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The Ultimate Inferior Beings
The End of the Universe is nigh ...
Landscape architect jixX is way out of his depth when mistakenly appointed captain of a dangerous space mission. He’s never flown a spaceship before, but at least he’s not alone; none of his crewmembers have, either. To make matters worse, the ship’s computer thinks it’s a comedian.
So the last thing jixX needs is an encounter with aliens, particularly a nutty bunch of religious fanatics. They believe in the existence of The Ultimate Inferior Beings, a species so totally inept at everything that, according to an ancient prophecy, their incompetence will bring about the end of the Universe. One alien becomes convinced that humans are this bungling species and that the only way of saving the Universe is by destroying them.
So it comes down to jixX to save Humankind.
Landscape architect jixX is way out of his depth when mistakenly appointed captain of a dangerous space mission. He’s never flown a spaceship before, but at least he’s not alone; none of his crewmembers have, either. To make matters worse, the ship’s computer thinks it’s a comedian.
So the last thing jixX needs is an encounter with aliens, particularly a nutty bunch of religious fanatics. They believe in the existence of The Ultimate Inferior Beings, a species so totally inept at everything that, according to an ancient prophecy, their incompetence will bring about the end of the Universe. One alien becomes convinced that humans are this bungling species and that the only way of saving the Universe is by destroying them.
So it comes down to jixX to save Humankind.
300 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2012
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1106 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
June 13, 2012
This book took me out of my normal element. I normally read fantasy or action sci-fi, so when I came across this book I wasn't sure I was going to like it so much. Actually, if it hadn't been for my son (who sparked my interest in the book, I may have overlooked it). I'm so glad I gave it a crack.
First off, if you love British humor, you'll get a healthy dose of it here! We're not talking Monty Python, but it ranks right up there with it, filled to the brim with gut-busting laughs, but has much stronger plotting than skit-comedy. Though I could totally see American actor Ben Stiller playing the role of jixX (if he could pull off a British accent) and John Cleese playing the role of the scientist.
The story starts out with a massive spaceship crash landing near the space port, returned home from it's mission way too early! The politicians, space command crew, computers and committee members are all a bit on the daft side. jixX (a landscape architect) just happens to be in the wrong place at the right time and is mistakenly chosen to lead the mission back into space to find out what went awry.
Without going into spoiler-mode- jixX is thrust into quite the adventure. His unorthodox crew members seem like a recipe for disaster; including a carpenter, gynaecologist and scientist trying to prove the existence of God.(I must say, never a dull moment aboard this ship). There are many surprises aboard the ship as jixX tries to solve the mystery he's saddled with.
To make matters worse, they are confronted with a crazy race of aliens called Benjamites, whose belief system revolves around the almighty BRICK. Among the aliens are a group of religious loonies who go on an on about a prophecy concerning the end of the Universe. They believe that the Ultimate Inferior Beings are an absent-minded race that are so incompetent that they will bring about the demise of the galaxy through their own stupidity. And that race of idiots would happen to be humans... well, at least according to one certain alien who steps up as a self-appointed savior to the universe. In his crazy rants, he insists that humankind must be destroyed before they can cause total destruction.
Thus, the fate of humanity rests upon jixX's shoulders (as if he didn't already have enough to worry about). There's even a witty index at the end of the book that first appears to be pointless, but ends up having a purpose after all. This book, from start to finish, kept me laughing out loud. An entertaining adventure with an unlikely crew.
If you're looking for something utterly original, imaginative, and fun, Mark Roman has written the book to satisfy that need! I will be looking for more from this author in the future.
First off, if you love British humor, you'll get a healthy dose of it here! We're not talking Monty Python, but it ranks right up there with it, filled to the brim with gut-busting laughs, but has much stronger plotting than skit-comedy. Though I could totally see American actor Ben Stiller playing the role of jixX (if he could pull off a British accent) and John Cleese playing the role of the scientist.
The story starts out with a massive spaceship crash landing near the space port, returned home from it's mission way too early! The politicians, space command crew, computers and committee members are all a bit on the daft side. jixX (a landscape architect) just happens to be in the wrong place at the right time and is mistakenly chosen to lead the mission back into space to find out what went awry.
Without going into spoiler-mode- jixX is thrust into quite the adventure. His unorthodox crew members seem like a recipe for disaster; including a carpenter, gynaecologist and scientist trying to prove the existence of God.(I must say, never a dull moment aboard this ship). There are many surprises aboard the ship as jixX tries to solve the mystery he's saddled with.
To make matters worse, they are confronted with a crazy race of aliens called Benjamites, whose belief system revolves around the almighty BRICK. Among the aliens are a group of religious loonies who go on an on about a prophecy concerning the end of the Universe. They believe that the Ultimate Inferior Beings are an absent-minded race that are so incompetent that they will bring about the demise of the galaxy through their own stupidity. And that race of idiots would happen to be humans... well, at least according to one certain alien who steps up as a self-appointed savior to the universe. In his crazy rants, he insists that humankind must be destroyed before they can cause total destruction.
Thus, the fate of humanity rests upon jixX's shoulders (as if he didn't already have enough to worry about). There's even a witty index at the end of the book that first appears to be pointless, but ends up having a purpose after all. This book, from start to finish, kept me laughing out loud. An entertaining adventure with an unlikely crew.
If you're looking for something utterly original, imaginative, and fun, Mark Roman has written the book to satisfy that need! I will be looking for more from this author in the future.
October 16, 2012
With all of the books and movies we have these days about a grim future, it is very refreshing to read a story where the far future is actually quite a bit funnier than our present times. The hero of this story, a landscape architect named jixX, lives on a planet called Tenalp, an Earth colony backwater ruled by a grouchy computer.
When a spaceship from Earth returns with many casualties, jixX is drafted to pilot a spaceship back into the void to see what went wrong. However, jixX’s only qualifications for this dangerous journey are the facts that his father was a pilot, he seems perfectly expendable, and no better qualified person appears available. His crew are even less competent, and the lovelorn computer program that runs the spaceship has more than one screw loose.
