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who is Santiago?, December 11, 2002

By 

Kelly Langston-Smith (Atomic City, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of my top ten all time favorite sci-fi novels and has been since I first read it when I was about 13 (I am more than TWICE that age now and that's all we'll say on that subject). The book has held up through many years and many re-readings and I enjoy it every time. Far from being traditional and technical science fiction, this is one part pulp western, one part space opera, one part Robin Hood type adventure and five hundred parts cool. Here Resnick has peopled a far flung corner of the Universe with more unique and colorful characters than you would normally get in ten such novels, and the dialogue is snappier than any other book of this genre, guaranteed. The book runs very fast and is fun from start to stop. I couldn't put it down almost two decades ago and I still usually read it in one or two sittings.
Santiago is the most notorious criminal in the galaxy with a price on his head like no other man past or present. He is a legend of close to mythic proportions. The only problem is no one has ever seen his face or dealt with him directly in his many years of looting and pillaging. This doesn't, of course, keep every bounty hunter on the galactic rim from trying to hunt him down. Sebastian Cain is one such bounty hunter, a disillusioned freedom fighter who decided to start killing people for profit once he realized all of his fighting to make the universe a better place was futile. The book begins with his receiving a simple tip in a small out of the way bar that puts him on the trail of the most notorious criminal in history. His adventures take him to many ports of call and he crosses paths with gamblers, assassins, a gun toting preacher, a starving artist, a sentient spaceship, alien indians and even a reporter or two. The only problem is that The Angel, the best bounty hunter in the biz, is also close to figuring out the puzzle that is Santiago. The book is a race, a chase, an adventure of the highest order and makes the point that nothing is ever really what it seems. After all, in a world where your name is a description of who and what you are (Poor Yorick, Jolly Swagman, Man-Mountain Bates), the most dangerous man in the universe is named Santiago. Look it up and see what it means.
There was a point when the paperback of this book came with a blurb saying it was soon to be made into a movie. I guess this never came to fruition, but it would certainly make the best animated sci-fi flick I can think of. I also see that Amazon is advertising for the sequel to be published soon. I cannot wait. Like I said, this is one of my favorite fun books ever and if the follow up is only half as good, it will still be an absolute blast.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Santiago: The Good, the Bad and the Spacemen, January 4, 2000

By 

Joe White (Layton, Utah United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future (Mass Market Paperback)

Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future reads like an epic Western except the setting is space instead of the Old West. Perhaps one of the best books I've ever read, filled with mythic characters that do bear some resemblance to legendary gunslingers of the West. We see the different characters weave their way through a series of pitfalls and challenges to, in the end, face the "villain" of the story, the semi-mythical outlaw Santiago. But things are not what they seem in this very fascinating and clever novel.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Space Cowboys, August 11, 2002

By 

AntiochAndy "antiochandy" (Antioch, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future (Mass Market Paperback)

When I bought SANTIAGO, I was expecting a "space opera" type of novel. That is, a melodrama typified by shallow characterization, simple plot line and lots of action. What I wasn't quite prepared for was a "space western". That's what this is, though. It reads like a cowboy story complete with bounty hunters, a lawless frontier culture, and aliens calling themselves "the sioux nation" and living in teepees.

My first reaction was to laugh. The parallels are so blatant that it seemed comical. Resnick posits a galactic "frontier" where cheap, personal inter-stellar transportation is available and goes the whole nine yards in comparing it to the western frontier of the U.S. in the second half of the nineteenth century. It's like Dodge City goes galactic.

The surprising thing here is that Resnick actually pulls this off. It may seem a little corny at first (at least, it did to me), but overall it's entertaining and fun to read. Not only does the story move along at a good pace, but it is populated with some of the oddest and most intriguing characters imaginable. They aren't deep, but each is quirky and VERY different in his/her own way. Some are likable, some are at least sympathetic, some are downright despicable, but they're not boring. This progression of wierd characters is enough to keep the book from getting dull all by itself.

SANTIAGO isn't a deep, thought-provoking tale, but it is entertaining. I enjoyed it. It's fluff, but it works. If that works for you, give it a try. I recommend it as a good, light scifi read.