Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of the Robot Slaves

Though it claims to be Volume 1, this is technically a sequel. However, there's a complete summary of Bill the Galactic Hero at the beginning of this book, so it's a fine standalone read.I don't know where the title came from, since there aren't really any robot slaves anywhere. Bill of the ever-changing military rank is stranded with a few others on a planet inhabited by metal creatures, Virginians, Romans, and various characters from Arthurian legend. It is, in a word, silly. Extremely silly. But I would expect nothing less from Harrison. I don't think I could read multiple books in a row from this series but it's a nice diversion from time to time.

Meh. I only got through a 3/4 of the book before I gave up. It is exactly what it seems to be and as a result, not that funny. The stereotypes are so typical, there were no surprises. With a bit more finesses, I think this could have been a good book -but as it is, it boring in its predictiveness.

The previous Bill the Galactic Hero book was awesomely bad. This on starts out well:

"Bill, that's what they called him. They called him that because that was his name."

I didn't realize when I started reading this series that only the previous book and this one are actually written by Harrison. The rest of them are actually farmed off to others, with Harrison editing them before publication. According to Wikipedia, Harrison later considered this approach to be a mistake. I think my confusion is at least partially because LibraryThing lists Harry Harrison as the author for the entire series.

Overall I don't think this book is as good as the first one, and while its easy to read the style becomes annoying after a while. It was a quick read show more though.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Harry_Harrison/Bill_The_Galactic_Hero_The_Planet_of_... show less

Not particularly funny, not particularly well written, and altogether quite uninspired. I expect a hostile planet adventure that bills itself as humorous to be more of a romp and less of a hike up the stairs of the Sears Tower.

F/SF