The story is written in a very light-hearted style, and is well worth reading just for its breezy, offbeat British humor. However, the plot does present some serious issues about the nature of man, why there is a need to target others with labels of inferiority, why do people become fanatics, and how can tolerance overcome bigotry As the story progresses, the author manages to find new and clever ways for his characters to be at once completely bonkers and also at the same time completely right within their own cultural frameworks. There are also many satiric touches which are funny and thought-provoking. If this is the far future, there will be plenty of things to laugh about.
When a spaceship from Earth returns with many casualties, jixX is drafted to pilot a spaceship back into the void to see what went wrong. However, jixX’s only qualifications for this dangerous journey are the facts that his father was a pilot, he seems perfectly expendable, and no better qualified person appears available. His crew are even less competent, and the lovelorn computer program that runs the spaceship has more than one screw loose.
The story is written in a very light-hearted style, and is well worth reading just for its breezy, offbeat British humor. However, the plot does present some serious issues about the nature of man, why there is a need to target others with labels of inferiority, why do people become fanatics, and how can tolerance overcome bigotry As the story progresses, the author manages to find new and clever ways for his characters to be at once completely bonkers and also at the same time completely right within their own cultural frameworks. There are also many satiric touches which are funny and thought-provoking. If this is the far future, there will be plenty of things to laugh about.
July 18, 2012
It's been a while since I've read The Hitchhiker's Guide and other classics of British sci fi humor, so I wasn't sure if I'd like this one or not. Happily, I really loved it. While it's firmly in the humor vein, it also has some touches of Stephen Moffat's Dr Who applied here and there. I giggled out loud in several places, and was motivated to finish the book before some others I'm reading, which are now striking me as formulaic and predictable. This book took me out of my element and showed me a good time, like hanging with a new friend. I definitely recommend.
June 16, 2012
The Ultimate Inferior Beings takes place in the distant future in which humans have colonized space. The story begins when a starship that had been making the journey from Earth to one of its most remote colonies, Tenalp, arrives with all of its crewmembers mysteriously deceased. As explained in the book’s brief introduction, the residents of Tenalp are hilariously bad at everything. Therefore, after much deliberation, the Tenalp government determines that the best way to find out what happened is to send another starship on an identical mission.
jixX is a landscape architect who happens to be appointed captain of The Night Ripple, the ship that is sent on this mission. Although he repeatedly protests that his “flight experience” consists of him sitting on his pilot father’s lap as a child, he is given little choice in the matter. jixX is very much the everyman—not especially bright but smart enough to realize how ridiculous the circumstances are, making him likable and easy to sympathize with. His personality and physical features are left intentionally vague, and in some ways he represents the reader’s position in the story. He is the only somewhat normal character in this world of oddities.
The rest of the cast is a downright madhouse of colorful, peculiar personalities. And then there’s LEP, the ship’s highly incompetent central computer with an entertainingly lame sense of humor and no sense of direction. It is LEP that suggests the name “Mamm aliens” for the race of slimy green blobs that jixX and his crew stumble upon. The Mamms’ civilization is centered around the almighty brick, and among them is a group of religious fanatics who believe in the Ultimate Inferior Beings—a race of beings so bad at everything that they will one day destroy the universe. One of these fanatics, Jeremy, uses circuitous reasoning to determine that humans are these beings and that he is the Chosen One who must destroy them, and it is up to jixX to stop him and save humankind.
Given what we are shown of the Tenalp civilization, Jeremy, despite his erroneous thinking, probably has a point. The bulk of the book’s humor comes from watching just how incredibly daft the characters, especially those in positions of authority, can be while still believing in their own flawed logic and inherent superiority. And then there are the scientist’s “discoveries” in the English language—messages found in the Periodic Table that convince him that he is getting closer to finding proof of God’s existence.
The Ultimate Inferior Beings is written with a very distinctive attitude, and at times it feels as though the narrator himself is a character in the story, making quips about the situation as he describes it. And yet this voice never gets in the way of the story itself—rather, it lends to the book’s offbeat atmosphere. While verisimilitude isn’t a priority in a story that features green blobs with posh Oxbridge accents, the universe is nevertheless believable in its own quirky way. It is easy to become immersed in the story’s many absurdities and to become quite attached to its wonderfully eccentric style. Original, clever, and droll, Roman has created a thoroughly enjoyable work of science fiction comedy that will appeal to anyone who appreciates intelligent humor.
[This is a condensed version of a review on my blog: zigzagtl dot blogspot dot com]
jixX is a landscape architect who happens to be appointed captain of The Night Ripple, the ship that is sent on this mission. Although he repeatedly protests that his “flight experience” consists of him sitting on his pilot father’s lap as a child, he is given little choice in the matter. jixX is very much the everyman—not especially bright but smart enough to realize how ridiculous the circumstances are, making him likable and easy to sympathize with. His personality and physical features are left intentionally vague, and in some ways he represents the reader’s position in the story. He is the only somewhat normal character in this world of oddities.
The rest of the cast is a downright madhouse of colorful, peculiar personalities. And then there’s LEP, the ship’s highly incompetent central computer with an entertainingly lame sense of humor and no sense of direction. It is LEP that suggests the name “Mamm aliens” for the race of slimy green blobs that jixX and his crew stumble upon. The Mamms’ civilization is centered around the almighty brick, and among them is a group of religious fanatics who believe in the Ultimate Inferior Beings—a race of beings so bad at everything that they will one day destroy the universe. One of these fanatics, Jeremy, uses circuitous reasoning to determine that humans are these beings and that he is the Chosen One who must destroy them, and it is up to jixX to stop him and save humankind.
Given what we are shown of the Tenalp civilization, Jeremy, despite his erroneous thinking, probably has a point. The bulk of the book’s humor comes from watching just how incredibly daft the characters, especially those in positions of authority, can be while still believing in their own flawed logic and inherent superiority. And then there are the scientist’s “discoveries” in the English language—messages found in the Periodic Table that convince him that he is getting closer to finding proof of God’s existence.
The Ultimate Inferior Beings is written with a very distinctive attitude, and at times it feels as though the narrator himself is a character in the story, making quips about the situation as he describes it. And yet this voice never gets in the way of the story itself—rather, it lends to the book’s offbeat atmosphere. While verisimilitude isn’t a priority in a story that features green blobs with posh Oxbridge accents, the universe is nevertheless believable in its own quirky way. It is easy to become immersed in the story’s many absurdities and to become quite attached to its wonderfully eccentric style. Original, clever, and droll, Roman has created a thoroughly enjoyable work of science fiction comedy that will appeal to anyone who appreciates intelligent humor.
