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In the 39th Century, great men and women of the human race strode among the stars. And the crew of the Astro Tramp 400 were also there. Six untrained civilians. Two seasoned officers and two radically unspaceworthy scientists. One mad alien inventor. And six hundred and twenty-eight clone crewmen with severe intelligence-formatting errors. Eejit is the first tale of The Final Fall of Man, a science-fiction story about - among other things - the human race and how we either won or lost it, depending on your point of view.
312 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2014
32 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Hindle
27 books52 followersAndrew "Chucky" Hindle was born and raised in Western Australia, before Internet romance brought him to Finland where he is now living happily ever after with his wife Janica, his daughters Elsa and Freja, his duck Clyde, his car Lazarus and his smartphone Mopho Cake V.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 22, 2015
So, there's this spaceship. Something's gone pear-shaped, and most of the crew's dead and the technology is damaged. There's ten people left, occupying positions they may or may not be qualified or trained to occupy. Since running a spaceship as large as Astro Tramp 400 takes rather more than ten people, the rest of the work is done by clones. Except the clone printer got damaged. So they're all eejits.
(I keep wanting to translate that in Finnish as "torspo".)
In Eejits, Andrew Hindle presents a spectacularly juicy setup for some good, old-fashioned space comedy. I would not even call this a parody of space opera, it's just space opera that's also rip-roaringly funny. I was giggling like an idiot for most of the book, and even when things take a more serious turn at around halfway point and themes like the nature of knowledge start piling up, it keeps its humorous touch.
In his description of the eejits, Hindle very deftly captures the immense frustrations involved in dealing with truly stupid people. He must've worked tech support at some point.
The tale is delivered in chapters focalized on the ten crew members, George R.R. Martin style, and they're a delightfully varied and personal bunch, with their own skeletons in the closets and strange behavioral quirks. Were there not a main plot to deal with, they would be quite capable of producing an entirely character-driven story on their own.
There are traces of Star Trek in here, and I detect echoes of Alastair Reynolds. Also, the topic and treatment invites comparison with John Scalzi's Redshirts . While I'm not sure I'd give Eejits the Hugo, I do think it's the better book.
(I keep wanting to translate that in Finnish as "torspo".)
In Eejits, Andrew Hindle presents a spectacularly juicy setup for some good, old-fashioned space comedy. I would not even call this a parody of space opera, it's just space opera that's also rip-roaringly funny. I was giggling like an idiot for most of the book, and even when things take a more serious turn at around halfway point and themes like the nature of knowledge start piling up, it keeps its humorous touch.
In his description of the eejits, Hindle very deftly captures the immense frustrations involved in dealing with truly stupid people. He must've worked tech support at some point.
The tale is delivered in chapters focalized on the ten crew members, George R.R. Martin style, and they're a delightfully varied and personal bunch, with their own skeletons in the closets and strange behavioral quirks. Were there not a main plot to deal with, they would be quite capable of producing an entirely character-driven story on their own.
There are traces of Star Trek in here, and I detect echoes of Alastair Reynolds. Also, the topic and treatment invites comparison with John Scalzi's Redshirts . While I'm not sure I'd give Eejits the Hugo, I do think it's the better book.
June 25, 2018
It seems pointless writing about the plot of Eejit, mainly because Hindle does a deliberate job of dispensing plot details deliberately and carefully throughout the book. While at times it feels like the reader has missed an important prologue, or first installment, he lightly treads the fine line between giving us just enough to keep us on board and not so much that it feels like he's constantly dropping large chunks of exposition in our lap.
Eejit's big appeal is the balance between the absurd and the heavy. There are some big, hard, science fiction ideas in Eejit roaming arm in arm throughout the book with some comic conceits and a tone that mixes humour, tension and sci-fi. Eejit is properly funny in places and not just a wry-smile-inducing kind of comedy but a genuine belly laugh comedy that is even capable of generating a further smirk while recalling it the next day. But unlike other comedy sci fi novels, which might be content to tack some gags onto a bog-standard space plot, Eejit is brimming with interesting new ideas.
Eejit is an engrossing tale of rampant AI, space mysteries, incompetent crew, aliens, baffling new ideas and space weasels, which happens to be very, very funny. It might test the patience of some sci-fi fans, and comparisons to Douglas Adams will set the reader up for disappointment, but it's definitely worth your time and not like anything else you've ever read.
