Space Viking - review

Despite the terrible title Space Viking, by H. Beam Piper is actually a fantastic novel.

It's a solid space adventure story through the eyes of a singular character who is also on a personal journey through the path of vengeance for destruction brought into his life.

What makes it even better is the metaphorical analysis of government styles and the collapse of civilization that Piper has wrought into this story in a tapestry that makes perfect sense for the context.

This novel has made me decide that, like Heinlein, I need to find everything Piper wrote and consume it.

Deathworld - review

I read Harry Harrison's Deathworld for the first time a decade ago.
At that time I read both of the sequels.

Now that I am consuming audiobooks I decided to reread this book because I remember enjoying the entire series immensely; despite the terrible title.

At first view this is a straight-forward and simple adventure story but it has a great deal of depth beyond that.
The main character is an interesting study in psychology and his views are a thinly-veiled commentary on religion as a whole (the veil is pushed aside at the end of the book).

This book is a morality tale about unending war and the psychology of what perpetuates it as well as a commentary on the way humanity impacts the environment.

But, it is also the adventure story.

And it makes me wish I was a Pyran.

Missed Connections - Fiction

A unique set of Missed Connections posts on Craigslist.