[This is a condensed version of a review on my blog: zigzagtl dot blogspot dot com]
November 4, 2013
Okay, silly is fun. But silly must also have some redeeming quality. Couldn't find it in the first hundred pages here. Just wasted my time.
October 26, 2013
What do a landscape gardener, a psychotic gynaecologist, a behavioural chemist, a carpenter and a stowaway have in common?
Absolutely nothing as it turns out but these four unlikely heroes are teamed with a computer called LEP, who happens to tell very bad jokes and suffers from innate shyness and an inferiority complex and tasked with saving not just the world but the entire universe when a spaceship crash lands on Tenalp, an Earth colony, actually the furthest planet from Earth. It has arrived six months too early but the crew are all skeletons. Suspecting the ship has stumbled into a Singularity and been held in some kind of time warp the Transcendental Overlord of Tenalp (TOT) decides to send a highly trained team to investigate. JiiX the landscape gardener, fluX the behavioural chemist, anaX the gynaecologist, twaX the carpenter and unbeknownst to all, a professional stowaway, syIX who is very excited at being caught as this means she is about to take part in a big adventure.
JiiX has no flying experience, (landscape gardening school didn’t cover starship pilot lessons) and fluX, being a scientist, is trying to prove the existence of God like all good scientists. TwaX is just dying to get his hands on some actual timber as Tenalp has no forests and consequently nothing made of wood. AnaX is totally obsessed with hacking the ships mainframe in between fighting off the advances of the onboard computer.
Together these saviours of mankind stumble into the pseudogravitic singularity and land on a planet with the original name of Ground which is inhabited by green slime people called Mamms. These Mamms have a rather unique method of transportation involving pulsed trackways and a brick wall to stop them. They suspect that their new visitors, actually their very first alien visitors will bring about the end of the universe and as a result the crew are hard pressed to convince them that they are actually just visitors and really quite harmless.
It’s a hilarious read and quite short as well. It takes all the previous sci-fi tropes and basically trashes them so if you take Star Trek seriously you’ll probably be offended, unless you happen to be a landscape gardener, in which case you’ll be too busy nodding and smiling as you recall similar incidents on starships. The book is a laugh from start to finish and at the end of the book you have a glossary to explain all those complicated words, which don’t really need explanations anyway. It even has the word glossary in the glossary. It also has a history of the Mamms that sounds eerily similar to the Old Testament merged with evolution.
I’d give this book five stars, well worth reading on a rainy afternoon and it’s short enough to get through it in a few hours.
Written by Alastair Rosie
Absolutely nothing as it turns out but these four unlikely heroes are teamed with a computer called LEP, who happens to tell very bad jokes and suffers from innate shyness and an inferiority complex and tasked with saving not just the world but the entire universe when a spaceship crash lands on Tenalp, an Earth colony, actually the furthest planet from Earth. It has arrived six months too early but the crew are all skeletons. Suspecting the ship has stumbled into a Singularity and been held in some kind of time warp the Transcendental Overlord of Tenalp (TOT) decides to send a highly trained team to investigate. JiiX the landscape gardener, fluX the behavioural chemist, anaX the gynaecologist, twaX the carpenter and unbeknownst to all, a professional stowaway, syIX who is very excited at being caught as this means she is about to take part in a big adventure.
JiiX has no flying experience, (landscape gardening school didn’t cover starship pilot lessons) and fluX, being a scientist, is trying to prove the existence of God like all good scientists. TwaX is just dying to get his hands on some actual timber as Tenalp has no forests and consequently nothing made of wood. AnaX is totally obsessed with hacking the ships mainframe in between fighting off the advances of the onboard computer.
Together these saviours of mankind stumble into the pseudogravitic singularity and land on a planet with the original name of Ground which is inhabited by green slime people called Mamms. These Mamms have a rather unique method of transportation involving pulsed trackways and a brick wall to stop them. They suspect that their new visitors, actually their very first alien visitors will bring about the end of the universe and as a result the crew are hard pressed to convince them that they are actually just visitors and really quite harmless.
It’s a hilarious read and quite short as well. It takes all the previous sci-fi tropes and basically trashes them so if you take Star Trek seriously you’ll probably be offended, unless you happen to be a landscape gardener, in which case you’ll be too busy nodding and smiling as you recall similar incidents on starships. The book is a laugh from start to finish and at the end of the book you have a glossary to explain all those complicated words, which don’t really need explanations anyway. It even has the word glossary in the glossary. It also has a history of the Mamms that sounds eerily similar to the Old Testament merged with evolution.
I’d give this book five stars, well worth reading on a rainy afternoon and it’s short enough to get through it in a few hours.
Written by Alastair Rosie
November 20, 2012
The cover is reminiscent of Monty Python. The characters remind me of those created by Douglas Adams. And the plot, well, for the sake of comparison, I’d put it someplace in the vicinity of Doctor Who and Red Dwarf. The story is not as clearly satirical as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and it’s sillier than Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, but comparisons can be made, and some other reviewers have made them. This book is in the same category with all of these, but it’s different. Yes. It’s funny. Actually, of the seventy or so books I’ve read this year, I found this to be one of the most enjoyable.
Why, you might ask. I know I asked this. It may be the quirky characters. There is no antagonist as such, and the protagonist, jixX (no, that’s not a typo), is not much of hero. He’s a landscape architect drafted to pilot a starship, seemingly for no logical reason. You might think this would be considered a black mark on the novel, but it didn’t bother me much. It was supposed to be absurd, and it was. The selection of the crew to accompany him also made no sense. There is the carpenter who has never worked on real wood, the beautiful and mysterious gynecologist, the ostensible scientist trying to prove the existence of God through hidden linguistic clues and who (for reasons unknown) seems to have a German accent, and the professional stowaway who is not technically part of the crew. We suspect that someone had some reason for these crew selections, but none is ever revealed. Perhaps it is as completely random as it appears and it is our presumption that such things should make sense that is misleading us. There is also a ship’s computer with questionable wit.
