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Diego
Time: The Semi-Final Frontier
Deep Space, Deep Trouble.
The man they call Diego was a tough hombre looking to escape a jam. But the time machine he found took him out of the frying pan and into the future. Now he's gone from the wide-open spaces to outer space--in the 26th century, as the starship Angus goes to war...
Before you can say, "Beam me up, Scotty," Diego's risking his neck against a female terrorist known as the Space Avenger--and the weirdest life-forms he's ever seen outside a bottle of bad whiskey. But then again, they've never seen anything like the man they call Diego!
The man they call Diego was a tough hombre looking to escape a jam. But the time machine he found took him out of the frying pan and into the future. Now he's gone from the wide-open spaces to outer space--in the 26th century, as the starship Angus goes to war...
Before you can say, "Beam me up, Scotty," Diego's risking his neck against a female terrorist known as the Space Avenger--and the weirdest life-forms he's ever seen outside a bottle of bad whiskey. But then again, they've never seen anything like the man they call Diego!
- GenresScience Fiction
234 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 23, 2026
review of
Lionel Fenn's Time: The Semi-Final Frontier
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 23, 2026
I picked up this bk b/c it was pocket-sized & featured time travel - an easy read for when I go on walks. I didn't have high expectations. At 1st I thought it was too much in what I consider to be the minor subgenre of 'Silly SF':
"We have an intruder. Someone has snuck aboard the Angus without my permission. I think, all in all, that means we're already in trouble.
"Then you'd better not waste any more time, Captain. Call a Yellow Alert, tell Ms. Maynard to secure the Bridge, alert Sick Bay, and let's get moving!
"Consider it done, Doc!
"One more thing, Captain, before you go out there and face the troops.
"What's that?
"Your girdle's loose." - pp 4-5
That bit of girdle silliness & starting off w/ a Star Trek take-off rubbed me a little bit the wrong way (considering that I never have liked Star Trek very much - in contrast to Doctor Who, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, The Prisoner, The Avengers, Quatermass, etc)
"Ship's Log, the CISS Angus, Captain Dirk R. Winslow, Commander. All remarks to follow are coded NEED TO KNOW, Headquarters Only, immediate transmission, scrambled. TravelDate . . . uh . . . Doc, what's the date?
"Today?
"Yes.
"54.217.37951.3
"What's that, March?
"Think so.
"Then why don't they say so?
"Well, it doesn't sound very official, does it? I mean, you say, it's the seventeenth of March, whatever year, 2512, something like that, it doesn't really sing, does it? It doesn't have that sort of Deep Space resonance the folks back home expect, if you see what I mean.
"It's stupid, is what it is." - p 3
You see what I mean. But it quickly just became entertaining for me & I enjoyed it. A 19th century luxury train time travels & finds itself in a giant warship storage rm in outer space. That's funny enuf, in itself. Where will it go from there?
""Tell Major Juniper that the train is a time machine, and he's to handle it with the utmost care."
"The voice sounded wounded. "But, sir, he's always careful."
""Gladys, he blew up Xerxes 23."
"Major Steele snickered." - p 41
The mission of the warship is to diplomatically or otherwise supress a rebellion for wch this background is provided:
"As the histories of every halfway decent and a couple of really disgusting civilizations that ever existed anywhere at any Time in any place have always showed, there were always a few malcontents who thought they would rather be free and poverty-stricken than be part of the Establishment and richer than God. It had something to do with spirituality; it also had something to do with the fact that the Rebels found it passing difficult to get a decent job once they had rebelled. Therefore, the only sensible course of action was to overthrow the Establishment, set up their own Establishment, and be free and richer than God, all in the same lifetime." - p 49
"At that moment the doors gurgled and hissed open, and four soliders stepped into the room. Two were Sergeant Larue and Private Gordon; the other two he had never seen before and therefore understood that they, most likely, would never make it back alive." - p 94
For me, that's another Start Trek reference b/c on Star Trek when there's a landing party that consists of the main characters & a couple of extra grunts it's more or less guaranteed that the extra grunts will get killed on-planet. That was one of those too-predictable elements that contributed to my dislike of Star Trek. THAT was funny, as was the below:
""You got a name, soldier?" Larue asked in idle, time-killing conversation.
""No, sir."
"The sergeant stared in disbelief. "Mister, you have to have a name. Everybody has a name. You can't get into the Service without a name. Nobody would talk to you if you didn't have a name." He pointed to the young man's fellow marine on the west side of the hill. "What's her name?"
""She doesn't have one either, Sergeant."
""What? You aliens or something?"
""No, Sarge," the nameless marine answered in astonishment. "We're as much from Earth as you are."
""Theh what the hell is your name?"
""Well, the guys . . ." He winced and squirmed a little in embarrassment. "The guys, they call me Cannon Fodder. Can, for short."
"The giant turkey drew nearer; Major Steele trotted around the base of the hill.
""Can?"
""That's right, Sarge."
""And what do they call her?"
