Jerry Oltion

Oltion, Jerry. The Getaway Special. 2001. Tor, 2003.
My, my, my. I did not expect The Getaway Special to be as much fun as it turned out to be. The premise sounds silly. A self-acknowledged “mad scientist” invents a small, cheap hyperdrive and causes an international incident when he tests it on the Space Shuttle Discovery. He causes even more trouble when he releases the designs for it on the public Internet and decides to build his own starship out of a thankfully new and unused septic show more tank. Oltion, who has designed a popular “trackball telescope” that he put in public domain, is interested the effects of freely distributed inventions. Here, he pushes the idea to a galactic scale. This is the kind of story that any of the Golden Age science fiction writers would have been proud to have their names on. show less

Abandon in Place is an unusual book -- an unlikely marriage of hard sci fi and paranormal fantasy. Rick is an astronaut training for a shuttle voyage when he discovers a fully formed ghostly Saturn V rocket on a launch pad in Florida. He watches in amazement as it launches, and when another appears a few weeks later, he hops on board. Together with his girlfriend, a fellow astronaut, and a Japanese astronomer, Rick successfully lands on the moon and reinvigorates interest in the space show more program.

Of course, that is not all that becomes reinvigorated. As millions of people channel their hopes for the future into Rick, Tessa, and Yoshiko, the three gain unprecedented psychic power. Rick and Tessa take that power and attempt to change the world.

This book starts off well -- compelling and interesting. Unfortunately, as Rick and Tessa's powers increase, the plot spirals out of control. Some suspension of disbelief is necessary for all speculative fiction, but Oltion pushes incredulity beyond the breaking point in the final third of this book. You've been warned. show less

The writing can be a little clunky, and even though Pike is an introspective guy, his voice didn't jump out as unique or Pike-ish. But it's close enough, and I absolutely adore space whales, plus there's some awesome sci-fi imagery they'd never have been able to put onscreen with a TV budget. Not only the whale ecology getting more and more complex, and the descriptions of exotic solar systems, but also some cool ideas like being able to see themselves on the viewscreen after a warp because show more they moved faster than their own light.

Like Pike, the alien characters are a big lackluster personality-wise. Yeoman Colt, the redhead from "The Cage," is a surprising standout though! I love her honesty, the fact that she's "cute" and "delicate" but actually smart, capable, kind of a badass, and valued for those things by the captain who doubted her at first. What's more, Colt came to Starfleet for new worlds and new civilizations, for adventure. She enjoys the two alien dudes flirting with her, but doesn't take it too seriously -- she admits to Pike they'll only be on the ship a few weeks and "that will be just about right." It's refreshing to see a woman with all those sides to her. (Number One had absolutely nothing to do though, and that's a crying shame. She could've been any random crewman.)

It's not high literature and it's not an emotional investment, but it was super fun to read, especially if you're curious about Pike and his crew, or if you like space whales. :D show less

The Getaway Special never quite seems to settle on what it's going to be. A wacky interstellar comedy, Ron Goulart-style? An edge-of-the-seat novel of nuclear brinkmanship, a la Failsafe in a science fiction setting? A nuts-n-bolts quasi-realistic "here's how we built the spaceship" story, perhaps reminiscent of some of Heinlein's work?

It's neither fish nor fowl. That said, it's edible - I mean, readable.

It's the story of a self-proclaimed "mad scientist" (a cutesy designation which show more threatens to become actively annoying) and a space shuttle pilot as the venture across the galaxy. At first, there's an interesting semi-realistic tone; it's neat to imagine what would happen if FTL travel suddenly became cheap and easy. Of course, [b:The Great Explosion|1875974|The Great Explosion|Eric Frank Russell|/images/nocover-60x80.jpg|1876940] already covered that ground (though how I wish there were sequels!).

Then the book takes a darker, more paranoiac turn, rather like [b:Capricorn One|161226|From Your Capricorn Friend Henry Miller and the Stroker, 1978-1980|Henry Miller|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1211658567s/161226.jpg|155602] (which is NOT what I meant by a wacky Goulart comedy, by the way). But it isn't long before it turns into what promises to be an interesting description of how to make a spaceship at home. Alas, this too gets a relatively sketchy treatment (although not before reminding me of [b:Gilpin's Space|5957565|Gilpins Space|Reginald Bretnor|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51nbpHDjdUL._SL75_.jpg|6130273] by R. Bretnor).

Next, the story turns towards interstellar exploration. Once more, though, there's a relative lack of detail and focus.

Other threads follow. Strange aliens, world-saving...to be honest, it wasn't until I got to the roughly the middle of the aliens segment that I found myself no longer taking the book seriously. When aliens start making jokes and display virtually unbelievable abilities, the willing suspension of disbelief breaks - and mine did.

It wasn't an awful book. It was readable, and passed the time. But it wasn't particularly good, either. I'm not likely to make a particular effort to seek out future works by Mr. Oltion, although I'm not going to actively avoid him, either.

In a fractional system, I'd give this book a 2.6. And the .1 that takes it from "okay" to "liked it" is really because I came to the book with low expectations.

(Another book that I was reminded of while reading this one: [b:The Venus Belt|1785640|The Venus Belt|L. Neil Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1188323453s/1785640.jpg|1784520] and [b:Tom Paine Maru|1565860|TOM PAINE MARU (Del Rey Books (Paperback))|L. Neil Smith|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41Ywev+d9ZL._SL75_.jpg|1558443] by L. Neil Smith. They, and all the other books I've mentioned above, are (I'm sorry to say) more interesting than The Getaway Special.) show less