Falcon

4.3 out of 5 stars (138)
3.8 on Goodreads
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Book details

  1. Print length
    281 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ace
  4. Publication date
    October 1, 1989
  5. Dimensions
    7 x 1 x 5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0441225691
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0441225699
  8. See all details
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Book overview

Ace star pilot Dominic Falcon fights to defend a planet while a deadly drug courses through his blood stream, destroying his boy's defenses and rendering him helpless

About the author

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Emma Bull
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I write science fiction and fantasy, both novels and... Well, I'd say short stories, but they often wind up as novelettes. Or novellas. Usually novellas. My parents observed early on that I was a yakky kid.

I was born in Torrance, California. After that, my family moved to Houston, Texas; Beloit, Wisconsin; South Plainfield, New Jersey; and Rockton, Illinois. Since I was still short a few states at that point, I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota after graduating from Beloit College. From there, I moved to Los Angeles, California; Bisbee, Arizona; and Tucson, Arizona. At last I came back to Minneapolis, because, it seems, that's where I belong.

Hmm. Still short a few states.

I'm married to author Will Shetterly. We live with our cat, Barnabas, who keeps the household day planner and expects the residents to stick to a strict schedule.

In addition to my solo writing, I'm the Executive Producer of Shadow Unit, the best science fiction thriller TV show in prose form ever. So far, at least. My Co-Producer is Elizabeth Bear. Writing staff includes Will Shetterly, Sarah Monette, Amanda Downum, Leah Bobet, Chelsea Polk, Holly Black, and Steven Brust. We've finished our five-season run. Check it out at www.shadowunit.org.

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
138 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the story quality good, realistic, and imaginative. They also find the characters compelling, fun, and engaging. Readers praise the writing quality as well-written and great.

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12Customers mention
12Positive
0Negative

Customers find the story compelling, realistic, and clever. They appreciate the imaginative premise, sci-fi action with depth, and science fiction with heart. Readers also mention the book is a great novel with intricately entwined, lean plot structures and believable characters.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

"...Even minor characters are fleshed but and believable. You will fall in love with Niki. I can’t recommend this enough." Read more

"...I'll have to remedy that.The story is a classic of a type, with many of the old favorite SF themes intertwined and spun out into a new..." Read more

"...It is full of real emotion, adventure, and - to a degree - mystery...." Read more

"Clever plot twists and a fairly good main character, who is interesting and somewhat flawed but possessing outstanding character, take the reader on..." Read more

8Customers mention
8Positive
0Negative

Customers find the characters compelling, fun, and engaging. They also mention the plot is realistic.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

"...What sets it apart is the quality of the writing and beautiful character development. Even minor characters are fleshed but and believable...." Read more

"...: the writing is fluent, the opening section is taut and full of interesting characters, dirty politics and creeping tension, all leading up to a..." Read more

"Clever plot twists and a fairly good main character, who is interesting and somewhat flawed but possessing outstanding character, take the reader on..." Read more

"...There is an underlying good story in this book and the characters are interesting but I found the writing itself let the whole thing down...." Read more

8Customers mention
8Positive
0Negative

Customers find the writing quality of the book well-observed, great, and compelling. They also appreciate the combination of visually and audibly compelling descriptions.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

"...What sets it apart is the quality of the writing and beautiful character development. Even minor characters are fleshed but and believable...." Read more

"...'s a lot to like in this book, especially in the beginning: the writing is fluent, the opening section is taut and full of interesting characters,..." Read more

"...Well observed, well written, and well done!" Read more

"...Each book has its own universe to live in, but the writing is always so rich and descriptive...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

BGlanton
5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
You need to read this book!
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2021
Emma Bull is one of the finest authors out there and this is some of her best work. I been reading science fiction and fantasy for over 40 years and this one of my favorite books. It almost two books: the first part is a political thriller; the second is pure space... See more
Emma Bull is one of the finest authors out there and this is some of her best work. I been reading science fiction and fantasy for over 40 years and this one of my favorite books. It almost two books: the first part is a political thriller; the second is pure space opera. What sets it apart is the quality of the writing and beautiful character development. Even minor characters are fleshed but and believable. You will fall in love with Niki. I can’t recommend this enough.
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mabg
4.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Could have been really good
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2015
There's a lot to like in this book, especially in the beginning: the writing is fluent, the opening section is taut and full of interesting characters, dirty politics and creeping tension, all leading up to a major explosion and an unexpected enemy is revealed.... See more
There's a lot to like in this book, especially in the beginning: the writing is fluent, the opening section is taut and full of interesting characters, dirty politics and creeping tension, all leading up to a major explosion and an unexpected enemy is revealed.

