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Zapomnij o Ziemi
Galaktyczna wojna unicestwiła życie na Ziemi. Ocalało tylko kilkuset mężczyzn. Ci ostatni przedstawiciele ludzkości służą jako najemnicy w armiach zwalczających się imperiów. I nie mają złudzeń: umrą bezpotomnie.
Ale nagle pojawia się szansa. Komandor John Braysen wraz ze swoimi żołnierzami staje do ostatniej heroicznej walki ludzkości o przetrwanie...
Ale nagle pojawia się szansa. Komandor John Braysen wraz ze swoimi żołnierzami staje do ostatniej heroicznej walki ludzkości o przetrwanie...
200 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1970
4 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
C.C. MacApp
67 books6 followersC. C. MacApp - pseudonym of Carroll Mather Capps - was an American science fiction author. He also wrote as Carroll J. Clem.
Capps was also a well-known chess player in the San Francisco area.
Capps was also a well-known chess player in the San Francisco area.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 3, 2012
I picked up this book in at it's release to paperback in 1970. And yes, I still have it. It is an entertaining read with believable science and technology. Gravity as a push and not a pull, fascinating!!
October 18, 2025
I found this hidden gem in a box of paperbacks from the 1970s. The box and books looked like they had been stored for so many years that covers began sticking together and a few books became permanently bent. It helps to work for Blue Vase Book Exchange where I can have second dibs on books. This gem is by an author I had never heard of, and I lived through the 70s reading science fiction. The reason this is a gem is because although this book uses a somewhat unsurprising storyline, it does it, so well, that it puts to shame some current self-published books with similar concepts. The characterization of even supporting characters is excellent. The settings imaginative and detailed. The action scenes are realistic and This one is also not the start of a series, which is a nice change from today's space opera worlds that use similar concepts. Best of all even though you think you know what is coming next, you actually do not know. The twist at the end was totally unexpected. I highly recommend this book, if you can find it or order it online used. It will be worth it!
June 13, 2024
It's definitely not a new concept when we have overwhelmingly powerful aliens destroy Earth... this book does a pretty decent job with the concept. The author sets up the galactic situation well in a short time and the plot is pretty engaging (even if there a a fair number of holes).
There's not a whole lot of characters.. really just a couple and they are not very complex, but that's the trade off when you do this sort of story in a 200 page novel instead of an epic saga (like David Weber's Safehold).
I'm not really familiar with the author at all... looks like he had a few novels and short stories in the mid 60s. I'd read another one if I came across it.
There's not a whole lot of characters.. really just a couple and they are not very complex, but that's the trade off when you do this sort of story in a 200 page novel instead of an epic saga (like David Weber's Safehold).
I'm not really familiar with the author at all... looks like he had a few novels and short stories in the mid 60s. I'd read another one if I came across it.
March 23, 2023
Lost interest after the first 30 or so pages and was a struggle to read it. Not quite sure the point of a chapter devoted to seperated tribe of women, it was a strange inclusion considering they introduced characters that didn’t even matter until the last two pages of the book.
2/5. The book art and summary promised a lot more than delivered.
2/5. The book art and summary promised a lot more than delivered.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 23, 2019
Really good. Space story about men from earth who are the last of their species. Earth and women all destroyed until a rumor of survivors surface. Earthmen are gathered and used in galactic intrigue to attain their goal. Surprise ending. Recommended.
July 1, 2019
I read this as a kid, and just reread it for grins.
I can understand why I liked it back then. Big topics - extinction events, interstellar war, humanity fighting tooth and nail against desperate odds, and finally the last survivor.
And all in under 200 pages. Fun read.
I can understand why I liked it back then. Big topics - extinction events, interstellar war, humanity fighting tooth and nail against desperate odds, and finally the last survivor.
And all in under 200 pages. Fun read.
September 26, 2019
Recall not earth got better and better as I read it, but it started off as very very mediocre and didn't really have enough time to escape that. Some of the ideas listed and their executions are actually very enjoyable, aside from the ending there were no real "wow" moments or page turners for me.
July 31, 2018
Entertaining science fiction. Good but not great.
October 15, 2024
Niezmiennie wspaniała.
November 18, 2025
Recall not Earth, nor weep. We gelded waifs,
We motes of Death cast on impassive seas,
Own not the right of petulant protest
Nor lien of mercy on the Pleiades.
The worm, the flower, crisped in mega-blast,
Sought not their fate. Yet, was it crueler shock
Than trout-on-hook? Than gut-shot-bison-cow?
Who wailed extinction of the pigeon-flock?
Take steel for sod, take tungsten for its light,
Take tinted glass for sky, and pipe for vine.
Quaff tisanes for the crying of your loins.
Recycled air your breeze, ship's grog your wine.
Go swaggering up the starlanes, grinning, cursing,
Deal blows to weaker creatures that you find.
Run when you must, but not too far; and always
Leave tales of might and daring deed behind.
And when you're senile and you dare to sleep,
You'll have invented lies enough to keep,
And you'll not weep.
