Next of Kin

"A cruiser and four destroyers were escaping the combat area for the time-honoured purpose of getting between the enemy and his nearest base. In a three-dimensional medium where speeds were tremendous and space was vast this tactic never worked. It did not stop both sides from trying to make it work whenever the opportunity came along."

Humanity is one of a number of species fighting a vast interstellar war. John Leeming is a scout pilot, with an intolerance for bureaucracy and a sharp wit. Testing an experimental new super-fast ship, he is gathering information deep within enemy space when he is forced to land on an enemy planet. Taken prisoner, he has few tools to help himself survive -- only his wits and his understanding of how show more military minds work.

Originally written in 1959, this book comes from a time when spaceships were sleek, and had fins, and landed on planets. But in terms of fun and readability, this has aged well. It's a light-hearted adventure of one man against the system. A good, quick read. show less

3.5 🌟
I would've rated it 4 🌟 but for the homophobic slur stuck smack-dab in the middle of the story. A discipline-weary flyer for the military volunteers for a scouting expedition deep into enemy space during a war. Being overambitious, and loving the fast little scout ship he'd been assigned, he reconnoitered way more planets than he'd been expected to, and as a result, blew out most of his exhaust tubes and had to make a forced landing on a hostile planet. Surviving by his wits for days, he's eventually taken prisoner and must find a way to escape, using only his brains, his Willies, and his Eustaces? A hilarious use of the language and appreciated character development.

John Leeming is a somewhat colourful space pilot, sent out to discover hostile planets during an interplanetary war.
When his spaceship breaks down, forcing him to land on an enemy planet, his quest to go back home begins.
All he has are his sharp wits... but oh my, he does use them, and quite hilariously so!

I bought this book when still in my teens (many, many years ago) and since then I' ve read it at least once a year-
and it has never failed to amuse me!

I like Russell's novels. He is one of the Classic SF writers I recently discovered in my quest to review SF of the 50s-60s. That said, what started as a fun adventure went a little lame. It was pretty good until the last quarter then it was just silly. Currently my least favorite book by this author.

My own comment when I first read this in 1964 was "ridiculously funny." I now have all three versions, and my comment still stands.
The original is "Plus-X", the cover story of Astounding, April 1956 (and the cover is great). At 21,000 words, it was expanded to 41,000 words in 1958 as "The Space Willies," for the Ace Double with "Six Worlds Yonder." The added words basically detail how our fearless hero got into his predicament, and the original story fills out the final chapters. Finally, in 1959, Russell enlarged it again, to 48,000 words as the solo novel "Next of Kin." The extra words only affect the first 5 chapters, and don't materially affect the book. Perhaps the publisher needed something closer to 50,000 words.
A vaguely show more related story is "The Waitabits," a less-funny bit of insanity about another deep space scout, with the same assignment officer. It's in the same Ace Double in "Six Worlds Yonder," and all five of the other stories are unrelated stories about deep space scouts. show less

aka "The Space Willies"...humorously entertaining

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