There's worse company to keep!īuckle up for a trip to the distant future and a life and death space race in Bypass Gemini by Joseph Lallo. But on the whole, it was a good experiment: I finished it (tiny phone display notwithstanding), and smiled here and there, and thought fondly of Harry Harrison's old Stainless Steel Rat series.
And as a minor quibble, it could still use an extra proofreading session or two (though that's really not uncommon to indie books in general). It's pretty unapologetically just fluffy pulp fiction the characters are entertaining enough, but there's not much substance to the plot. And maybe I've just overdosed on too much epic fantasy lately, but frankly it was just a relief to have a hero who wasn't the Chosen One for once, and who wasn't even particularly bright - just a normal Everyman who survives by dumb luck and pure accident and the occasional hand from a friend. charmed is too strong a word, maybe, but at least cheerful - I really miss the '80's style optimism in science-fiction. But though I went in feeling skeptical, I came out feeling. If you're looking for something complex or nuanced, this isn't your book the hero is (mostly) Heroic, the villains are your generic EvilCorp, Inc., the spaceships are fast, water is wet. The free sample is pretty representative of the rest of the book: think '80s sci-fi pulp novel (the silly, self-referential kind, not the serious space opera kind) and you'll be on the right track.
Luckily, I had my phone with me, and a tempting selection of Kindle freebies to choose from. Recently I've been shepherding our fleet of office computers through a series of long, boring software upgrades, which meant a lot of downtime while waiting for the next reboot.
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