Eejit's big appeal is the balance between the absurd and the heavy. There are some big, hard, science fiction ideas in Eejit roaming arm in arm throughout the book with some comic conceits and a tone that mixes humour, tension and sci-fi. Eejit is properly funny in places and not just a wry-smile-inducing kind of comedy but a genuine belly laugh comedy that is even capable of generating a further smirk while recalling it the next day. But unlike other comedy sci fi novels, which might be content to tack some gags onto a bog-standard space plot, Eejit is brimming with interesting new ideas.
Eejit is an engrossing tale of rampant AI, space mysteries, incompetent crew, aliens, baffling new ideas and space weasels, which happens to be very, very funny. It might test the patience of some sci-fi fans, and comparisons to Douglas Adams will set the reader up for disappointment, but it's definitely worth your time and not like anything else you've ever read.
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September 14, 2025The Stage is Set
Third time through, maybe fourth, who keeps track? Keep coming back because the characters have become my family. Not much weirder than my real family. Tally ho!
Third time through, maybe fourth, who keeps track? Keep coming back because the characters have become my family. Not much weirder than my real family. Tally ho!
July 8, 2022
This is a bit of a slow burn, but worth it. My main complaint is that there are too many characters and it gets a little confusing but the funny dialogue and engaging sci fi story make up for this. A solid 3.5+ stars.
March 17, 2016
don't be fooled by the seemingly flippant title. this book's strength lies in its minimalist humour which keeps the tone aligned beautifully with more serious scifi.
it's an oddball of a book in that it appears to have moderately absurdist characters and situations, but the overall plot is definitely hardcore scifi. there's no overt parody here, and the humour is definitely kept neatly in check.
having said that, i have maintained it is a glorious balance between the first iconic series of 'red dwarf' as though written by iain banks. with maybe a healthy splash of 'the thick of it' or 'the office'. it's a defiant achievement which deserves a serious look if you're into fairly hardcore scifi which concentrated on mysterious alien life, the boundaries of space, and the mistake of letting the wrong people have control of the ship...
it's an oddball of a book in that it appears to have moderately absurdist characters and situations, but the overall plot is definitely hardcore scifi. there's no overt parody here, and the humour is definitely kept neatly in check.
having said that, i have maintained it is a glorious balance between the first iconic series of 'red dwarf' as though written by iain banks. with maybe a healthy splash of 'the thick of it' or 'the office'. it's a defiant achievement which deserves a serious look if you're into fairly hardcore scifi which concentrated on mysterious alien life, the boundaries of space, and the mistake of letting the wrong people have control of the ship...
January 6, 2019
This is the first book in five years I didn't finish. I got to 38%, and I feel really uncomfortable abandoning it, but it irritates the hell out of me every time I try to read it. Stupid characters have endless extremely rambling discussions which lead to nothing. The book is unreadable and boring as hell. Little happens, and what happens is stupid - and any book where a space ship which travels in interstellar space comes to "full stop" should be rewritten completely after the author has been taught some fundamentals of relativity of movement and I really wonder how the characters imagine they could be using a sextant to find where they are in middle of space. I wouldn’t be surprised, if the main characters were also defective clones - they were certainly idiotic enough.
January 6, 2016
Brilliant. Fresh and interesting science fiction ideas but I was mostly impressed with the humour and humourous writing style though the content was serious science fiction.
I loved the contrast between the intelligence as shown by the imaginative science, the extensive vocabulary, plot and book structure and laziness as shown by slang, Aussie vernacular or cliches and overuse of adjectives and multi-hyphenated phrases as adjectives which worked for me. And I love the humour from metaphor destruction when taken literally which began in the prologue and continued throughout.
I loved the contrast between the intelligence as shown by the imaginative science, the extensive vocabulary, plot and book structure and laziness as shown by slang, Aussie vernacular or cliches and overuse of adjectives and multi-hyphenated phrases as adjectives which worked for me. And I love the humour from metaphor destruction when taken literally which began in the prologue and continued throughout.
February 19, 2016
Story line confusing.
Could not truly understand the whole story. Took me a very long time to complete the look even after I jumped paragraphs.
Could not truly understand the whole story. Took me a very long time to complete the look even after I jumped paragraphs.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews