Review: “The Highest Treason” by Randall Garrett (1961)

Posted on January 16th, 2008

Great novella and sharp cover image.

This space opera is set roughly a century and a half in the future when the Earth forces are losing a war against an alien warrior civilization. Earth and its colonies have developed a society where equality is prized above all, and as a result institutional advancement is based solely on seniority rather than merit. Initiative and creativity are discouraged while paperwork pushing is rewarded.

Colonel Sebastian MacMaine is a Harrison Bergeron-type character: a capable military strategist that finds himself weighted down by a leaden bureaucracy. As one of the few men able to see that the Earth forces are losing the war due to their self-selected mediocrity, MacMaine finds that he must act when the opportunity arises.

So McMaine learns the alien language from captive prisoners, springs an enemy prisoner-of-war from confinement, hijacks a spaceship, and defects by delivering himself, the spaceship, the crew, and the POW general into enemy hands as a show of good faith.

After a period of confinement and a character reference from the freed general, the ruling alien military council allows MacMaine to take strategic command of a fleet opposing the Earth forces in return for a lucrative salary and retirement.

Macmaine shows that he is a masterful strategist and delivers crushing defeats to the Earth forces opposing him. Not stopping there, he shows that he is even more ruthless than his alien overlords by ordering the entire civilian population of a captured colony (120 million men, women, and children) hanged.

Following that atrocity, MacMaine is quickly branded the worst traitor mankind has ever seen and a large reward is issued for his capture. MacMaine still has a trick or two up his sleeve, however, and escapes his pursuers after leaving a taunting note.

While it may not sound like it from the description, this is really a story about sacrifice and redemption, and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you give it a try because it holds up extremely well, comparing favorably with much military space opera of the 1990s.

I have some small complaints, such as the tendency to paint both the alien and Earthmen with respective overly broad brushes, but it doesn’t distract much from the story.

Very highly recommended. Break free of your shackles and get it at Project Gutenberg in a couple formats or at Manybooks.net in more.

Tags: free science fiction, public domain science fiction, randall garrett, Review, speculative fiction
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Review: “Measure of a Man” by Randall Garrett (1960)

Posted on January 14th, 2008

This short story hooked me right away and ended all too quickly. Think of it as The Swiss Family Robinson or Robinson Crusoe on speed.Lieutenant Alfred Pendray, sole survivor of a “Rat” attack on the now dead-in-space battleship Shane, finds that he is the last hope for mankind. The Shane’s mission to retrieve a Terran spy from a Rat planet was accomplished, but the ship was discovered and blasted on its return, accompanying it to its demise were the rest of the crew, picked off fleeing in the lifeboats.

Pendray, surviving because he was in the shielded sickbay with a busted ankle, discovers that the remaining lifeboat was being repaired at the time of the attack and that leaking radiation would kill him if he used it. He further discovers the Terran agent’s message, which warns of a plot to destroy Sol by a certain date but also includes the means to foil the plot if the warning reaches Earth in time.

If you ever wondered why you needed to learn that math back in school, well, this short story shows how you might just save the world with it one day.

Lastly, the single illustration by Martinez is very good and fits the mood of the piece.

Definitely recommended and you can find it at Project Gutenberg in a couple formats or Manybooks.net in more.

Tags: free science fiction, public domain science fiction, randall garrett, Review, speculative fiction
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Review: “Victory” by Lester Del Rey (1955)

Posted on January 14th, 2008

This story was published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1955. Going by the word count, it looks like it should be called a novella rather than a short story. Illustrations are by Rogers.

I love me some Lester Del Rey! I don’t claim to have read too much of his work, but I have enjoyed most of what I’ve read. This story was no exception, but it’s not my favorite.

The tale opens with Captain Duke O’Neill returning from commanding the winning forces in the hard fighting between Earth’s alien allies (Meloans) and alien enemies. O’Neill is bitter about Earth’s failure to support its allies and quickly finds that the allied victory was Pyrrhic, leaving his adopted planet, Meloa, devastated. In fact, things are so bad his Meloan girlfriend tries to knife him for dinner, arguing that because they are different species, it’s not really cannibalism.

Realizing after that that Meloa holds no future for him, O’Neill returns to Earth to reenlist for the Outer Planet wars. Flannery, an ex-soldier and Foreign Office muckety-muck, attempts to recruit the war-hero for the Foreign Office, but O’Neill rejects the offer, eschewing Earth’s demonstrated cowardice in its refusal to support its alien allies.

On Earth, O’Neill finds he is now too old to enlist but begins to figure that all is not quite what it seems when he notices some odd things, such as the newspapers printing stories almost in real time when news should be days or weeks behind because of interstellar lag. He also recalls Flannery’s correct prediction about what would happen in the Outer Planet wars and decides to do a little digging at the local library.

After catching up on the news he missed over the last five or so years, O’Neill approaches Flannery to fill in the gaps. Flannery does, in mind-blowing fashion, and is finally successful in recruiting O’Neill to the Foreign Office, which, at least for the future of the Earth, suddenly appears to be the most important organization in government.

