Starbrat

Del Whitby #1

by John Morressy

Stranger in the 27th Century...

For sixteen years, Del Whitby lived quietly among the pious farmers of the planet Gilead, in a society bypassed by 27th century progress.

Then, on his sixteenth birthday, he was kidnapped by a band of Daltrescan slave traders, and sold to a gladiatorial school on Tarquin VII.

After a series of excruciatingly close encounters, Del proves his prowess in the arena, and is awarded his freedom, and a spaceship.

He now begins the perilous voyage home to distant Gilead, a trek which will take him to the outermost reaches of the galaxies and back.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Kristal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deliverance-from-the-Void Whitby is a young man who has been uprooted from his home planet by a band of slave traders and simply wants to be returned to his fiancee. The people of his home planet are farming people with no need for violence or weapons. So when Del finds himself about to be killed, Del discovers a side of him that he wasn't aware of and easily defeats his enemy and thus a new path is opened to him. Instead of spending the rest of his life working in the mines, he becomes a galactic warrior, fighting in arenas to the delight of the public.

Eventually he procures his own spaceship and wrangles up his own motley band of space pirates and they set off to defeat the slave traders that are terrorizing the planets.

This is definitely an action-packed book with some very humorous moments.

[Steven Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts off really strong, then kinda descends into fill-in-the-blank action. There's a weird parody of the Odyssey in the middle for no apparent reason, and then the hero builds a stalwart team, who end up not mattering as characters. Then the end is fairly strong and moving. Picked this up as one of about 40 books at a con, and didn't realize it's one of a series. That helped. I very rarely pick up a book if it's got series numbering on it.

[Andrés · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read.