Customer Reviews

Star Smashers/galaxy

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

 

 

Chuck and Jerry didn't know what to expect when Jerry put cheese in the particle accelerator, but they surely didn't expect to have to end up saving the galaxy from the mind controlling Lortonoi.

This is a fun farce, though not nearly as shocking and titillating as it must have been when it first appeared in 1973.

Still, a good read.

This is one funny, funny, enjoyable book. A farcical take off on silly space operas, the action is wild, the characters hilariously idiotic, the settings imaginitive, and one of my favorite all-time endings.

But it's even funnier if you've read the grand old space operas of E.E. "Doc" Smith. This is a dead-on satire of Smith's most famous works, the "Lensman" and "Skylark" series. Harrison gets in all of Smith's trademarks: The hysterical prose, the cliffhanger chapter endings, the amazing BEMs, the questionalbe science, the all-American cardboard idiocy of the heroes, the vapidity of the heroines, the simplistic black-and-white morality, the wonderful and imaginitive settings, the jingonistic patriotism, the nonstop action, even Smith's love of a good steak. If you've read any of Smith's work (and possibly if you haven't), you'll laugh until you wet your pants.

Good hunting! Copies are kind of rare, so start now!

I am prompted to write because I just finished reading a comparable book, Douglas Adams' Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy, after hearing the radio shows many years ago. THHGTTG doesn't make its way into prose very well, and seems really dated.

By contrast, Harrison's is really sharp satire, and he uses the liberties that science fiction gives him to make his points with great force and absurd humour.

If we discover a species is stupider than we first thought, can we eat them? Who should one side with in a war; a cruel democracy or a kind dictatorship? And when does hero-worship cross the line into homoeroticism?

Harrison raises issues of politics, racism, sexism and a thousand other touchy subjects in a hilarious and outrageous book.

The galaxy's star-fleet being led by a souped-up 747 is a delightful image which sticks in my mind from this book.

Oh, and I think Harrison raided his legal textbooks to name the aliens. A garnishee is a claim you can make over someone's wages or property, and Lord Percy was an English Judge.

This book deserves to be in print again....and, especially, tobe made into a high-budget movie.

I read this book thirtymumble years ago and loved every page.

Written in the style of the inimitable (wait, what?) E.E. "Doc" Smith and borrowing heavily from The Skylark & Lensman series, you will find sly references to any number of then-current SF classics (Asimov gets a dinging, and Niven marvelously takes one for the team in the Ringworld scene that has a wonderful example of bathos as comedy).

The plot? Well, it doesn't really matter but it involves a practical joke with some cheese turning into the most startling invention in the history of mankind, which the plucky heroes (and heroine) then use to defeat the -m-i-n-i-o-n-s--o-f--B-o-s-k-o-n-e-- Hag-Loos. Villains are villainous, heroes are heroic and everyone speaks English because it's more sensible than their native languages (though in at least one case it was learned from a planet called "BBC Light Programme").

You probably have to be in your fifties to "get" most of the jokes, and I think it helps if you're English too. It definitely helps if you've read the aforementioned Doc Smith series, Niven's Ringworld and Asimov.

When you've read this, look for the Harrison short story "Space Rats of the CCC". Another thigh-slapper.

I loved this book as a teenager in High School. It was a very hard book to put down. Very entertaining, funny and full of fast paced sci-fi action. Though as much as I loved it back in 1987, I daresay I'd probably find it a bit dated now. But there were twists and turns that still made it a fantastic adventure story

This book is just so downright ugly, you can't help laughing. The evil guy even talks with a german accent! Some books are so bad, they are good. Harry Harrison hits that balance so perfectly. Read it and weep.

Very silly and amusing science fiction satire (although satire might be too high-faluting a word for this book, 'piss-take' is more its level) on bad space opera.

I'm not a big reader of sci-fi so there were probably many in jokes that I didn't notice, but I had a ball reading this. Utter nonsense from start to finish, centering around a form of space travel powered by cheddar!