Jack C. Haldeman (1941–2002)

Harlan Ellison's Run for the Stars was pretty awesome. I'm loving that it's about a vengeful addict who wants to kill the human race - into it.

I didn't bother with Echoes of Thunder since its summary described it as 'an indian magic' story written by two white dudes. So, fuck that racist shit forever.

This is an enjoyable, but fairly pedestrian book. A young man, Carl Bok, from a world that raises tough and practicle people joins a star touring school. The school visits three worlds. Earth, Hell, and the Contruct. The Contruct is an alien artificial world where hundreds of alien species live together to learn from one another. On Earth and Hell, Carl learns his limits and his need to work with and depend on others for success in life.

The visits to Earch and Hell are fun but not very deep show more or interesting. On Earth, Carl becomes a gladiator and on Hell a mercenary. These visits are short and there is just not enough time to really develop a good story. Construct while the shortest visit was the most interesting, but is seemed the authors wanted to finish the book up by this time.

Want a light quick read? This is the book for you. No big commitment, but enjoyable. Recommended. show less

Harlan Ellison's Run for the Stars was pretty awesome. I'm loving that it's about a vengeful addict who wants to kill the human race - into it.

I didn't bother with Echoes of Thunder since its summary described it as 'an indian magic' story written by two white dudes. So, fuck that racist shit forever.

This 1983 pulp fiction paperback combines two novellas published in 1979 in Asimov’s Amazing SF Adventure Magazine. Each novella consists of several brief stories about the misadventures of Carl Bok, a young man from Springworld, a high-gravity world populated with fast, hungry predators that challenge survival. While three meters tall and 360 lbs, Carl’s naivete borders on the stupid.

In the first novella, Starschool , Carl convinces himself he has a debt he must pay, despite arguments show more to the contrary, and agrees from one dangerous gladiator-style fight to another to earn the necessary funds. Carl sustains life-threatening injuries in each battle, but medical science remedies the damage in a day or two, enabling him to blunder into another encounter.

The second novella, originally titled Starschool on Hell, follows the same pattern. This time the students are enrolled in a boot-camp style school for warriors and placed in one survival situation after another. Then Carl and his companions are sold into slavery and forced to fight in a proxy war between two rival factions from a planet named Spicelle.

Some imagination is apparent in the description of the fight scenes and survival situations, but the basic outline is unimaginatively repetitive. The scenario is described, Carl, and sometimes his friends, fight for survival, Carl is grievously injured but manages to survive, and medical science quickly returns him to full health. Otherwise, nothing happens. There is no significant overarching story to maintain injury, and the book becomes tedious. show less