Transmission Error

by Michael Kurland

Book by Kurland, Michael

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

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 But it felt a bit outdated in some aspects

[Otis Campbell · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Well now, if you’re expectin’ a story about a busted-up Ford truck with a stripped-out gear box, you’re barkin’ up the wrong tree, neighbor. This here Transmission Error by Michael Kurland is about a fella named Daniel what got blamed for somethin' he didn't do and got packed off for a prison planet. But that high-falutin' beam-me-up contraption they used went cleaner than a whistle on the fritz, and instead of jail, he and his buddies get dropped right into the middle of a wild, cockeyed world where pirate ships are flyin' through the air like buzzards and there’s a whole dadgum town on wheels rollin’ its way down to the creek. It’s a mighty fun yarn to spin, even if some of the locals are downright peculiar—like them giant-sized birds that'll recite a fancy poem at ya right before they try to make a midday snack out of your hide! Poor Daniel's spent the whole time runnin' for his life because some mystery fella is bound and determined to put him six feet under, though he don't know why. If you like your sci-fi with a side of clever jokes and weird adventures, this old 1978 book is a real hoot and worth a gander, even if it makes your brain do a couple backflips tryin' to keep up with all the fancy talk.

[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.