Arcturus Landing

Pretty bad. A 1978 expansion of the 1956 Ace Double Alien from Arcturus. Whatever was added didn't fix the paper-thin characters, lame premise, or rambling plot. The premise, which makes less sense the more you think about it, is that Earth's first venture into interstellar space was halted by the Galactic Federation, who have a rule that a race is only allowed to travel to the stars when they figure out how to travel faster-than-light. Mal, our hero, is on the way to a solution, but stopped by the Company who says his particular is too dangerous. He meets up with two additional plot devices, I mean characters, who explain that the Company is preventing research because they're doing just fine as the sole distributors of alien show more technology. Then, with very little fuss, they steal a billionaire's space yacht and head to Venus where Mal can work in secret. Along the way they meet the alien from Arcturus, who seems like a large powerful cat, get kidnapped by the Underground, etc. etc.

Not recommended if you want to maintain any respect for Dickson. show less

Humanity's struggle to achieve FTL travel to join the Galactic Federation, facing alien-imposed quarantines and internal human sabotage from powerful interests benefiting from Earth's isolation, centers on inventor John Parent and his team, including a super-strong alien named Charlie.