Then there are the little, green aliens who have a peculiar fondness for bricks. They didn’t make much sense, either, but they’re fun.
The story ends about three fourths of the way in. After that, there is an epilog, and a glossary, and some appendices, and an index. They’re fun, too.
I found this book refreshingly different. Many of the books I’ve read recently seemed formulaic, as if the writers all read the same books on how to write books. They followed the same rules for building their characters and settings and for structuring their plots. If Mark Roman read any of these ‘how to write a novel’ books, he wisely ignored them.
I highly recommend this odd little book to readers who like humorous science fiction, aren’t intimidated by a bit of mind-bending absurdity, and who are looking for something completely different.
Why, you might ask. I know I asked this. It may be the quirky characters. There is no antagonist as such, and the protagonist, jixX (no, that’s not a typo), is not much of hero. He’s a landscape architect drafted to pilot a starship, seemingly for no logical reason. You might think this would be considered a black mark on the novel, but it didn’t bother me much. It was supposed to be absurd, and it was. The selection of the crew to accompany him also made no sense. There is the carpenter who has never worked on real wood, the beautiful and mysterious gynecologist, the ostensible scientist trying to prove the existence of God through hidden linguistic clues and who (for reasons unknown) seems to have a German accent, and the professional stowaway who is not technically part of the crew. We suspect that someone had some reason for these crew selections, but none is ever revealed. Perhaps it is as completely random as it appears and it is our presumption that such things should make sense that is misleading us. There is also a ship’s computer with questionable wit.
Then there are the little, green aliens who have a peculiar fondness for bricks. They didn’t make much sense, either, but they’re fun.
The story ends about three fourths of the way in. After that, there is an epilog, and a glossary, and some appendices, and an index. They’re fun, too.
I found this book refreshingly different. Many of the books I’ve read recently seemed formulaic, as if the writers all read the same books on how to write books. They followed the same rules for building their characters and settings and for structuring their plots. If Mark Roman read any of these ‘how to write a novel’ books, he wisely ignored them.
I highly recommend this odd little book to readers who like humorous science fiction, aren’t intimidated by a bit of mind-bending absurdity, and who are looking for something completely different.
October 10, 2012
This is not the type of book I would usually have read ..... but im very glad I did! Very amusing tongue in cheek humour typical of the dry British variety. Its easy to see how comparisons to Hitchhikers guide are popping up in all the other reviews.
Once you got over the whacky character names and the amusingly over elongated scientific names for everyday items, which provide a great guessing game before the normal name is revealed, then it a very easily readable book. Text is kept to smaller manageable sections making it easy to digest and move on unlike some more tome like novels. I found it easy enough to dib in read a few pages, or chapters at some points when I got hooked, before bed without having to recap half the chapter before. Always a good trait in a book in my opinion.
So are the human race the Ultimate Inferior Beings?? only reading to the end of the story will answer that one im afraid (sorry no spoilers here!) but when you have then dont forget to read all the way through the equally tongue in cheek glossaries.
This books not done until you hit the back cover.
Once you got over the whacky character names and the amusingly over elongated scientific names for everyday items, which provide a great guessing game before the normal name is revealed, then it a very easily readable book. Text is kept to smaller manageable sections making it easy to digest and move on unlike some more tome like novels. I found it easy enough to dib in read a few pages, or chapters at some points when I got hooked, before bed without having to recap half the chapter before. Always a good trait in a book in my opinion.
So are the human race the Ultimate Inferior Beings?? only reading to the end of the story will answer that one im afraid (sorry no spoilers here!) but when you have then dont forget to read all the way through the equally tongue in cheek glossaries.
This books not done until you hit the back cover.
November 5, 2012
Yes The ultimate Inferior Beings is riotously funny. Yes it has a hilarious MC, in fact jinX is not so much the reluctant hero as a how the eff did I get here? hero. And yes it is easy to compare TUBI with Hitch Hikers, and compare it very favourably. And yes I’m also reminded of the brilliant sit-com Red Dwarf. Terry Pratchett, and Spike Milligan also spring to mind, with each page delivering clever and very funny lines and situations… But, TUIB is much more than that. Mark Roman’s world building and character development would leave any sci-fi/fantasy author green with envy. The plot, the story that’s what makes this book such a page turner, that’s what kept me going, and laughing my way to the end. I grew up watching the great British sit-coms of the 80’s pioneered by the likes of Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry et al. The comedy sketches of Not The Nine O’Clock News, Blackadder, The Young Ones and other great shows was not just the gut busting gags, but the strength and depth of the story. This is also true of TUIB.
September 25, 2014
If your looking for a nice silly sci-fi book, this is the perfect book for you. Humans have already scattered to other planets and are developing differently. Mark Roman does a good job with character development. The story is very original and kind of reminds me of a Monty Python type of skit. A clueless crew drafted into space travel without training. They land on a planet that is paved flat and has green blobs that speak British. They use bricks as weapons. It's a crazy planet with gentleman blobs and zealots following a prophecy. Don't stop reading when you reach the glossary. The stories after that explain everything that needs explaining. Have fun! I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.
July 5, 2012
There's only one thing you should know about this book. It's very funny.
I run an intercontinental megacorporation and I'm far too important to read anything myself. My job is to bark out single word instructions and look angry. At senior executive meetings, I have my Vice-Presidents read chapters of Mark Roman's book to me.
'For the Good of the Species. In the Light of the Dark.'
This is now our company mantra.
I run an intercontinental megacorporation and I'm far too important to read anything myself. My job is to bark out single word instructions and look angry. At senior executive meetings, I have my Vice-Presidents read chapters of Mark Roman's book to me.
'For the Good of the Species. In the Light of the Dark.'
This is now our company mantra.
March 2, 2015
I wanted to like this story but I'm afraid I couldn't. I had hoped for a comedy sci-fi story but I didn't find it funny at all, or even mildly amusing, or satirical, or entertaining, or interesting, or thought provoking. None of the characters seemed at all sympathetic, only stupid, and the aliens were ridiculous and unfunny caricatures. I stuck it out until the end but then realised I wished that I hadn't. Sorry, but if there is homour in there it isn't the kind that appeals to me.
