- Hardcover: 150 pages
- Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd; First Edition edition (Jan 1984)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0727809695
- ISBN-13: 978-0727809698
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,451,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
at only 150 pages and 23 short chapters. Any more, even just 200 pages, and I probably wouldn't have bothered to finish it.
The story itself is compelling enough to have kept me reading, an alien craft crashes in New York with the only survivor a captive of the hostile race they are at war with. It warns that Earth could be dragged into the conflict, but how much of what it says is true?
And it is the lies that both sides tell that make it seemingly worthwhile to read to find out what is really going on.
With one main character, a US Army colonel, and a supporting cast that comes and goes the book moves at quite a pace due to its length. New York, Antartica and most unlikely the surface of the moon are the main location settings.
Building to chapter 22, it just doesn't pay off in 23 and seems rushed and an anticlimax with the worst page of the book being the last and a pacifist speech by one of the supporting characters that dragged it down from 3 to 2 stars for me.
I am sure that most people, like me, will have been drawn to getting it by Deathworld or The Stainless Steel Rat and where the disappointment would derive from. Without Harrison's name attached I would question if it would even have been published.
It isn't a bad story taken on its own and shows promise, it just isn't a very well developed one and personally I have too many books to store and read to justify keeping it as I doubt I would ever read it again.
One for the charity shop.
The story itself is compelling enough to have kept me reading, an alien craft crashes in New York with the only survivor a captive of the hostile race they are at war with. It warns that Earth could be dragged into the conflict, but how much of what it says is true?
And it is the lies that both sides tell that make it seemingly worthwhile to read to find out what is really going on.
With one main character, a US Army colonel, and a supporting cast that comes and goes the book moves at quite a pace due to its length. New York, Antartica and most unlikely the surface of the moon are the main location settings.
Building to chapter 22, it just doesn't pay off in 23 and seems rushed and an anticlimax with the worst page of the book being the last and a pacifist speech by one of the supporting characters that dragged it down from 3 to 2 stars for me.
I am sure that most people, like me, will have been drawn to getting it by Deathworld or The Stainless Steel Rat and where the disappointment would derive from. Without Harrison's name attached I would question if it would even have been published.
It isn't a bad story taken on its own and shows promise, it just isn't a very well developed one and personally I have too many books to store and read to justify keeping it as I doubt I would ever read it again.
One for the charity shop.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
aliens were they?
5 Nov 2001
Format:Paperback
Ahh,Harry Harrison, the mind behind the ingenius creations of Bill,the galactic hero and his many unlikely adventures involving feet and beer,not to mention that pillar of the criminal community,Slippery Jim digriz .
In this book,which is more of a short story, there are a few parallels between the main character,Rob and the aforementioned Slippery.Except he's not not as funny or developed as well as he could be.It's all a bit out of date now,what with the pesky'Russkies' making a major showing,but all that aside I quite liked the book as I like Mr Harrison's style and I'm always up for a bit of daft sci-fi.All in all better offf getting some Bill,or Stainless stories.So funny your gut will bust with hilarity.
In this book,which is more of a short story, there are a few parallels between the main character,Rob and the aforementioned Slippery.Except he's not not as funny or developed as well as he could be.It's all a bit out of date now,what with the pesky'Russkies' making a major showing,but all that aside I quite liked the book as I like Mr Harrison's style and I'm always up for a bit of daft sci-fi.All in all better offf getting some Bill,or Stainless stories.So funny your gut will bust with hilarity.
Strangely bad
4 April 2007
Format:Paperback
Extraordinarily awful tissue of clichés and bad writing. I was very disappointed after enjoying the hell out of the Deathworld and Stainless Steel Rat books as a teenager. This doesn't seem written by the same author...
Weak Plot, Heavy Handed Moralism
11 Jan 2000
Format:Paperback
I should have known better when the main character uttered the too often heard words "This may sound crazy, but..." This book violates that rule I seem to remeber from somewhere - show, don't tell. Instead of having the main characters constantly talking about what sounds crazy but must be true, I want to simply see the evidence they see. Or better yet, wait a while. We don't have to know everything right away. And finally, the cheesy moralizing at the end was not excusable.
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