Survey Ship (Ace Science Fiction) [Paperback]

Marion Zimmer Bradley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 231 pages
• Publisher: Ace; First Edition edition (October 1, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441791107
• ISBN-13: 978-0441791101
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,319,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marion Eleanor Zimmer was born in Albany, NY, on June 3, 1930, and married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. Mrs. Bradley received her B.A. in 1964 from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, then did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1965-67.
She was a science fiction/fantasy fan from her middle teens. She had written as long as she could remember, but wrote only for school magazines and fanzines until 1952, when she sold her first professional short story to VORTEX SCIENCE FICTION. She wrote everything from science fiction to Gothics, but is probably best known for her Darkover novels and for her Arthurian novel, THE MISTS OF AVALON.
In addition to her novels, Mrs. Bradley edited magazines, amateur and professional, including Marion Zimmer Bradley's FANTASY Magazine, which she started in 1988. She also edited an annual anthology called SWORD AND SORCERESS, which is still published annually under the title MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY'S SWORD AND SORCERESS.
She died in Berkeley, California on September 25, 1999, four days after suffering a major heart attack.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Death where is thy sting?, April 3, 2002

By 

Worldreels (MANKATO, MN) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Survey Ship (Ace Science Fiction) (Paperback)

Excellent character study of three gals and three guys (covering the gamut of sexual orientation) locked aboard space ship headed for nowhere. Death is certain--but when? The head game going on was why any of the six were picked from a class of forty. Group psychology and future sociology study of humans cut off from mankind. Only the outer space setting qualifies story to be labeled sci-fi. Good read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Underrated Book, January 17, 2008

By 

Miralys Dritz - See all my reviews

This review is from: Survey Ship (Mass Market Paperback)

This is one of Marion Zimmer Bradley's most obscure books, I managed to borrow a copy and read it. I thought it was excellent book. This is not really a science fiction book, it's more about the relationships between characters and their development as people. It starts out in the future in a time when Earth (Terra) is even more overpopulated and so every year they pick six of the brightest students from a class of 40, who are the best and have trained for many years, to go on a survey ship to find a new planet. We have six distinct people: easygoing Teague, free spirited Moira, the roboticaly perfect Ching, sensitive Peak, the quick Fontana and the spiritual Ravi. This book is how these people survive together in a confined space and working together in spite of their differences. In a way this book is a prequel to Darkover Landfall because they appear to take place in the same universe but Darkover is still very far into the future.

In all a good read especially if you like the way Marion can turn science fiction into a rich story where the focus is on people, not the fact that it is in the future.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good read, just not quite all there, November 12, 2007

By 

Morgan Cahall "so many books so little time" (Delaware, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Survey Ship (Mass Market Paperback)

Story:
In the future the united space program selects talented young children to become future space explorers. These children go through years of training and in their 18th year, 4-10 of the children in the class (the best of the best)are chosen to crew a survey ship that goes out among the stars to find habitable planets. This is story of Survey Ship 103. This crew of 6 must survive themselves, the dangers of space travel, and a faulty star ship in order to complete their mission and help humanity spread to the stars.
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Well the first thing I'll say about this book is that it is missing some of the pieces or it was meant to be part of a series. It is well written but most of what happens in the book seems to set the stage for a climax later.... that never happens. This story seems to be more of a "situational" story about what would happen if you took a bunch of super educated 18 yr olds, who have been sheltered from the world since they were selected at a very young age (usually 5 or 6), and turned them lose in a space ship and said find me a planet or don't bother coming back. The majority of the book deals with the crew "growing up" as they try to deal with not having any supervison for the first time in their lives. That is the part that makes the book interesting. If your looking for a space disater novel this is not it (try Voyage of the Star Wolf, Midshipmans hope, or The Helmsman Novels), if on the other hand your looking for a situationl novel that deals with people trying to understand themselves in a new world this novel might work for you.
m.a.c