-Humbert Daal
Earth's military picked a fight with the wrong empire, resulting in the destruction of all life on the planet. A few hundred men who happened to be off-world at the time avoided extinction; no women were among them. During the eight years to follow, the men scattered, taking mercenary work where they could. Some turned to extraterrestrial bestiality (like the poet quoted above), others to drugs. The main character is one such addict, hooked on the substance dron.
John Braysen, now living in squalor on the planet from which dron originates, is visited by an old comrade, who informs him that a certain ancient Chelki Omniarch has some Earth-women hidden away. In exchange for them, he wants a favor. I really couldn't tell you exactly what that favor consisted of. This book isn't written very well, and it's uninteresting, so I shifted in and out of autopilot throughout. Chapter (3) will put you to sleep, as it's nothing but an explanation of the "science" (gravity being a "push," and so on). John makes some questionable decisions as he struggles with his dron habit and "the thirst-that-is-not-thirst."
Most chapters follow John, but three actually follow the antagonist, Bulvenorg (who's of the species responsible for wiping out all life on Earth). And one chapter, just one, follows the small group of surviving women, particularly Lisa Duval. The few remaining women live in an artificial environment among sentient fat alien beavers. They're shockingly suicidal. There's a breach in one of the walls called "the hole," into which aging women wander seeking death from the carnivores beyond. It wasn't clear, but I think this occurs upon menopause. They mention "the change" and being passed the child-bearing age. It was pretty bizarre, especially because, as far as they know, there are no living men; what difference would it make? There's more to life than reproduction, damn it!
The only thing of interest to me was the anatomy of some of the aliens. The Chelki also come in a wide assortment of genders (e.g., Full Male, technician-gender, warrior-gender, etc.). There were a couple of random sentences I enjoyed. This story might have worked better as short fiction, but as it is, I can't say it's truly worth a read.
There's a very minor character named James Cameron (the filmmaker would've been around sixteen at the time).
...
Characters "shrugged": 16+ times (They also "grin," "sigh" and "blush" a lot.)
Characters "whirled": 4 times
Characters say something "unnecessarily": 1 time
Use of "[this] here, [that] there": 1
Uses of "loom" (verb): 3
-
Characters "blurted": 3 times (The last two times were on facing pp. 184 & 185.)
Characters "peered": 13+ times (two pages in a row; pp. 5,6-then, two sentences in a row; p. 13-then two pages in a row again; pp. 55, 56)
On facing pp. 46 & 47, "pugnacious" and "pugnacity" are used.
On p. 52, "now and then" is used twice within one small paragraph....
On pp. 56 & 57, "squalled" and "squalling" are used.
On p. 57, "shuddered" is used, then only eight lines down, "shudderingly."
On p. 118, variations of the word "sudden" appear three times in just one paragraph....
On p. 140, "Full Male" appears in practically three sentences in a row.
"... trying not to cringe..." (p. 46)
"He tried hard not to cringe...." (p. 77)
...
Typos:
"'And had it not, during your precious patrols over the planet, worked perfectly?'" (previous)
-
"Then both hands began to move calmly over the keyboard, programming the first data and orders for the rest of the his and Vez's force, when it should arrive."
...
4.5/10
We motes of Death cast on impassive seas,
Own not the right of petulant protest
Nor lien of mercy on the Pleiades.
The worm, the flower, crisped in mega-blast,
Sought not their fate. Yet, was it crueler shock
Than trout-on-hook? Than gut-shot-bison-cow?
Who wailed extinction of the pigeon-flock?
Take steel for sod, take tungsten for its light,
Take tinted glass for sky, and pipe for vine.
Quaff tisanes for the crying of your loins.
Recycled air your breeze, ship's grog your wine.
Go swaggering up the starlanes, grinning, cursing,
Deal blows to weaker creatures that you find.
Run when you must, but not too far; and always
Leave tales of might and daring deed behind.
And when you're senile and you dare to sleep,
You'll have invented lies enough to keep,
And you'll not weep.
-Humbert Daal
Earth's military picked a fight with the wrong empire, resulting in the destruction of all life on the planet. A few hundred men who happened to be off-world at the time avoided extinction; no women were among them. During the eight years to follow, the men scattered, taking mercenary work where they could. Some turned to extraterrestrial bestiality (like the poet quoted above), others to drugs. The main character is one such addict, hooked on the substance dron.
John Braysen, now living in squalor on the planet from which dron originates, is visited by an old comrade, who informs him that a certain ancient Chelki Omniarch has some Earth-women hidden away. In exchange for them, he wants a favor. I really couldn't tell you exactly what that favor consisted of. This book isn't written very well, and it's uninteresting, so I shifted in and out of autopilot throughout. Chapter (3) will put you to sleep, as it's nothing but an explanation of the "science" (gravity being a "push," and so on). John makes some questionable decisions as he struggles with his dron habit and "the thirst-that-is-not-thirst."
