Spacer: Window of the Mind

Spacer #2

by John Maddox Roberts

Rescued by the crew of the freighter, Space Angel, Kiril, a street urchin, must use her telepathic powers to prevent the ship from being used as a pawn in an insane attempt to start an intergalactic war

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction

182 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 1, 1988

About the author

aka Mark Ramsay

John Maddox Roberts is the author of numerous works of science fiction and fantasy, in addition to his successful historical SPQR mystery series. The first two books in the series have recently been re-released in trade paperback.

Reviews

[Scott Rhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Maddox Roberts’s 1988 novel “Spacer: Window of the Mind” is a sequel to a book that I didn’t read. It’s also the second in a series which apparently didn’t make it to a third book. Sad, because I kind of enjoyed it as the pulpy space opera that it was.

Fans of a short-lived TV show called “Firefly” may find kindred spirits in the rag-tag, eclectic crew of the spaceship Space Angel, which essentially flies around the galaxy doing odd jobs wherever they can, some of them legal.

In “S:WotM”, the ship is refueling on a backwater shithole planet called Civis Astra when the crew rescues a street girl named Kiril from a gang of vicious thieves and cutthroats. They invite her to become a crewmember. She gladly accepts, happy to be off of Civis Astra for good.

It’s not long before the crew has been called on by Earth’s military to take part in a milestone event: first contact. (Apparently, in the first book, “Space Angel”, the ship and its crew encountered alien life far out in the galaxy’s edges, the first humans to ever do so, so their experiences dealing with new alien life may come in handy.)

Unbeknownst to Kiril and the crew, however, the whole situation has been choreographed by a psycho with a lot of money, political clout, and a personal vendetta against Space Angel’s captain, HaLeavy. Apparently, she had the man court-martialed for war crimes. Due to his political pull and wealth, he got off, but he has harbored resentment and hatred for HaLeavy ever since.

This man, Izquierda, is willing to start a war with an alien species, the Dzuna, for no other reason than to get back at HaLeavy and her crew. Unfortunately, he doesn’t factor in the scrappiness of a street urchin with telepathic powers that she’s just discovering.

Fun, silly, quick-paced: “Spacer” is pulp sci-fi at its most entertaining.

[WonderGoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book, though in all honesty both this and the previous book in the series, Space Angel, the author had too big of a cast. Some of them got a bit lost in the background again as in the first one.

[Paul Wakelam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sort of like Firefly, but with Space elf's. I enjoyed it

[Little Timmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent SiFi story. Interesting characters. Recommended