September 17, 2014
This book was recently entered in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our young readers thought:
Title
The Ultimate Inferior Beings
Author
Mark Roman
FEEDBACK
Cover 10/10
Excellent, fun cover with a strong central image and easy-to-read fonts. The readers loved the cover and blurb too. One reader wrote: ‘’I really liked the title font. It really grabbed me. And the green ‘splodge’ is cool.’
Editing 9/10
Generally, the readers thought this book was well edited with no problems with punctuation, spelling or grammar. They did, however, feel the pacing needed a little work in the middle few chapters and they also felt all the ‘X’s were very off-putting. One reader (boy, aged 14) put in his feedback, ‘This is a very good book. Funny and fast moving but why has every name got a big ‘X’ in it? It drove me crazy!’
Theme 10/10
Our readers very much enjoyed this book. They thought the plot was fun and very inventive. They loved the joke-telling computer and many of our readers compared it to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. One reader (girl, aged 15) put in her feedback, ‘This book is really funny. I laughed all the time. And the sci-fi stuff, not normally my sort of thing, was very clever too.’
The readers also liked the characters, in particular JixX and twaX. They liked twaX because he was a carpenter who had never seen a tree! One reader (boy, aged 14) put in his feedback, ‘This book was too short. I hope the author will write a sequel.’
Style 10/10
The readers felt the author’s sense of humour was the strongest element in this book. One reader wrote on her feedback: ‘Every page is packed full of comedy. I laughed at most of them.’
The readers also thought the author handled speech very well and also description of characters and setting, important in a book set in a different galaxy.
STATS
Of the 24 readers:
24 liked the cover and the blurb.
20 felt the best part of the book was the humour.
2 felt the best part of the book was the plot.
2 felt the best part of the book was JixX
6 felt the ending was a little too abrupt.
12 enjoyed your way of mixing a fun story with a medical problem.
24 would read another book by this author.
To Sum Up 39/40 A BRONZE MEDAL WINNER
‘A fun, exciting sci-fi adventure, and packed full of laughs. Highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Awards
Title
The Ultimate Inferior Beings
Author
Mark Roman
FEEDBACK
Cover 10/10
Excellent, fun cover with a strong central image and easy-to-read fonts. The readers loved the cover and blurb too. One reader wrote: ‘’I really liked the title font. It really grabbed me. And the green ‘splodge’ is cool.’
Editing 9/10
Generally, the readers thought this book was well edited with no problems with punctuation, spelling or grammar. They did, however, feel the pacing needed a little work in the middle few chapters and they also felt all the ‘X’s were very off-putting. One reader (boy, aged 14) put in his feedback, ‘This is a very good book. Funny and fast moving but why has every name got a big ‘X’ in it? It drove me crazy!’
Theme 10/10
Our readers very much enjoyed this book. They thought the plot was fun and very inventive. They loved the joke-telling computer and many of our readers compared it to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. One reader (girl, aged 15) put in her feedback, ‘This book is really funny. I laughed all the time. And the sci-fi stuff, not normally my sort of thing, was very clever too.’
The readers also liked the characters, in particular JixX and twaX. They liked twaX because he was a carpenter who had never seen a tree! One reader (boy, aged 14) put in his feedback, ‘This book was too short. I hope the author will write a sequel.’
Style 10/10
The readers felt the author’s sense of humour was the strongest element in this book. One reader wrote on her feedback: ‘Every page is packed full of comedy. I laughed at most of them.’
The readers also thought the author handled speech very well and also description of characters and setting, important in a book set in a different galaxy.
STATS
Of the 24 readers:
24 liked the cover and the blurb.
20 felt the best part of the book was the humour.
2 felt the best part of the book was the plot.
2 felt the best part of the book was JixX
6 felt the ending was a little too abrupt.
12 enjoyed your way of mixing a fun story with a medical problem.
24 would read another book by this author.
To Sum Up 39/40 A BRONZE MEDAL WINNER
‘A fun, exciting sci-fi adventure, and packed full of laughs. Highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Awards
April 2, 2014
Reviewer: Belinda F.
4.5 on the Masq Scale
This is a genuinely funny and clever little story. It is very short and I would have liked to have read more - I was really enjoying it. The cover made me think of Monty Python (I'm sure that was the intention) but the content is much more Red Dwarf. The story is silly but not too silly.
It is set sometime in the future when humans have colonised the galaxy on a planet called Tenalp known to be inhabited by idiots. When one of their starships arrives home mysteriously early and with all of its crew dead the government of Tenalp decides a second crew must be sent into space to discover what had happened to the first (screwed logic that is so much like every government you just have to laugh).
So into space is launched the space ship Night Ripple (that made me laugh every time the name was mentioned - if you're not sure why try saying it fast a few times). The Night Ripple is captained by landscape gardener and ordinary bloke JixX who has no real experience of space investigation at all and comes aboard clutching only a pot plant. JixX is a bewildered and likeable character who manages to keep his good humour throughout his trails and is in fact the only vaguely sane character in the entire book.
JixX's crew consist of a carpenter (from a planet with no wood), a behavioural scientist, a gynaecologist and of course the ship's computer (who is very Red Dwarf) - as well as the ship's stowaway the slightly mysterious SylX. Add this cast to the members of the race of Mamms who they discover on their voyage and a great deal of humour is had.
The book seems to finish about three quarters of the way through and although the epilogue, glossary and appendices are amusing too I was slightly disappointed there was no more story especially as the reason for the initial voyage (why the first crew were all found dead) was never answered. However that aside it was a first rate read - funny, silly and clever.
4.5 on the Masq Scale
This is a genuinely funny and clever little story. It is very short and I would have liked to have read more - I was really enjoying it. The cover made me think of Monty Python (I'm sure that was the intention) but the content is much more Red Dwarf. The story is silly but not too silly.
It is set sometime in the future when humans have colonised the galaxy on a planet called Tenalp known to be inhabited by idiots. When one of their starships arrives home mysteriously early and with all of its crew dead the government of Tenalp decides a second crew must be sent into space to discover what had happened to the first (screwed logic that is so much like every government you just have to laugh).
So into space is launched the space ship Night Ripple (that made me laugh every time the name was mentioned - if you're not sure why try saying it fast a few times). The Night Ripple is captained by landscape gardener and ordinary bloke JixX who has no real experience of space investigation at all and comes aboard clutching only a pot plant. JixX is a bewildered and likeable character who manages to keep his good humour throughout his trails and is in fact the only vaguely sane character in the entire book.
JixX's crew consist of a carpenter (from a planet with no wood), a behavioural scientist, a gynaecologist and of course the ship's computer (who is very Red Dwarf) - as well as the ship's stowaway the slightly mysterious SylX. Add this cast to the members of the race of Mamms who they discover on their voyage and a great deal of humour is had.
The book seems to finish about three quarters of the way through and although the epilogue, glossary and appendices are amusing too I was slightly disappointed there was no more story especially as the reason for the initial voyage (why the first crew were all found dead) was never answered. However that aside it was a first rate read - funny, silly and clever.
February 11, 2014
If it were possible I'd only give this 2.5 stars.
I love laughing out loud when I read a funny book, that is if there's anything to laugh about. Unfortunately thi book didn't even manage to get the smallest of smiles out of me. I had hoped it would be like Hitchhikers Guide, because that's what the title and cover reminded me of, but alas it came nowhere near that masterpiece.
Don't get me wrong it is decent in it's writing, but for example, there's a lot of x'es, so much it feels contrived. There's a lot of 'badaboom' jokes that don't really work for me, and then there's the plot that to be honest takes a few tours into the unbelievable, asking more than a lot from the suspension of disbelieve.
On the other hand there's the sci-fi elements that work amazingly well. I could get into that side of the book, apart form the ending, but that's a whole other part of my review, I'll get to that later. The sci-fi elements are believable and in no way too far fetched. Technology and human interest work well together if not for the silly, falling flat jokes.
And then there's the ending that, again to me, felt like a cop out. All in all, I'm not quite sure what to say, like, or dislike? I guess this is very much a matter of taste, because technically there's not much 'wrong', but still I wouldn't recommend it or read more of this author.
I love laughing out loud when I read a funny book, that is if there's anything to laugh about. Unfortunately thi book didn't even manage to get the smallest of smiles out of me. I had hoped it would be like Hitchhikers Guide, because that's what the title and cover reminded me of, but alas it came nowhere near that masterpiece.
Don't get me wrong it is decent in it's writing, but for example, there's a lot of x'es, so much it feels contrived. There's a lot of 'badaboom' jokes that don't really work for me, and then there's the plot that to be honest takes a few tours into the unbelievable, asking more than a lot from the suspension of disbelieve.
On the other hand there's the sci-fi elements that work amazingly well. I could get into that side of the book, apart form the ending, but that's a whole other part of my review, I'll get to that later. The sci-fi elements are believable and in no way too far fetched. Technology and human interest work well together if not for the silly, falling flat jokes.
And then there's the ending that, again to me, felt like a cop out. All in all, I'm not quite sure what to say, like, or dislike? I guess this is very much a matter of taste, because technically there's not much 'wrong', but still I wouldn't recommend it or read more of this author.
January 5, 2013
I came to this book with low expectations. I don't like sci-fi, never have. And I REALLY didn't like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so when I read some of the reviews on Amazon, my expectations hit rock bottom. Imagine my surprise then, when I found myself uncontrollably chuckling over the exploits of the hapless jixX - landscape gardener turned unlikely starship captain - and his gang of even more hapless crew members as they visit the bricked-over planet of the brick-throwing "Mamm aliens". Pitted against Jeremy, the self-appointed "Chosen One" of the Mamm's Benjaminite faction, are twaX, an axe-wielding carpenter, LEP, the ship's annoying computer, sylX, an even more annoying stowaway, and anaX, the LEP-loving gynaecologist. Not forgetting Henry, the most inferior of all inferior blobby things, and flaX, the bonkers behavioural chemist in search of God. FlaX it is who coins my favourite line in a book full of funny one-liners: "Ze English language is God-given!" Well, of course it is. Any Eton-speaking little alien could have told you that!
Really enjoyed it, five stars.
Really enjoyed it, five stars.
March 31, 2015
In one of the reviews I saw, someone likened this book to Monty Python. I think that's about the most accurate. I don't like comparing it to a Douglas Adams book, because I think Mark Roman has done more of his own thing here. All with great fun, and a bit of silliness. But, you can tell a good amount of thought and care went into the creation of story and characters. It's not just cobbled together or messed about to make it all seem more alien or off-norm. And, "oops" will always mean just a bit more to me now.
September 7, 2012
It gets funnier as it moves along, and really is quite clever. It took a few chapters to get into the style, but after that I was laughing out loud. I don't think I've ever read anything as original. I was reminded of Douglas Adams, but I think it was written it was written before his books even came out, so that's impressive.
February 24, 2013
A brilliant book that had me laughing. I love the author's use of word play, his wacky sense of humour and his weird ideas. The space-hoppers [which to younger readers might sound just the thing you would have in a sci-fi book] just cracked me up.
I don't often re-read fiction, but I will with this one.
I don't often re-read fiction, but I will with this one.
September 13, 2017
The author was obviously a huge fan of A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and was trying to write something similar. The result was just silly.
September 7, 2017
Tenalp is the most remote of the earth colonies and, as such, has attracted those inhabitants who are "as dumb as a bag of bricks." A landscape architect from Tenalp, jixX, suddenly finds that he is to become the Captain of the spaceship whose crew consists of a computer with too many wit boxes, a behavioral chemist, a carpenter of plastics and the only female member of the crew, a gynecologist. On board, they find a stowaway, who is employed by the Ministry of Intelligence and Spying.
As they travel along on their top-secret mission, the behavioral chemist tries to discover the existence of God through the alphabet, and the plastics carpenter becomes crazed when he realizes the dining table is real wood. A problem with their flight forces them to land on the planet Ground, where they meet an alien race of green blobs, with another bunch of interesting characters to meet. Will Jeremy, the religious fanatic blob, succeed in killing the Tenlaps, or will the gynecologist succeed in blowing up the universe with a neutrino bomb?
I found this book very well written and absolutely hysterical. To me, it is reminiscent of Douglas Adams' style. Mark Roman has a very dry wit that I find particularly funny.
The story line was interesting and innovative, and the action kept you on the edge of your seat wanting to read more to find out what happens to all of the strange, yet delightful characters.
It is a skill to be able to create a humorous science fiction story, and Mark Roman has done it very successfully. I will be on the lookout for more by this author.
I was given this book from a LibraryThing Member Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
As they travel along on their top-secret mission, the behavioral chemist tries to discover the existence of God through the alphabet, and the plastics carpenter becomes crazed when he realizes the dining table is real wood. A problem with their flight forces them to land on the planet Ground, where they meet an alien race of green blobs, with another bunch of interesting characters to meet. Will Jeremy, the religious fanatic blob, succeed in killing the Tenlaps, or will the gynecologist succeed in blowing up the universe with a neutrino bomb?
I found this book very well written and absolutely hysterical. To me, it is reminiscent of Douglas Adams' style. Mark Roman has a very dry wit that I find particularly funny.
The story line was interesting and innovative, and the action kept you on the edge of your seat wanting to read more to find out what happens to all of the strange, yet delightful characters.
It is a skill to be able to create a humorous science fiction story, and Mark Roman has done it very successfully. I will be on the lookout for more by this author.
I was given this book from a LibraryThing Member Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
November 12, 2019
I was looking forward to a really humorous science fiction novel -- I mean, what could be more fun?!! Unfortunately, this did not delivery. Repetitive at times, and some very annoying characters. If I didn't need this read for a November book challenge I am participating in, I may have abandoned it. Although it wasn't the right book for me, I am sure there is an audience out there that thoroughly enjoyed this highly unusual romp. Some foul language.
July 13, 2024
As other reviewers have noted, the author was obviously a big fan of Douglas Adams' The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Which is fine! I am, too. But Adams was an enormously talented, well-read and intelligent comic writer. Roman just isn't able to pull off the same trick: this book is neither clever, nor funny, nor entertaining.
May 14, 2018
This is a delightfully funny, silly book. See my review on Amazon. Highly recommended.
December 30, 2012
The Ultimate Inferior Beings by Mark Roman is a funny little, sci-fi find. Starting out on Tenalp (one of Earth's remotest colony planets) we meet jixX, a landscape architect who has unwillingly found himself the captain of a mission into space to discover why another spaceship (The Living Chrysalis) crashed.
JixX will be captaining the Night Ripple, a dangerously obsolete ship, whose greatest asset is LEP- the ship's computer- and the wonders his in-built wit-box provide him with. JixX's crew consists of four others; fluX the behavioural chemist- who is trying to prove the existence of God through puns; twaX the carpenter- who has never seen a real tree and dreams of chopping one down; anaX the gynaecologist with strange habits and finally sylx the professional stowaway- whose job it is to find real stowaways.
Together they battle to find a way home safely, with or without the others, and end up in just the kind of mishaps you can imagine. Whether it's because LEP has no sense of direction or just down to bad luck, they end up off target and at the mercy of green alien blobs (nicknamed the Mamms- as in Mammaliens).
Maybe you've noticed, but all the names end in capital X, start with a lowercase letter and have four letters in total. This isn't really relevant to the review, I just thought I'd throw that little observation in. Also, there are a lot of puns in this book. Personally, I enjoy a good pun, but those of you who don't like that kind of humour should be warned. As for me, I found them hilarious, especially in context and with the other characters reactions to add to it.
JixX is you're average grumpy, Englishman (is he English?) to me. He even reminded me a little of Arthur Dent (from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but make no mistake, they are not the same person. Only small elements are similar. He had his own enjoyable personality.
I really liked anaX's character as well. I won't give anything away, but when you find out why she did what she did, it just adds the cherry on top of the "quirky" character pie.
At the end of the book we get a little glossary and a few appendixes, mostly about the history of the Mamms. They explain a little more about how they evolved and where Benjaminism came from. That's a religion by the way, in fact it's every religion they created ever.
The only criticism I have is that the ending was a bit abrupt. That and the plot felt a little thin- but then who says there even needs to be a plot? Some of the most successful books out there have no plot whatsoever. But if you are someone who likes plot, it's something to keep in mind. I would recommend it. It's an enjoyably good tale for any sic-fi lovers out there.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This is not a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% my own.
JixX will be captaining the Night Ripple, a dangerously obsolete ship, whose greatest asset is LEP- the ship's computer- and the wonders his in-built wit-box provide him with. JixX's crew consists of four others; fluX the behavioural chemist- who is trying to prove the existence of God through puns; twaX the carpenter- who has never seen a real tree and dreams of chopping one down; anaX the gynaecologist with strange habits and finally sylx the professional stowaway- whose job it is to find real stowaways.
Together they battle to find a way home safely, with or without the others, and end up in just the kind of mishaps you can imagine. Whether it's because LEP has no sense of direction or just down to bad luck, they end up off target and at the mercy of green alien blobs (nicknamed the Mamms- as in Mammaliens).
Maybe you've noticed, but all the names end in capital X, start with a lowercase letter and have four letters in total. This isn't really relevant to the review, I just thought I'd throw that little observation in. Also, there are a lot of puns in this book. Personally, I enjoy a good pun, but those of you who don't like that kind of humour should be warned. As for me, I found them hilarious, especially in context and with the other characters reactions to add to it.
JixX is you're average grumpy, Englishman (is he English?) to me. He even reminded me a little of Arthur Dent (from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but make no mistake, they are not the same person. Only small elements are similar. He had his own enjoyable personality.
I really liked anaX's character as well. I won't give anything away, but when you find out why she did what she did, it just adds the cherry on top of the "quirky" character pie.
At the end of the book we get a little glossary and a few appendixes, mostly about the history of the Mamms. They explain a little more about how they evolved and where Benjaminism came from. That's a religion by the way, in fact it's every religion they created ever.
The only criticism I have is that the ending was a bit abrupt. That and the plot felt a little thin- but then who says there even needs to be a plot? Some of the most successful books out there have no plot whatsoever. But if you are someone who likes plot, it's something to keep in mind. I would recommend it. It's an enjoyably good tale for any sic-fi lovers out there.
Disclaimer: I received this book from the author. This is not a sponsored review. All opinions are 100% my own.
May 24, 2013
Reviewed by Jennifer Reinoehl for Readers' Favorite.
