Customer Reviews

Starwolf

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
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"Starwolf" is actually a collection of three novels from the late 1960s: "The Weapon from Beyond," "The Closed Worlds," and "World of the Starwolves".

The Starwolves are Viking-like space pirates whose world's harsh gravity imparts to them a superhuman strength and musculature. Morgan Chane was almost one of them...though his family had come from earth. Finding himself an outcast after killing a fellow Starwolf in a feud over their plunder, Chane joins a band of tough interstellar mercenaries to survive. However, his troubles are not over--if any but Dilullo, the aging Merc in charge of the mercenary band, learns his secret, his life could be forfeit, for Starwolves are considered such a menace that they are usually shot on sight.

These books owe a lot to "Conan: The Barbarian," some to the pulp SF books of the 30s and 40s, and a bit to "The Stainless Steel Rat". Though somewhat derivative, they are nonetheless competantly and entertainingly written, with sufficiently interesting characterization, that they are well worth the time they take to read.

If you like slam bang adventure science fiction, with vividly drawn characters, pirates, mercenaries, and dozens of strongly drawn worlds and cultures, this will be your cup of tea, and I highly recommend it. The Starwolf series is full of the excitement and wonder and sense of limitless possibilities for adventure that is missing from much contemporary science fiction. This would be a good book to get a youngster hooked on sci fi (though I first read the StarWolf series as a 30 something adult and have gone back to it several times. Indeed, I've gone on to read everything I can find by Edmond Hamilton.)

A really fun read.

The last series from the master(and one of the first) of interstellar adventures since the 1920's. The Morgan Chane stories are a fairly typical non-juvenile Hamilton tour de force. With so much of Hamilton's work no longer available this is a good chance to read some of his best action SF.
If you're devotee of the Sci Fi channel (or live action Japanese SF shows) you've probably seen the loosely adaptated live action Japanese version of the 'Weapon from Beyond'.

A heavy gravity world man falls in with a bunch of spaceraiders, these sort of physical advantages are handy in that line of work.

When he has a disagreement with them they are also handy when running away.

No-one at all likes you then, pretty much. Not the best situation to be in. Good for readers of the book, though.


2.5 out of 5

As a teen I loved the Starwolf trilogy, and as an adult come back to it with nostalgia but also renewed appreciation. A great premise, well written with amusing characters and clever plots. I wish he had written more, would love to know if Chane ever became a "nice little Earthling".