Most chapters follow John, but three actually follow the antagonist, Bulvenorg (who's of the species responsible for wiping out all life on Earth). And one chapter, just one, follows the small group of surviving women, particularly Lisa Duval. The few remaining women live in an artificial environment among sentient fat alien beavers. They're shockingly suicidal. There's a breach in one of the walls called "the hole," into which aging women wander seeking death from the carnivores beyond. It wasn't clear, but I think this occurs upon menopause. They mention "the change" and being passed the child-bearing age. It was pretty bizarre, especially because, as far as they know, there are no living men; what difference would it make? There's more to life than reproduction, damn it!
The only thing of interest to me was the anatomy of some of the aliens. The Chelki also come in a wide assortment of genders (e.g., Full Male, technician-gender, warrior-gender, etc.). There were a couple of random sentences I enjoyed. This story might have worked better as short fiction, but as it is, I can't say it's truly worth a read.
There's a very minor character named James Cameron (the filmmaker would've been around sixteen at the time).
...
Characters "shrugged": 16+ times (They also "grin," "sigh" and "blush" a lot.)
Characters "whirled": 4 times
Characters say something "unnecessarily": 1 time
Use of "[this] here, [that] there": 1
Uses of "loom" (verb): 3
-
Characters "blurted": 3 times (The last two times were on facing pp. 184 & 185.)
Characters "peered": 13+ times (two pages in a row; pp. 5,6-then, two sentences in a row; p. 13-then two pages in a row again; pp. 55, 56)
On facing pp. 46 & 47, "pugnacious" and "pugnacity" are used.
On p. 52, "now and then" is used twice within one small paragraph....
On pp. 56 & 57, "squalled" and "squalling" are used.
On p. 57, "shuddered" is used, then only eight lines down, "shudderingly."
On p. 118, variations of the word "sudden" appear three times in just one paragraph....
On p. 140, "Full Male" appears in practically three sentences in a row.
"... trying not to cringe..." (p. 46)
"He tried hard not to cringe...." (p. 77)
...
Typos:
"'And had it not, during your precious patrols over the planet, worked perfectly?'" (previous)
-
"Then both hands began to move calmly over the keyboard, programming the first data and orders for the rest of the his and Vez's force, when it should arrive."
...
4.5/10
Read
September 30, 2009Apparently Carroll M. Apps was an underemployed chess player in San Francisco with a part-time gig writing for _If_, the last of the second-tier science fiction magazines, until it folded in the late 60s. Then he came out with several books and novellas, one of which won a Hugo in 1968. He died of heart failure in 1971, making _Recall Not Earth_ one of his last books.
I should add that I'm not as sure of the biographical details as I could be. I'm throwing them in first because this book fills me with an elegaic sadness, even though its plot is downright vernal. Is it a spoiler to say that the guys get the gals in the end? And in a deeply affecting set piece, too. Nevertheless, there is a theme of looking back with sadness, of end-of-life that makes this just a little deeper than the average slam-bang adventure novel.
Also some mild homophobia, just so you know.
I should add that I'm not as sure of the biographical details as I could be. I'm throwing them in first because this book fills me with an elegaic sadness, even though its plot is downright vernal. Is it a spoiler to say that the guys get the gals in the end? And in a deeply affecting set piece, too. Nevertheless, there is a theme of looking back with sadness, of end-of-life that makes this just a little deeper than the average slam-bang adventure novel.
Also some mild homophobia, just so you know.
September 27, 2011
Pulp science fiction. Some good ideas (including humans placed in an alien zoo of sorts), but I'm tired of the 'it's the far flung future so of course everyone is back to medieval technology' concept that happens near the tail end of the book. Left me not entirely satisfied.
January 27, 2022
This was one of those books you pick up because an author you like mentioned it with some praise, and about halfway through you realize Nope, It Sucks.
I mean, it's not complete trash. There's some interesting ideas in there, but it's buried under 1960's misogyny and outdated social mores.
I mean, it's not complete trash. There's some interesting ideas in there, but it's buried under 1960's misogyny and outdated social mores.
June 17, 2008
Another moderately entertaining read.
May 9, 2009
This book has It all, Intrigue, Warfare, Ancient alien technologies, Aliens, Warfare, etc, This Book will fascinate You.
June 1, 2018
I read it back in school, Russian translation got into my hands. An obscure old piece of space SF, which, as I found out, influenced my favorite video game of the time - Star Control 2.
Humanity is defeated, Earth destroyed and a handful of survivors are on a quest to find some human females to revive the race. Features some intense space battles which caught my teen imagination at the time.
Now I wish it explored the theme of "what to do when humanity is no more" more deeply, and had less Deus ex Machina in it.
Humanity is defeated, Earth destroyed and a handful of survivors are on a quest to find some human females to revive the race. Features some intense space battles which caught my teen imagination at the time.
Now I wish it explored the theme of "what to do when humanity is no more" more deeply, and had less Deus ex Machina in it.
Read
May 2, 2019I have the german edition: Soeldner einer toten Welt
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews