Space Captain Smith: Chronicles of Isambard Smith, Book 1
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'Gives the sacred cows of sci-fi a good kicking before racing home in time for tea.' --Dick Maggs, director of BBC Radio 4's 'The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy'
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In the 25nd Century the British Space Empire faces the gathering menace of the evil ant-soldiers of the Ghast Empire hive, hell-bent on galactic domination and the extermination of all humanoid life. Isambard Smith is the square-jawed, courageous and somewhat asinine new commander of the clapped out and battle damaged light freighter John Pym, destined to take on the alien threat because nobody else is available. Together with his bold crew a skull collecting alien lunatic, an android pilot who is actually a fugitive sex toy and a hamster called Gerald he must collect new-age herbalist Rhianna Mitchell from the laid back New Francisco orbiter and bring her back to safety in the Empire. Straightforward enough except the Ghasts want her too. If he is to get back to Blighty alive, Smith must defeat void sharks, a universe-weary android assassin and John Gilead, psychopathic naval officer from the fanatically religious Republic of New Eden before facing his greatest enemy: a ruthless alien warlord with a very large behind...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More tea Captain?,
By
This review is from: Space Captain Smith (Chronicles of Isambard Smith) (Paperback)
If you took the writers of Red Dwarf, The Hitchiker's guide to the galaxy and Terry Pratchett, put them all in a pot and melded them together, you would almost certainly be arrested. If you however took bits of their writing styles and blended them together in a weird Victorian/ sc-fi space soap opera you may end up with a book something like this one.
Meet Isambard Smith. A fleet officer for the British space Empire. He is rabidly patriotic, heroic, paranoid about foreigners (especially ones who want to turn him into a nutri-shake) and utterly fearless apart from social situations with pretty girls. If you asked an American to draw a stereotypical Englishman Smith would be it, complete with a handlebar moustache and a deep seated love of tea and cricket. Despite his aforementioned mistrust of anyone not from good old Blighty his best friend is, for reasons never explained, a seven foot tall greenish grey 'predator' type creature. The book is really a journey of gentle and affectionate parody of all our best loved sc-fi stories. Predator, The Matrix, I Robot, Blade Runner, Total Recall and strangely A clockwork Orange? all feature. The book does have one or two flaws that can be easily forgiven as this is a debut book. Firstly Carveth (the escaped synthetic person/sex toy) and Smith take a while to settle down and find a consistant personality. Also the book does at times get a bit contrived to allow a particularly witty one liner in, which sometimes was worth it but at others only caused me to groan. But this is a good opening to the series and is the kind of book I worshipped as a teenager, when laughs were far more important to me than drama. In summary, an amusing easy to read book, with a very cool cover, ideal for a beach holiday.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lust in Space,
By
This review is from: Space Captain Smith (Chronicles of Isambard Smith) (Paperback)
Space Captain Smith - Toby Frost
Isambard Smith wants to be a space captain in the second British Empire, and battle the evil Ghast, giant ant-like creatures, and the religious fanatics of the Republic of New Eden. Instead he gets to pilot the John Pym, a damaged and weary freighter, on a mission to pick up Rhianna Mitchell, a new age hippy, from the laid back New Francisco territories and bring her back to the Empire. His bold crew consists of an android pilot, Pollyanna Carvath, who is actually a sex toy on the run from her perverted owner, along with Gerald - her pet hamster, and Isambard's best friend Surak, an alien whose idea of a good holiday is sun, sea and slaughter. They are pursued on their voyage by Ghast and New Edeners intent on stopping them and getting hold of Rhianna, and an android assassin called Dreckitt, assigned to terminate Polly. They face void sharks, attracted by the scent of rust of the ship, crash land on Paradis, which isn't quite as paradisical is it might appear, encounter 462 of the Ghast and Captain Gilead of New Eden and discover exactly why Rhianna is so - different. This book actually made me laugh out loud in places. The humour is very similar to that of Hitch Hiker's Guide and may not appeal to everyone, but if you know what a Haynes manual is and understand that a cup of tea counts as foreplay in some parts of the universe, then you might enjoy this book. A nicely written, easy read that has left me really wanting to get into the second book.
32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Ripping Ride,
By Oscar Windsor-Smith (Hertfordshire UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Space Captain Smith (Chronicles of Isambard Smith) (Paperback)
Space Captain Smith is a difficult book to categorise. Sci-fi would seem an obvious starting place but to pigeonhole it there would be to understate its broader comic significance. This well told tale of derring-do in the 25th century British Space Empire captures, encapsulates and then sends-up everything it has ever meant to be British, from stiff upper lip to rough serge uniforms, from bounders to blunders, from well-trimmed moustaches to Tiffin and tea. If you ever wondered what made Britain great, Captain Isambard Smith will only increase your uncertainty.
Frost's excellent prose takes us on a Hitchhikers' Trek to the Red Dwarf Matrix by way of Dan Dare with a soupcon of Dad's Army. Nothing is quite as it seems, which is probably just as well. Like one of those bizarre dreams following a heavy session sometimes where you are and the characters you're meeting seem vaguely - unnervingly - familiar. The author has a thorough knowledge of sci-fi and many other genres so you can enjoy playing spot-the-reference without detracting from the serious pleasure of the read. Smith is a gem and the other main characters: a runaway sex-bot turned pilot who relies on the Haynes manual to fly, a homicidal skull-collecting alien (Smith's best buddy) and a new-age flibety-gibbet girl passenger, are all drawn to perfection. The baddies are boo-hiss-able, the jokes frequent and the action scenes memorable. Toby Frost proves once and for all that innuendo is a legitimate weapon in the literary arsenal and not simply an Italian word for suppository. Space Captain Smith is a book to savour on a holiday flight or any time at all. I guarantee you'll queue for the sequel when it's published later this year. My money says a film will not be far behind.
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