Birth of Fire
by Jerry Pournelle
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A convicted murderer, Garrett Pittston, choses life on Mars as a slave to Earth's Federation of corporations over life imprisonment on his home planet Earth.Tags
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Member Reviews
A young gangbanger accepts exile to Mars where he finds himself in a tense situation involving revolution against oppressive rulers. Excellent plot provided by Pournelle, realistic Mars-bound combat situation, a lot of fun. Recommended?
As the cover says "Mars needs mercenaries! Mars needs Garret Pittston!" Pittston is relocated to mars as terms of his prison sentence. When he gets there he finds that things are not the same as Earth at all. From adjusting to the new gravity, to living in a whole different culture Pittston forges his new life on Mars. The book features the "dated" style of writing from the 60s, and 70s. You won’t find any mind expanding thoughts or quotes in this book, and the writing is rather plain and straight to the point. Overall it’s a decent read. Coming in at under 200 pages, it can be finished within a couple days, maybe an afternoon if you are dedicated. BoF is an entertaining read, if you take it just for that. Don’t expect any social show more issues to show through the book (Besides the fear of nuclear wepons so prevalent during the Cold War) but do expect a book that is captivating in its own simple way. show less
Reminded me somewhat of Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" without all the lecturing & Mike. More action. Tightly written & interesting.
Not a bad book - good action and a likeable character. Some of the events are a bit tough to swallow but it is fiction after all.
'ware the audio version of this one, worst narration ever...
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Author Information
148+ Works 40,440 Members
Jerry Eugene Pournelle was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on August 7, 1933. During the Korean War, he served in the U. S. Army. He received a B.S. in psychology in 1955, an M.S. in psychology in 1958, and a Ph.D. in political science in 1964 from the University of Washington. He worked for Boeing and NASA where he worked on the Mercury, Gemini, show more and Apollo missions. He also advised the federal government on military matters and space exploration. He wrote science fiction and helped popularize the military science fiction genre. His first novel, Red Heroin, was published in 1969 under the pen name Wade Curtis. His other novels published under his own name included Janissaries, Starswarm, and The Mercenary. He also wrote novels with Larry Niven including Oath of Fealty, The Mote in God's Eye, Lucifer's Hammer, Inferno, Escape from Hell, and Footfall. Pournelle was widely credited as the first major author to write a published novel entirely on a computer. He wrote a witty advice columns for computer users in Byte magazine. He received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer of 1973. He died of heart failure on September 8, 2017 at the age of 84. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Bastei Science Fiction-Action (21124)
Laser Books (23)
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Birth of Fire
- Original title
- Birth of Fire
- Original publication date
- 1976
- People/Characters
- Garret Pittston
- Important places
- Mars
- First words
- "Here they come!"
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)But she didn't give her word...
- Original language*
- Englisch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 407
- Popularity
- 75,969
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.24)
- Languages
- English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 7