Then the story goes off in a totally different direction and seems to lose its way. The enemy disappears for most of the rest of the book, while the main character slips out of the story's focus and it never really finds him again. Other interesting people show up, but either we get too little of them (Laura Brass) or we get too much about how they feel Niki affects them and too little of a mutual relationship (Chrysander and Jhari). It's really frustrating because there's a lot here that's good, and yet the story just petered out for me, especially given the weak ending that left the main character merely a kind enigma...

Maybe I've read too many stories about extraordinary beings who began in human form and became somehow perfected or Other: Robert Heinlein's Valentine Michael Smith, Frank Herbert's Paul Atreides, Andrea Host's Madeleine Cost... It's a specific genre almost and the real challenge for the writer is how to humanize a person who seems to be too perfect to be human.

In most cases it seems, writers use an observer to narrate the saint's journey and help the reader stay connected with the person's origin humanity. That can work really well for most of the book, though the ending is almost always problematic even so, but it needs to be handled carefully.

In the latter part of this story, Bull uses several POVs. There are the action segments, which generally follow Niki and/or Chrysander, and there are the log excerpts written by one of the other characters. I thought the log was handled in a way that didn't really serve the story. The log lost impact both because Bull chose not to identify its author right away, and because at the time the log was introduced, we knew little about who the person was or the nature of her current relationship with Niki Falcon.

I didn't understand the point of obscuring the log writer's identity since it's not hard to figure out that Jhari is the observer. Hiding her name lacked purpose, but it was a worse mistake for Bull to say so little about who Jhari and Niki had been to one another before introducing the log. We start off with no context for the relationship and then we get Niki and Jhari's story in such small bites that much of the impact of their shifting from lovers to adversaries to lovers is lost and their relationship feels ungrounded through the rest of the book. We have no idea why he cares so much for her rather than one of the other women he's loved, and that makes Jhari seem almost like one more pin Niki has caromed off of, instead of a person in her own right.

Then, too, Jhari's contributions fail to help us believe that Niki's still a real person. She writes about him from the beginning as if he's not really human, more like a chemical agent instead. She emphasises his role in life as being a catalyst or pivot, and talks a lot about how he changes people just by who he is with them, but she doesn't convincingly portray him as a flawed, fallible person. For this reason, his character becomes unmoored from the person we saw him to be in the beginning of the story, and we have no real clue how he became the person he is when we meet him many years later. Bull tells us very little about what happened to him after he fled Cymru and does it much too late to help the reader stay connected to him. The story needed to contain more of the events that shaped Niki during the period between his exile and the story's 'now'---and not as third-party recaps in Jhari's log, or in passing phrases in other people's conversations discussing Niki near the end of the book.

For the whole second section of the book Niki comes across as merely a kind enigma who hates violence, cries over slain enemies, and endlessly forgives his betrayers. None of those are bad things, but as the sum total of a person's actions, they lack the friction, grit and messiness of our common humanity. As a writer, you've got to help us accept that someone can make those choices while remaining human, and Bull doesn't quite pull it off. She tries, with the last vignette of Jhari and Niki together, but it doesn't really work, maybe because we're still viewing Niki from the outside, from Jhari's experience of him, and she's closer to worshipping him than actually loving him, it seems.

Heinlein did it best, I think, in Stranger in a Strange Land, in a conversation after the group has shared Mike's body as a funeral feast. "Needed a little salt." "Yes, Mike always did need a little seasoning."

Niki needs a bit of seasoning too, but just didn't get enough to make this work.
2 people found this helpful
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Karen Myers
5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Excellent book -- a shining light in a sea of mediocrity
Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2022
It's been many years since I last read Emma Bull, and I just stumbled onto this one via a recommendation. What took me so long? I'll have to remedy that. The story is a classic of a type, with many of the old favorite SF themes intertwined and spun out into a new... See more
It's been many years since I last read Emma Bull, and I just stumbled onto this one via a recommendation. What took me so long? I'll have to remedy that.

