Jonathan Fast (1) (1948–)

Odd one this - picked up at the Oxfam shop where they had a box of 'vintage' sci-fi. I am only half way through but I feel the need to record some thoughts as my feelings are going up and down - or maybe to and fro. It is definitely disappointing that someone writing a sci-fi book in 1977 would assume that by the time we were committing genocide and spreading slavery across the galaxy - only the men would be doing it. All women are either wives or 'scrugals'.... and not a sign so far that show more the author realised how blinkered he was being. Especially odd since a political, moral and philosophical strand of narrative soon comes into play, keeping me engaged and entertained.

3 and a half stars (which is a good rating for me), a light weight space romp backed by some good ideas and quite well written. I would read another if it came my way but not the science fiction which was all written around the same time...... actually NOT now I've seen the cover of The Jade Stalk! Not my sort of thing. show less

[2010-08-20] Science fiction set in a future where humans have colonised a significant fraction of the galaxy, but are not the only intelligent species to have done so. Human politics haven't changed all that much, even if the technology has, and a PR man from a genetic engineering company learns this the hard way when he's given the job of liaison with an envoy from an alien species in desperate need of the company's services. I liked it a lot once I got past some clunkiness in the writing show more in the first couple of chapters.

http://julesjones.livejournal.com/401624.html show less

I've been waiting for a book like this to come out for years. I couldn't put it down, and then I couldn't sleep.

Fifteen year old Stefin-Dae runs away from home on the strength of an advertisement that any of today's readers would categorize as spam, and finds himself working for an asteroid mining company straight out of the classic Tennessee Ernie Ford song "Sixteen Tons:"
You load sixteen tons, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt.

A miner there could theoretically earn enough to buy passage home -- if he would only be man enough to quit wasting his wages on trivial luxuries like show more food, clothing and shelter. Sacrificing his hand in an escape attempt, Stefin eventually does manage to make it off the asteroid, only to find himself in one disaster after another, on the road to discovering that the cult of Bode-Satva thinks that he is their leader reborn -- and though he doesn't believe it himself, they might actually be right...

From the back cover:
Slabour -- Planet of riches, planet of death...

Stefin-Dae should have died on Slabour, like all good Diggers do. After a few years of grubbing in the earth for Creelium -- the most precious mineral known to man -- Stefin's lungs should have been so full of red dust that there was no room left for air. But Stefin got lucky, or maybe it was just his destiny. He escaped from Slabour, stumbled on the key to the universe, the secret of synchronicity...and became the most dangerous man in the inhabited galaxies!

(Duplicated from my Amazon review.) show less