""Cannon Mudder."" - p 113
"And Diego decided two things:
"First, he might be able to handle those Gannetians, even if they were huge spiders, if he could convince himself they were only giant turkeys disguised as huge spiders. Which probably wasn't going to work, he wasn't all that stupid, but as long as he kept trying he might be able to function well enought to either keep from screaming, or keep from dying. Preferably both." - p 144
ANYWAY, this was fun. I was hypothetically reading something like 5 or 6 other bks at the time & this was the main one I chose to breeze thru precisely b/c it was easy & a no-brainer. So much for my intellectual discipline.
Lionel Fenn's Time: The Semi-Final Frontier
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - October 23, 2026
I picked up this bk b/c it was pocket-sized & featured time travel - an easy read for when I go on walks. I didn't have high expectations. At 1st I thought it was too much in what I consider to be the minor subgenre of 'Silly SF':
"We have an intruder. Someone has snuck aboard the Angus without my permission. I think, all in all, that means we're already in trouble.
"Then you'd better not waste any more time, Captain. Call a Yellow Alert, tell Ms. Maynard to secure the Bridge, alert Sick Bay, and let's get moving!
"Consider it done, Doc!
"One more thing, Captain, before you go out there and face the troops.
"What's that?
"Your girdle's loose." - pp 4-5
That bit of girdle silliness & starting off w/ a Star Trek take-off rubbed me a little bit the wrong way (considering that I never have liked Star Trek very much - in contrast to Doctor Who, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, The Prisoner, The Avengers, Quatermass, etc)
"Ship's Log, the CISS Angus, Captain Dirk R. Winslow, Commander. All remarks to follow are coded NEED TO KNOW, Headquarters Only, immediate transmission, scrambled. TravelDate . . . uh . . . Doc, what's the date?
"Today?
"Yes.
"54.217.37951.3
"What's that, March?
"Think so.
"Then why don't they say so?
"Well, it doesn't sound very official, does it? I mean, you say, it's the seventeenth of March, whatever year, 2512, something like that, it doesn't really sing, does it? It doesn't have that sort of Deep Space resonance the folks back home expect, if you see what I mean.
"It's stupid, is what it is." - p 3
You see what I mean. But it quickly just became entertaining for me & I enjoyed it. A 19th century luxury train time travels & finds itself in a giant warship storage rm in outer space. That's funny enuf, in itself. Where will it go from there?
""Tell Major Juniper that the train is a time machine, and he's to handle it with the utmost care."
"The voice sounded wounded. "But, sir, he's always careful."
""Gladys, he blew up Xerxes 23."
"Major Steele snickered." - p 41
The mission of the warship is to diplomatically or otherwise supress a rebellion for wch this background is provided:
"As the histories of every halfway decent and a couple of really disgusting civilizations that ever existed anywhere at any Time in any place have always showed, there were always a few malcontents who thought they would rather be free and poverty-stricken than be part of the Establishment and richer than God. It had something to do with spirituality; it also had something to do with the fact that the Rebels found it passing difficult to get a decent job once they had rebelled. Therefore, the only sensible course of action was to overthrow the Establishment, set up their own Establishment, and be free and richer than God, all in the same lifetime." - p 49
"At that moment the doors gurgled and hissed open, and four soliders stepped into the room. Two were Sergeant Larue and Private Gordon; the other two he had never seen before and therefore understood that they, most likely, would never make it back alive." - p 94
For me, that's another Start Trek reference b/c on Star Trek when there's a landing party that consists of the main characters & a couple of extra grunts it's more or less guaranteed that the extra grunts will get killed on-planet. That was one of those too-predictable elements that contributed to my dislike of Star Trek. THAT was funny, as was the below:
""You got a name, soldier?" Larue asked in idle, time-killing conversation.
""No, sir."
"The sergeant stared in disbelief. "Mister, you have to have a name. Everybody has a name. You can't get into the Service without a name. Nobody would talk to you if you didn't have a name." He pointed to the young man's fellow marine on the west side of the hill. "What's her name?"
""She doesn't have one either, Sergeant."
""What? You aliens or something?"
""No, Sarge," the nameless marine answered in astonishment. "We're as much from Earth as you are."
""Theh what the hell is your name?"
""Well, the guys . . ." He winced and squirmed a little in embarrassment. "The guys, they call me Cannon Fodder. Can, for short."
"The giant turkey drew nearer; Major Steele trotted around the base of the hill.
""Can?"
""That's right, Sarge."
""And what do they call her?"
""Cannon Mudder."" - p 113
"And Diego decided two things:
"First, he might be able to handle those Gannetians, even if they were huge spiders, if he could convince himself they were only giant turkeys disguised as huge spiders. Which probably wasn't going to work, he wasn't all that stupid, but as long as he kept trying he might be able to function well enought to either keep from screaming, or keep from dying. Preferably both." - p 144
ANYWAY, this was fun. I was hypothetically reading something like 5 or 6 other bks at the time & this was the main one I chose to breeze thru precisely b/c it was easy & a no-brainer. So much for my intellectual discipline.
December 12, 2023
What a ride! Very reminiscent of Starship Troopers but with a comedy take. Sad to see Diego will be no more but it was fun while it lasted. Grant isnt capable of writing a bad book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews