Transmission Error

by Michael Kurland

Daniel Godfrey has been sentenced to be transported to a prison planet for a crime he didn't commit--but something goes wrong with the transmatter device, and Daniel and his companions are thrust onto an alien world whose people are more human than they have any right to be. This is a place where pirate ships fly, giant birds recite poetry and eat people, and the moving city of Beloparsus is slowly and ponderously approaching the sea. And somewhere on the planet, for a reason Daniel cannot guess, someone is trying to kill him. "Michael Kurland wanders along a tight-rope between story and style. His plots are imaginative and his relating of same is damnably clever. There are double and triple entendres and inside jokes about science fiction and its writers."--The Readers' Guide to Science Fiction. "American editor and author who writes adventure and spy novels as well as SF. Kurland's science fiction is fast paced, rich in descriptions of unusual societies, and filled with action."--The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. "Kurland has the talent to create and sustain interesting characters and he paces his fiction so well it sails along with the reader in tow--happily in tow. A good read."--Science Fiction Review. Another first-rate SF adventure by a master entertainer!

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

aka Jennifer Plum

Michael Kurland has written many non-fiction books on a vast array of topics, including How to Solve a Murder, as well as many novels. Twice a finalist for the Edgar Award (once for The Infernal Device) given by the Mystery Writers of America, Kurland is perhaps best known for his novels about Professor Moriarty. He lives in Petaluma, California.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun, quick read and a good sci-fi intro for young teens and the rest of us.

In a unspecified future, Earth has explored and colonized some planets. In addition to flight travel is the ability to "transmatter". Daniel Godfrey is sentenced to prison for a crime he didn't commit. He is sent via transmitter with two other prisoners to another planet to serve his term. Something goes wrong and they are sent to a strange world. They experience an arena fight, pirates, a ship battle, and more as they try to figure out where they are and why someone is trying to kill them (i.e., Daniel) on this very odd planet.

Sadly the author has not (yet) written a sequel.

[Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Transmission Error was interesting, It was definitely a compelling read and kept me excited to see what was going to happen next. But it felt a bit outdated in some aspects

[Clint Peden · Rating 3 out of 5]

By the numbers out of this world romp

Daniel Godfrey was convicted murder and sentenced to permanent exile on an alien world only to end up in the wrong place

This review contains spoilers
Many common elements occur here
Dan's companions are basically cardboard except the plucky priestess who serves as the love interest. One of the more standout plot points centers around how everyone is human and some speak English.
Turns out there's a conspiracy to use a local stone to give people psychic powers and our hero is a patsy.
They drive off the bad guys though many questions remain unanswered.

[Bruce Lahr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

Development of characters and relationships intensified the action. Leaving cardinal questions unanswered took me on an imaginary trip of speculation

[Noah Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book off a free rack outside a bookstore. A pretty interesting and quick read all things considered!

[Arn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very silly, by the end I was skipping through it to finish

[Jonathan Palfrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an inventive and mildly amusing yarn; it’s also one of those rambling adventures in which the protagonists continually escape from one predicament straight into another, as Rincewind tends to do in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.

This endless series of escapes is not my favourite design for a novel, and having read some of Kurland’s other books I was a bit disappointed in this one. Readable enough, but not his best.

Apart from the Discworld, the bizarre scenario also slightly reminds me of the Brian Aldiss story, “Legends of Smith’s Burst”; although the Aldiss story is better.

[Valerie]

My copy's a somewhat bedraggled paperback. This is a very funny book, from the first scene with the robobartender trying to swear despite its censor programs, right to the end. The adventure story is essentially a framework for such gems as the Elsh phrasebook.