Science Fiction Book Reviews

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

By Andrew McMaster Monday January 11, 2010

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Title: The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
Author: Douglas Adams
Year of Publication: 1979

During the months of September and October I had the privilege of reading all 5 of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books. They are now in my list top rated books. I want to give Brenda a mention for lending me the books. Thanks Brenda

Now the basic plot to this book is Arthur Dent an earthman has a friend who he had no idea was not from earth. On one fateful day Ford Perfect (his friend) tells him that they have 12 minutes before the world is destroyed so they have to drink beer. As the time approaches a fleet of Vorgon destruction ships arrive and tell the earth that they are going to be blown up to make room for an intergalactic highway. Right before the earth goes Ford and Arthur manage to hitchhike their way onto one of the ships. After listening to some horrible poetry from the vorgons who have discovered there presence on the ship they are ejected into space whereupon they are picked up by incredible odds by none other than a former crush of our main man Arthur in the ship of the guy she went home with instead of Arthur at a party. Arthur and Ford embark on a crazy adventure through the galaxy with Tricia MacMillan (aka Trillion) and Zaphod Beeblebrox to find the ultimate question to life the universe and everything to which the answer was well you’ll find out. Spoiling it would be no fun it made me laugh so hard and as you can hopefully tell from the summary almost everything is crazy in this story.

Something that I found interesting was that Douglas Adams initially wrote the story as a radio series which aired on BBC. One year after that aired, the book was published. The other 4 books from this series were published in 1980 (The restaurant at the end of the universe) 1982 ( Life, the Universe and Everything ) 1984 ( So Long and Thanks For All the Fish ) 1992 ( Mostly Harmless ). Eoin Colfer wrote the fifth sixth book to the series (And Another Thing) to which it was published on October 12th of 2009. Douglas Adams has passed away on May 11th 2001, he was 49.
The biggest thing this book has to offer is its humour. The jokes are zany/wacky but that makes them so much better. It’s the little things like doors with GPP (genuine people personalities) that sigh when they open because they love to open doors for people or a manic depressed robot with a large intelligence who can’t stand life. One of the things books do is tell us something about ourselves, THGTTG tells us about the experience of life and all those little things that happen to us and how we should go with what happens because there just might be an adventure waiting for us. If I didn’t give this book 5 stars I wouldn’t be a sci-fi fan I couldn’t even call myself one.
It is hard to give Douglas Adams and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy enough praise, all I can say is if you are a fan of sci-fi and can appreciate this type of humour then get this book. If you want to get it here are the links to order it online at Amazon.ca,Amazon.com, If you want to get the complete set of books here are the links to them. Amazon.com

The Runaway Skyscraper – Murray Leinster

By Andrew McMaster Saturday September 5, 2009

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The Runaway Skyscraper – Murray Leinster

Title: The Runaway Skyscraper

Author: Murray Leinster

Year of Publication: 1919

Reading this 41 page book was quite interesting. The story was good but peculiar which is a good thing. The year of publication says 1919 but that is the original publication the version I read was from 1969. There have been around 10 other versions of this first-rate book and my hypothesis is that since new technology and advances in science have been made since each sequential publication that the story might have changed a little bit since the first one. Let me give you an example in my version the main character uses a cell phone which wouldn’t have been invented for another 60 some years when the fist story was made.

The story takes place in a skyscraper in Manhattan. The time it takes place is most likely whenever the book was written for they never directly state the time. The story begins when the metropolitan clock stops and begins to move backward. The two main characters, Arthur and Estelle, begin to notice how soon it got dark out. When they look outside they make a remarkable discovery, there building is moving backwards through time. When it arrives at its destination in time it is apparent that they arrived way before the first colonists. Now Arthur must lead the two thousand people to find food for their survival as he tries to fix the time problem.

The really cool thing about this story is how they came to be traveling through time. There was an earthquake which should have caused the building to sink in the 3rd dimension (space) but instead it falls through in the 4th dimension(time). The majority of this book is in the past where the people have to figure out how to survive. It is interesting to read how Murray Leinster writes a mob of people who have just been sent back in time. It is just as how you would expect them to which is weird considering that people who have just time travel might react differently to people who have say been through a fire.

All things considered I herby award The Runaway Skyscraper by Murray Leinster 4.55 stars!!! To breakdown this score there was 2.30 stars for the time travel and how it worked, 0.95 stars for the humour, and 1.30 stars for the ending. If you would like to buy The Runaway Skyscraper by Murray Leinster it is available at Amazon.ca
, Amazon.com
and chapters along with Barnes & Noble.

Bluebeard – Kurt Vonnegut

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Title: Bluebeard
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Year of Publication: 1987
I recently reread this book for a second time when I found it under my brother’s desk on the floor. (grr such disrespect to this book) The first time I read it I was around 11 so my appreciation of this book was almost non-existent never the less it [...]

Prey – Michael Crichton

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Author: Michael Crichton
Title: Prey
Year of Publication: 2002
After reading Prey I realized that I had a smile on my face, it took me a minute to figure out why but then realized that I enjoyed the book. (Sometimes I don’t realize what is going on lol. XP) Michael Crichton has such a command over the pen [...]

Nightfall – Isaac Asimov & Robert Silverberg

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As you might guess from the title of the book and the illustration, the book is about nightfall. What you may not have guessed is that the planet Kalgash has never before witnessed such a phenomenon as nightfall.