Space Skimmer

by David Gerrold

They joined forces to find the vanished Empire but then made an even more incredible discovery...

Once the Empire had ruled the galaxy, linking thousands of worlds with a network of commerce, culture and law... Now, with the Empire gone, only isolated planets remained and they were rapidly sinking into oblivion.

Then came Mass, a man driven by a dream of rediscovering the Empire... but to achieve that dream he must find and control the space skimmer, one of the miraculous vessels that had first made the Empire possible...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Space, Science Fiction Fantasy

218 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun and fast-paced space opera with quirky and interesting characters in the far future on an interstellar quest aboard an intelligent and powerful starship. Gerrold makes some interesting observations about sex and gender and religion and politics and philosophy and other such weighty matters, but always affably and never letting it get in the way of advancing the story. The ending isn't really satisfying, but it's a fun trip getting there. The novel was reprinted ten or so years ago with "Book One" added after the title, but I don't think a second volume was ever completed. The Escher-inspired cover painting by Dean Ellis on the first edition (Ballantine, before it was Del Rey) is a perfect fit for the story.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has received many great reviews. I myself found it lacking. I didn't relate to any of the characters and the storyline has been done many times before and since. At least it was a short quick book to read. If you are a David Gerrold fan you might want to give it a read, otherwise, I would give it a pass.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The days when a paperback book could be found on the shelves that was less than 500 pages and told a story all in one installment.

Thanks for indulging a bit of nostalgia there. This book could have been very good, maybe great. Gerrold knows how to tell a story, the only book of his that I probably would not recommend would be the first War against the Chtorr novel (some issues with forced sexual politics-or what I saw as a consent issue).

This does start out as a standard space opera. Lone person begins a quest for a lost type of star ship and the Empire (or what's left of it). Additional individuals join the crew along the way. Frankly, things bog down during this stage and the lead character, Mass who is from a heavy G planet, really is one dimensional.

Things do pick up after the empath is on board. I want to avoid spoilers, but in about 20-30 pages Gerrold effectively resolves many of the character issues that had come up for me. Plus, he did bring sexual politics into the story (I'm not a prude I swear but I am huge on the issue of consent).

And, I think I read my first truly pan-sexual bit of story telling.

It worked (yes, I shocked because of what he did in the Chtorr book).

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how to describe this: a strange Foundation-inspired fall of empire meets buddy-buddy drama with AIs meets different-people-with-issues-banding-together...frankly, it made my head spin. It almost feels like David Gerrold took three different stories ideas, threw them into a food processor, and hoped it would come out all Food-Network-gold. I'll give him this...it certainly hangs together, in spite of the thematic & plot whiplash I felt while reading this little novel. I'm not sure I love it, but I certainly admire its audacity.

[Blair Hodgkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This sci-fi space tale would make a great movie as the ultimate spaceship collects the perfect crew to undertake the ultimate mission: to re-establish the links of a mighty galaxy-spanning Empire.

[Hank Schonzeit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this books several times and enjoyed it immensely. It is one of the most uplifting of SF books and I think Gerrold's best book. My only disappointment is that there was no sequel.

[Aura · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favourite books in high school!!

[Patrick Scheele · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the typical prologue to any DnD campaign: the players are introduced to each other, their quirks and powers are established and their quest is defined. Yes, I know this book is classified as science fiction, but this book has nothing to do with science and everything with magic. Just because the author calls it telepathy, telekinesis and empathy doesn't mean it's not magic. And don't get me started on the space ship that can do anything by some seriously hand-wavy means.

But anyway, my point is that the writer forgot to add an actual story. All that happens is that a cranky dwarf sets out on a quest to find out what happened to the ancient empire. Along the way he finds a magical ship, a couple of people with strange powers, a love-interest and the book then ends with a psychedelic team-building exercise. The end. Le Sigh.

[Chris Greensmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Whatever the universe changed into, that form would eventually change into something else because everything changes—if there were a state where nothing changed, then the universe couldn’t exist. We’d have slipped into that kind of a state long ago and stayed there. But our existence here, right now, proves that change is universal. Perhaps infinite. After the universe ends, perhaps it starts again; the essence of change is that everything is relative—things can’t change unless they have something to change in relation to. So the universe can be both finite and infinite at the same time, depending on the context of the observer."

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"I’ve found that the science fiction trope reconstructing a fallen empire/meandering in the wreckage of an empire one of the most seductive of the genre. The idea of a disconnected landscape filled with the ruins of empire — giant edifice ever more consumed by vegetation, technology unable to be used, spaceships empty in space — is so transfixing that I pick up every example published before 1980 that I find. Unfortunately, [...]"

[Alan Laird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Space Skimmer is a concise story that could easily be a short story as it establishes the characters so well. It's anchored in lots of golden age tropes and is a nice little adventure. It feels very 'written for tv' in that characters are very different and much of the story comes from how they interact with each other. It would have been a good pilot.

[Bill Ramsell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

To expand upon that "meh": I originally read this book when I was just a nipper and I thought it was pretty fantastic. Re-reading it 40 years later (more or less), it seems very sloppily written, and I can't sympathize with a single character aside from the spacecraft itself.

There are lots of songs. Far too many songs. Oh good grief, please stop singing!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read about the assembling of a team from various parts of a former interstellar empire into the crew of a special starship, a skimmer, who learn eventually that their task is to rebuilds the Empire. Obviously a YA novel. Not one of Gerrold's best, but with several nice passages and a couple of interesting twists.

[Leif · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really original idea about a multi-dimensional space ship that can do anything...bogs down near the end. The prince annoyed me.

[Clay · Rating 5 out of 5]

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