I once met a woman in a bookstore who was in the process of buying Harry Harrison's 1965 classic "Bill, the Galactic Hero." She told me that she'd read it many times already, and that it was the funniest book ever. Well, I've never forgotten that conversation, and had long been meaning to ascerta...
Look, I'm not going to pretend that this series is going to change your life or that it's a great contribution to the literary canon. The prose is serviceable and...that's about it. But that's okay, because this is plot- and scenario-based writing, and I think it works. The premise is pretty s...
L'ucronia assoluta.Immaginate una storia alternativa per il nostro pianeta. Ma non semplicemente una delle tante variazioni del flusso degli eventi storici, bensì qualcosa di più radicale.Immaginate che sulla Terra si sia sviluppata una civiltà il cui progresso scientifico sia imperniato sulla ma...
BARWORLD! For all the years that BILL had served in the Troopers, with all the hard beds, hard heads and no creds, any booze on offer was probably embalming fluid, or worse. BARWORLD! An assignment there promised bubbly, brandy and beer galore - enough to give BILL's right arms (both of them) at...
(This review encompasses all three books of the series)It's porn for war history geeks: Sherman and Lee leading a re-united, high-tech America against... the British. A fun and lightweight romp through an well-researched alternate history, the book starts in America but visits locations all ove...
James Bolivar DiGriz (aka the Stainless Steel Rat) is my newest literary comfort food. After reading this, I even created a “comfort food” bookshelf because I found it such a mood-enhancing piece of toe-tapping terrific. Granted, there are a lot of morally casual rogue types surfing the SF space ...
Within the pantheon of endearing, morally-deficient scamps and scoundrels, James “Slippery Jim” Bolivar DiGriz (aka the Stainless Steel Rat) is up there with Bugs Bunny…except not quite so nasty. Jim is one of those characters you just want to hang out with and he's always good for a few laughs...
He's the perfect Spaceship Trooper: big, strong and completely brainwashed. He's the perfect hero: willing to do almost anything to save his own neck (perhaps one of the only body parts that's still his own). Bill is in the hospital, vainly hoping for a real foot to replace the satyr's foot he's...
It took Harry Harrison nearly 40 years to write a sequel to his underrated anti-war satirical novel, "Bill the Galactic Hero", and, while it's not nearly as clever, scathing, and apropos as the original, "Bill the Galactic Hero: The Planet of the Robot Slaves" is still humorous and entertaining.P...
BILL - the army's made him what he is today - the perfect Starship Trooper, proud possessor of two right arms and a lockerful of feet suitable for every occasion. BILL - this time he really put his foot (the Swiss-Army one with the special attachments, secret compartments, collapsible mess-kit a...
Bill, the Galactic Hero, is a human space trooper who has three arms, some tusks, and is regrowing his right foot. His new assignment is as Military Policeman to the starship Bounty, which is taking a bunch of prisoners to the front line of the Chinger war. The ship is a bit older and doesn't hav...
Stars & Stripes in Peril is the follow up to Harrison's Stars & Stripes Forever in which the US and Confederacy mend fences in the middle of the Civil War to fight off the British who have invaded both. (Not a brilliant move on their part.)The PM and Queen, not to mention a ton of other Englishme...
First published in 1966, Harrison's novel of an overpopulated urban jungle, a divided class system--operating within an atmosphere of riots, food shortages, and senseless acts of violence--and a desperate hunt for the truth by a cynical NYC detective tells a classic tale of a dark future.
review of Harry Harrison's Tunnel Through The Deeps by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - February 14, 2014 Harrison's yet another SF writer whose work I've seen around for decades w/o ever having much interest & w/o ever reading any of it (except, perhaps, for a short story here'n'there if he wrote a...
http://nhw.livejournal.com/891306.html[return][return]Mr Soames is thirty years old, but has been in a coma since birth; the scientists who are the viewpoint characters bring him to life, and we're then suddenly in a sexually repressed late 1950's version of Frankenstein, as the created man wreak...
In which Simon Templar, alias The Saint, that Robin Hood of Modern Crime, pursues a strangely impersonal vendetta which takes him to Sicily and pits him against the Black Hand of the mafiosi....It all started one day while Simon Templar was relaxing at a sumtuous midday meal in Naples only to hav...
Slakey had been one step ahead of us every time so far—and not one of our operations against him had ever succeeded to any measurable degree. We had avoided disaster only through heroic efforts and last-minute leaps. It did not seem possible that on this occasion everything had worked according t...
Staggered, panting, onto the sty deck, then through the open door and skidded to a stop before a mass of outraged farmers. It was the last reel of the vampire film all over again. Facing the brandished shovels and pitchforks defending their beasts was a small band of armed and terrified soldiers....
These had been stowed deep in the ship's hold and had climbed to the disembarking level using a series of interior ramps between decks.Nor was Atlas now the only ship tied up at the embankment. While the ironclads stayed on station in midriver, the transports at the river wall had sent their sold...
A cracked recording of a parrot voice. “Yes, sir. You will see the space for the passport number here in the registration form. It is a law that all foreigners must register their passport numbers.” Memories of an Empire widespread, a Commonwealth contracting, surged wildly through Tony’s mind. “...
Whenever it was possible he questioned her and before noon had extracted all of her meager knowledge of affairs beyond the barren coastal plain where they lived. The ocean was a mystery that produced edible animals, fish and an occasional human corpse. Ships could be seen from time to time offsho...
“Knock it off!” I commanded sternly. “We’re still on schedule and if you want to get out of this alive you will obey orders. When I say frog you will jump.” I waited until the chorus of croaking, and other froglike imitations, had died down before I spoke again. “We have about another half-hour o...
Too early or too late would be just as disastrous. When the wall loomed up above the jet and I could see the joints between the blocks I figured it was about right and I hit the eject button. Bam! The sequence was almost too fast to follow—but it worked. A transparent shut...
It’s not how much change that signals danger, but how fast it’s changing…. “We’re losing a planet, Neel. I’m afraid that I can’t … understand it.” The bald and wrinkled head wobbled a bit on the thin neck, and his eyes were moist. Abravanel was a very old man. Looking at him, Neel realized for th...
Y’know what to do?” Naxa asked. Jason nodded, and looked again at the dead man. Some beast had torn his arm off and he had bled to death. The severed arm had been tied into the shirt sleeve, so from a distance it looked normal. Seen close up this limp arm, plus the white s...
Cold rain lashed the pine trees, turning the little-used track into adhesive mud. The horses walked slowly, heads down with weariness, and had to be urged on constantly by pulling on their reins. Both of the men who were leading them were as weary as the horses, yet they never for an instant thou...
Brion wasn't dead, though there had been some doubt about that the night before. Now, a full day later, he was on the mend and that was all Ihjel wanted to know. He bullied and strong-armed his way to the new Winner's room, meeting his first stiff resistance at the door. "You're out of order, Win...