Del Rey’s characterization of the obstinate O’Neill is good, but I expected a little more flexibility from someone who became famous for his creative style of warfare. On the other hand, Del Rey was trying to make him a bitter opponent of the pacifist Earth policy and succeeded well.

The ending was a bit whirlwind and I confess I’m not sure I followed it completely, so I’ll have to give it a re-read. It wound up satisfactorily on the character level, but I’m still not sure I buy the political dynamics even within the context of the story. Lastly, some of the clues that O’Neill noticed should have made it obvious to the whole Earth population that something was going on behind the scenes: when a newspaper reports interstellar events as quickly as planetary events in a world where news takes days or weeks to travel, others would have noticed.

All in all a decent story with good characterization, so it’s recommended. You can find it at Project Gutenberg in some formats and Manybooks.net in more.

Tags: free science fiction, public domain science fiction, Review, speculative fiction
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Neal Asher’s Review of Death’s Head

Posted on June 29th, 2007

NON-FREE

Why are we pushing someone else’s review of a book? Two reasons: 1) we haven’t read it, and 2) the review is pretty amusing. Amazon.com comments place the novel as an over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek space opera with a sense of humor, although some disagree whether the humor is sly or blatant. All agree that it has shoot-em-up in spades. Maybe that will put the following quote from Asher’s review in context:

David Gunn’s Death’s Head started off loaded with violent action and horror and continued in that vein, so I was hooked from about page two, then hooked landed gutted and fried in batter as soon as the talking gun put in an appearance. Yeah! Fuck the literarty-farty crap in the SFF world that has the self-proclaimed arbiters of taste creaming their panties. Take those oh-so-worthy tomes and shove ‘em where the sun don’t shine. This took me right back to the fun I had reading E. C. Tubb’s Dumarest saga, Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter on Mars or the old Robert E Howard Conan books!

Here’s the rest of the review wherein Asher rails against more of the high falutin’ types in the SFF world.

The review is amusing in it’s counter-PC ranting, but there’s no doubt that there are issues in science fiction and fantasy with credible representations of women and minorities. Further, the SFF community certainly doesn’t need to discourage good writing, and some of the best writing has been chock full of insightful political or social commentary (including some of the best shooters). After all, no matter the setting, SFF usually comes back to the people involved and their interactions with others.

On the other hand, sometimes all a reader wants is a story where somebody’s shooting a bunch of shit up. And that’s okay, which I think may be the point Asher is making.

Tags: Review
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Planet of the Damned by Harry Harrison

Posted on June 25th, 2007

At its best, Planet of the Damned shares some of the characteristics of the Stainless Steel Rat series: it pokes fun at the inefficiencies inherent in bureaucracies and it stars a slick character that eases out of difficult situations with aplomb.

At its worst, the story has the reader cringing and peeking through eyes partially covered by hands like a kid in a scary movie. The story does have its tense and creepy moments, but, despite its ad copy, it is not particularly horrific. No, the cringing comes about by wondering how much of a train wreck the portrayal of the leading lady is going to be in this early 1960s actioner.

The good news is that the portrayal could have been worse. The bad news is that there were moments when Harrison could have done a lot more, but instead of the leading female as tough scientist angle, which is where it looked like he might have been heading when introducing Dr. Lea Morees, he instead made her a swooning set piece. To be fair, she did have a hard turn of events to deal with in the story, but it was still a disappointing choice. But that’s a small part of the novel and I didn’t really expect anything different from the period, so it’s hard to really complain.

Plot: As the story opens, Brionn Brandd becomes the most recent Winner of the Twenties, a planet-wide nine-month-long competition with events ranging from poetry and chess to skiing, shooting, and fencing. It reminded me a little of Piers Anthony’s “The Game” in the Apprentice/Adept series. Brandd’s Twenties training, combined with his heavy gravity home planet heritage, gives him the basis for his extraordinary proficiency in hand-to-hand combat, shooting, diplomacy, etc. In other words, all the James Bond necessities.

Brandd, still laid up in the hospital after his Twenties exertions, is convinced to accompany a former Twenties winner to save the planet Dis from annihilation caused by the inhabitants’ own actions. During the trip they pick up the initially feisty Dr. Morees.

Once Brandd reaches Dis, things quickly go downhill for him and he ends up trudging through hostile desert carrying the aforementioned swooner (Dr. Morees). Adventures ensue, and Brandd finds himself in charge of the cultural foundation tasked with averting the impending disaster. Brandd’s interaction with the bureaucrats of the foundation provides the humor and his interaction with the natives provides the action.

Overall, the action moves and the story sucked me in deeper and quicker than I expected. In fact, I ended up finishing it in one sitting, which, when you think about it, is probably the best endorsement you could ask for.

To purchase Planet of the Damned, click on the left cover for a print version, the right cover for a formatted PDF ebook, or find free unformatted ASCII or html here.

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