| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Authors
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
". . . thoroughly enlivened with tweaked and twisted cliches, explosive military action, and plenty of interspecies banter to keep things fun". -- Locus
Product Description
Chip Connolly was a conscripted grunt in trouble: stuck behind enemy lines with a bunch of cyber-uplifted rats and bats. Rats with human speech, but with rat priorities: sex, food and strong drink. And the bats were revolutionaries planning to throw off the human yoke -- with high explosive. Then there was the girl they'd rescued. Rich. Beautiful. With a passionate crush on her "heroic" rescuer. Her entourage was a screwball Alien tutor, and a cyber-uplifted lemurlike pet galago with delusions of being the world's greatest lover.
Of course things only got worse. Seven rats, five bats, a galago, two humans, a sea-urchin-like alien and an elderly vineyard tractor without brakes...against several million inimical aliens. He was going to die.
Mind you, "not" dying could be even more terrible. That girl might get him.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
The Expediter listened in silence. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The Expediter listened in silence. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
'Rats, Bats and Vats' blasts off in a future world forgotten by the rest of the known human universe, the heros, a mixed species cyber-adjusted strikeforce, find themselves inextricably trapped behind enemy lines between a corrupt 'colonial' regime and the forces of great evil. In this case, a hive of multi-morphed arthropod-like aliens. There's a lot of double dealing and the usual sort of 'corporate' shenanigans, combat action, with the obligatory sex, recipes, and romance, but with a real twist in the tail as it turns out regarding the latter!
It's a classic story of 'human colonist struggle against aliens' but with a difference. There are a number of sub-plots twisted into the general story as the main plot gallops along. The turns in the story are unexpected, the characters real, and the action fast. It's a good read, I thoroughly enjoyed it (and the authors sense of humour!).
Didn't think much of the recipes though!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I was not quite sure what to expect of this but having read and enjoyed the two Pyramid books I gave it a go. Although one has to suspend belief in places and the characters do seem to have some quite large blind spots it rushes along carrying the reader with it. I am looking forward to reading the sequal.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
25 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Hooray for underdogs and misfits
21 Sep 2000
Format:Hardcover
What do Shakespeare, Irish freedom fighters and wet lettuces all have in common? Nothing? Well until I read this novel I would have agreed. In this case they are just a few of the many ingredients that go to make Rats, Bats and Vats an excellent read.
Drunken, lecherous cyber-intelligent rats with a fondness for shakespearean insults; fanatical cyber-intelligent bats with a penchant for blowing things up; a vat-grown human and an heiress. Not the most likely of comrades. And yet when thrown together under trench warfare conditions, the result is an enthralling mix of realism, pathos, gritty humour and riveting, fast paced action. A most refreshing change.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
One of the funniest "Military" science fiction I've ever read!
28 Mar 2006
Format:Mass Market Paperback
My husband picked this up after telling me "any random book printed by Baen is good" - and, of course, because it has "rats" in the title . . . He read it and laughed his way through it and insisted that I read it, too, to which I agreed readily enough. I won't recap the story, but I will say it is a hoot and a half! The rats are hedonistic Shakespeareans; the bats are revolutionary Irish; and the vats are hapless humans who are just along for the ride. And, of course, you have the land-owners, who have the money - throw in the evil bugs from outer space and the benevolent aliens who are providing the technology to defeat them (or are they?) and you have a mix that is sure to please anyone who likes military science fiction, space opera, or just plain silliness. HIGHLY recommended!!
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Rats, Bats and Vats
21 Sep 2000
Format:Hardcover
This is the best science fiction book I've read in a decade. By combining futuristic DNA manipulation with a rollicking good time, Dave Freer has produced a truly great book. The layers of complexity in this story are exceeded only by the unexpected twists and turns. The setting, a colony planet, is beautifully drawn and so realistic it's almost scary. A cloned slave-grunt soldier, the lone human survivor of his platoon, takes on giant maggot aliens in a series of battles that swing between terrifying and hysterically funny. The grunt's companions are genetically engineered bats and rats, which were designed to help fight the human war and seem to be a cross between Mafia rejects and members of a biker gang. A high-ranking, disgruntled officer takes on the whole inept army beaurocracy. The romance between a naïve rich girl and the cynical army grunt adds extra color and hilarity. Even the bad guys turn out to be even badder than the reader expects, forcing the other characters to deal with betrayal and misinformation. The happy ending is satisfactory without being sugary-sweet or predictable. There are just enough ends left loose that the authors could conceivably write a sequal (hopeful hint!). Very highly recommended.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