The Ultimate Inferior Beings is an enchanting science-fiction comedy by Mark Roman. When a ship lands ahead of schedule at the human colony Tenalp, the sole survivor whispers something inaudible to the leader of the colony. In an effort to discover the reason behind the ship’s fate, four brave souls and one stowaway are sent on a mission to determine what happened. However, the people chosen for the mission seem to have been randomly drawn from a lottery. The Captain has only previously flown a ship on his father’s knee as a child, the gynecologist is the only official female crewmember, the carpenter has never built anything out of real wood, and the atheist behavioral chemist is busy using anagrams to prove the existence of God. In fact, aside from the two ship computers, BUF and LEP, the only competent person to man (or in this case woman) the ship is the stowaway. Their trip allows them to meet an alien race and ultimately determine the fate of the universe or perhaps I should say, “uniferse.”
The plot was interesting and kept me reading. The story is dealt with in a lighthearted manner and is clean enough to share with teenagers and young adults. Unlike some stories that leave loose ends, this one seems to wrap everything up well. Although it is lighthearted, it is not quite up to the level of Douglas Adams. However, I liked it much better than And Another Thing. There is also a glossary, index and appendixes for those looking for further reading.
The Ultimate Inferior Beings is an enchanting science-fiction comedy by Mark Roman. When a ship lands ahead of schedule at the human colony Tenalp, the sole survivor whispers something inaudible to the leader of the colony. In an effort to discover the reason behind the ship’s fate, four brave souls and one stowaway are sent on a mission to determine what happened. However, the people chosen for the mission seem to have been randomly drawn from a lottery. The Captain has only previously flown a ship on his father’s knee as a child, the gynecologist is the only official female crewmember, the carpenter has never built anything out of real wood, and the atheist behavioral chemist is busy using anagrams to prove the existence of God. In fact, aside from the two ship computers, BUF and LEP, the only competent person to man (or in this case woman) the ship is the stowaway. Their trip allows them to meet an alien race and ultimately determine the fate of the universe or perhaps I should say, “uniferse.”
The plot was interesting and kept me reading. The story is dealt with in a lighthearted manner and is clean enough to share with teenagers and young adults. Unlike some stories that leave loose ends, this one seems to wrap everything up well. Although it is lighthearted, it is not quite up to the level of Douglas Adams. However, I liked it much better than And Another Thing. There is also a glossary, index and appendixes for those looking for further reading.
Read
November 16, 2013This isn't exactly my kind of humor, but that's probably not Roman's fault. I remember in high school, my then-best-friend kept trying to read me lines from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to make me laugh. She finally succeeded, but only by substituting "Arby's" for the restaurant named in the line, so we weren't sure if that counted.
Anyway, to overly simplify, it's a science fiction about a bunch of creatures with low intelligence and stupid bureaucracies. Only a few typos/etc. It was fine for what it is, but not something that appealed to me.
After the story (which is about 80% of the Kindle edition) is numerous pages of "extra" material which I felt obligated to read so I could finally mark it read. I don't feel that it added much to the story, though. Again, I'd probably have felt different if this was my type of story.
Anyway, to overly simplify, it's a science fiction about a bunch of creatures with low intelligence and stupid bureaucracies. Only a few typos/etc. It was fine for what it is, but not something that appealed to me.
After the story (which is about 80% of the Kindle edition) is numerous pages of "extra" material which I felt obligated to read so I could finally mark it read. I don't feel that it added much to the story, though. Again, I'd probably have felt different if this was my type of story.
August 15, 2013
I am not normally a fan of science fiction but this one had me laughing out loud. The word play used was witty, for example, the spaceship's name The Night Ripple made me giggle each time I read it (childish I know!). I was trying to find a word to describe this book and all I can come up with is silly! If you like a silly read that will make you chuckle then this is well worth the read. On the other hand if you're looking for real in depth plot then don't bother, although that's not to say a lot of thought hasn't been put into the story. I especially like the behavioural chemist fluX and his continued inputs to prove the existence of God through a message hidden in the periodic table! I also found the appendices on the evolution and the history of the Mamms interesting! It truly takes an imagination to come up with this stuff!
January 17, 2013
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
As I burst out laughing from the very first chapter I knew I was in for a good read. This was a great lighthearted story. The alien races described in The Ultimate Inferior Beings were very amusing and interesting to learn about. Their thought processes had me giggling in my seat for quite awhile. As I continued to read I was reminded of the movie Space Balls. I couldn't help but feel sorry for poor jixX and his dumb luck. The hilarity continued when the crew got brought in and explained why these beings were chosen. All in all this was just a laugh fest for me. I enjoyed the comedy that ran rampant throughout the story. Mark Roman did a great job of keeping me entertained while exploring outer space.
As I burst out laughing from the very first chapter I knew I was in for a good read. This was a great lighthearted story. The alien races described in The Ultimate Inferior Beings were very amusing and interesting to learn about. Their thought processes had me giggling in my seat for quite awhile. As I continued to read I was reminded of the movie Space Balls. I couldn't help but feel sorry for poor jixX and his dumb luck. The hilarity continued when the crew got brought in and explained why these beings were chosen. All in all this was just a laugh fest for me. I enjoyed the comedy that ran rampant throughout the story. Mark Roman did a great job of keeping me entertained while exploring outer space.
December 12, 2013
Frankly, I don't know how to review this book. It started out great: humor was spot on, although in a dry British wit, but I like that. Then, as I got into the meat of the thing, it became apparent that those jokes that made me chuckle were going to be told over and over again.
I wanted to like it, maybe if I were a child, but nothing really happens. Nobody changes, nothing is resolved, and the whole middle of the plot is, well, redundant.
This book felt like an inside joke, one I wasn't in on, and an experimental type ending where a full third of the book is a scientific glossary. I have to admit, I didn't read any of that glossary, just flipped through and shut it down.
I wanted to like it, maybe if I were a child, but nothing really happens. Nobody changes, nothing is resolved, and the whole middle of the plot is, well, redundant.
This book felt like an inside joke, one I wasn't in on, and an experimental type ending where a full third of the book is a scientific glossary. I have to admit, I didn't read any of that glossary, just flipped through and shut it down.
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