The story is a classic of a type, with many of the old favorite SF themes intertwined and spun out into a new and unique story, with a touch of Sturgeon and other favorites of mine. Well observed, well written, and well done!
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Sandra Hoskin
5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Science fiction with heart
Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2020
I have recently discovered other books by Emma Bull, whose writing I fell for in War For The Oaks. Each book has its own universe to live in, but the writing is always so rich and descriptive. In this book, the human diaspora across the universe has been by country of... See more
I have recently discovered other books by Emma Bull, whose writing I fell for in War For The Oaks. Each book has its own universe to live in, but the writing is always so rich and descriptive. In this book, the human diaspora across the universe has been by country of earth, in this case Cymru, which means Wales. The culture is a mix of advanced space travel and technology with elements of princely luxury. When the hero's horse is shot out from under him, he has enough warning to escape the mass assassination of his family to hide in the space force for several years, until trouble comes looking for him.
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Lilly
4.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Falcon, by Emma Bull, Oct, 1989 “very good” sci-fi
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2024
I had a copy that was almost this nice but l could not bear to tear it up by reading it and cracking the spine. Now that l have this little beauty to set aside and seal in moisture l can read my cherished first copy. Emma Bull’s 1st book “War for the Oakes”... See more
I had a copy that was almost this nice but l could not bear to tear it up by reading it and cracking the spine.
Now that l have this little beauty to set aside and seal in moisture l can read my cherished first copy.

Emma Bull’s 1st book “War for the Oakes” has been reissued in hardback for anyone who likes her books
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Al Meyer
5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Please look past the cheesy cover!
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2008
This book is great! It is difficult to describe what its about without giving anything away, but I think some other reviews summed it up well. Know that the first half of the book is very different from the second half, so you are not jared when you get to it. It saddens... See more
This book is great! It is difficult to describe what its about without giving anything away, but I think some other reviews summed it up well. Know that the first half of the book is very different from the second half, so you are not jared when you get to it. It saddens me that Amazon does not have it in stock, but trust me when I say it is worth buying even from an unknown distributer. Like my title says, ignore the cover picture. The book has a completely different worth then what comes across in that picture. It is full of real emotion, adventure, and - to a degree - mystery. And like any good science fiction/fantasy book, it is timeless, so don't think it is too dated to be worth a read!
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T. J. Trentadue
4.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Good reading
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2015
Clever plot twists and a fairly good main character, who is interesting and somewhat flawed but possessing outstanding character, take the reader on a journey through time and space.
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Mr. Thomas A. Mckewen
2.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Good underlying story, just not executed to my likeing.
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2015
I managed to get to the end though I skipped many pages as the book tends to ramble a lot. I found the poetry at the beginning of chapters annoying and irrelevant. The ending seems to just ramble on and on. There is an underlying good story in this book and the... See more
I managed to get to the end though I skipped many pages as the book tends to ramble a lot. I found the poetry at the beginning of chapters annoying and irrelevant. The ending seems to just ramble on and on.

There is an underlying good story in this book and the characters are interesting but I found the writing itself let the whole thing down. In places it was just pages of nothing or filler but in other places I had to go back half a dozen pages and read them again to try and work out what had actually gone on because it seemed to make no sense on the first reading or two. Some continuity issues and at times I tended to lose track as to which character was telling the current part of the story.

In a lot of ways the book reminds me of the concepts in some of Anne McCaffery's books like the Ship Who Sang and the Rowan books, just the premise not the actual storytelling. I think if you are new to Sci-Fi you will enjoy this book more than readers who have seen much of the content done better by other authors.
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Top reviews from other countries

Jenina Makowska
4.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
schön
Reviewed in Germany on February 28, 2022
schön
schön

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John
5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
Amazing author - so much variety in her writing.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 26, 2020
This is an excellent book. I bought it for kindle although I have a paper edition. Emma Bull is an amazing author and I first encountered her with a short story entitled 'silver or gold' in anthology dedicated to Tolkein called 'after the king' also a grest book.See more
This is an excellent book. I bought it for kindle although I have a paper edition. Emma Bull is an amazing author and I first encountered her with a short story entitled 'silver or gold' in anthology dedicated to Tolkein called 'after the king' also a grest book.
This is an excellent book.
I bought it for kindle although I have a paper edition.
Emma Bull is an amazing author and I first encountered her with a short story entitled 'silver or gold' in anthology dedicated to Tolkein called 'after the king' also a grest book.

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