Customer Reviews

The Watchmen

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For some reason Ben Bova found the original sequel (Star Conquerors, 1959) to the Star Watchman embarrassing. I recall something about it being egocentric in nature because it assumes the human form is the pinnacle of evolution. So what? he certainly wasn't the first-or last author to go down that road. So it has never been reprinted-making existing copies worth a small fortune-if you can find them! I found Star Conquerors as good (if not better) a space opera read as Star Watchman and certainly deserves to be reprinted.

_Star Watchman_ is the sequel to _The Star Conquerors_, not the other way around. _The Star Conquerors_ was Bova's first novel.

This book is really the compilation of Ben Bova's two Star Watchmen books- `The Watchmen' & `The Duelling Machine' Ben Bova gives us a vast sweep of future history in his first book in which humanity has reached the stars and its last gaurdians are the Watchmen. Men (and women) who's duty it is to see that ethical conduct is played out on the interstellar scene. In the second book he focusses on the means by which disputes are settled in this far flung era. We have the wise old scientist, a klutzy star watchman, and an assasin from a domineering empire. The battlefield of this far flung era is `The Duelling Machine' a machine whereby two individuals fight in computer simulated environments, totally harmless and non-lethal. Or so it's inventor thought now people are dying. If you want to find out the rest read the book, I can thoroughly recommend it.