Planet of Zombie Vampires, The

Bill, the Galactic Hero #5

by Harry Harrison, Christian Rummel (Reading)

Bill—the perfect Starship Trooper: big, brawny, and brainwashed. Possessor of two right arms (impressive when it comes to saluting) and a foot that is threatening to turn into something more suited to being an umbrella stand than anything that could be squeezed into a size 11 sneaker.

Bill—a perfect recruit for the good ship Bounty, bound for the Chinger war and carrying a cargo of as nice a company of homicidal misfits and maniacs as you could wish to meet outside of a penitentiary asylum (which is where they've just come from).

Bill, the Galactic Hero—he's back, he's bad, and he's about to meet the most hideous alien lifeform of his entire career. He'd do anything to save his skin without rocking the boat—but mutiny? On the Bounty?

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Fiction, Audiobook, Satire, Adventure, Novels

MP3 CD

First published March 1, 1991

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Harry Harrison (born Henry Maxwell Dempsey) was an American science fiction author best known for his character the The Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! (1966), the basis for the film Soylent Green (1973). He was also (with Brian W. Aldiss) co-president of the Birmingham Science Fiction Group.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm usually slightly leery of authors who team up but I don't know why that is. In a LOT of cases, it produces some quality work. Like this one.

I'm back to liking this series at the same level that I once liked it. Not much juvenile humor this time but DEFINITELY great for fans of any kind of funny starship mutiny. Can never trust the brass.

But more to the point, the series sets its eyes on classic SF tropes such as vampire armies, old-school zombie treatments, and an Alien invasion (as in the franchise). All this hits much more spot-on than in the previous volumes and I grinned more, too.

Big dumb draftees, unite!

[Rafa Araujo · Rating 4 out of 5]

me encanta esta saga!!
calificación cero objetiva :D

[Xabi1990 · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10. Media de los 17 libros que he leído del autor : 7/10.

Ciencia ficción de humor exagerado donde Bill es una parodia de todos los heroes super-cachas que hayan podido existir.

Exagerado, esperpéntico, semiabsurdo, un humor bestia con el que no dejas de sonreir si te lo tomas tan a broma como lo ha hecho su autor al escribirlo.

Hay una serie de, creo, 7 libros pero son independientes, se pueden leer por separado. El comentario vale para todos ellos.

Yo empezaría a leerlo y si no te gusta este humor, pues lo dejas y en paz.

[Steven Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was a great improvement over the last one, and renewed my interest in the series! A well-done satirical link/reference to "The Mutiny on the Bounty", "The Caine Mutiny", "Star Trek: the Wrath of Khan" and "Aliens". The connections were coherent, funny (if you read/saw those books or movies) and consistent with the overall theme of the series.
The other "guest" authors are playing well with the premise, but Harry Harrison is still writing the best stuff, or Mr. Haldeman's sense of humor is just right in sync with his!

[Jim Mullen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mindless fun.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It made me laugh and the antics of Bill and the crew were well written.

[Joseph R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bill, the Galactic Hero, is a human space trooper who has three arms, some tusks, and is regrowing his right foot. His new assignment is as Military Policeman to the starship Bounty, which is taking a bunch of prisoners to the front line of the Chinger war. The ship is a bit older and doesn't have a proper drive system, which means the trip will take months and months. Luckily, everyone will have served their term and be put to fighting when the trip is over. Unluckily, the only other non-prisoners on the ship are Captain Blight, First Mate Christianson, and science officer (and also android) Caine, so the prisoners make up the rest of the crew. More unluckily, Captain Blight has an obsession with okra and has devoted most of the ship's resources to growing it on board. So much is grown that it is the sole food for the crew. If that wasn't enough to cause a mutiny on the Bounty (and don't think that joke doesn't come up again and again), the ship crashes on a planet with an abandoned communication facility. Well, not quite abandoned. The dried-out husks of the former facility staff are there along with a lot of literally blood-thirsty aliens who start out as cute little ducklings. Soon enough they'll be giant acid-spewing monsters hungry for the Bounty's crew.

The novel is a light-weight comedy version of the Alien movies. The crew has to explore the facility and get some supplies to repair the ship, all the while avoiding the monsters. The jokes are a mish-mash of pop culture puns (the Caine Mutiny gets mentioned and the three clones are called Larry, Moe, and Curly) and general silliness. I didn't find it very funny but it made me smile a few times. There is none of the horror from the Alien movies. While the characters are scared, the situations are never that suspenseful and nothing is described in any sort of detail.

I have to say the "zombie vampires" were a bit of a let-down for me. It reminds me of the movie Mystery Men, where the villain is named Casanova Frankenstein. That's a great name for a villain but they did nothing with it, i.e. there was nothing particularly Casanova or Frankenstein about the character. The aliens do suck blood and eventually turn people into mummies, but mummies aren't zombies or vampires.They should have called this book "Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Alien Franchise Ripoffs."

I will not be seeking out any more of this series.

[Rene Majer]

Nejbláznivější dobrodružství všech časů a vesmírů

Je dokonalým mezihvězdným kavaleristou: velký, silný a vlastní dokonale vymytý (vypitý) mozek. Prostě perfektní hrdina: ochotný udělat cokoliv, aby si zachránil krk. (Jedna z mála částí těla, která je původní.)

A znovu povýšil. Stal se vojenským policistou na hvězdném korábu. To vypadá dobře. Jedinou jeho povinností je – střežit posádku vězňů na cestě ke kosmickému vrakovišti. Nemůže být nic jednoduššího. Co na tom, že kapitán je šílenec? Všichni důstojníci těžcí magoři? Může se snad něco stát?

[Michael crage · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was not quite as bad as the first Harry Harrison book I read. It was almost readable for most of the book and did not get complete awful until near the end of it. There was even a glimpse of a plot. But it was still a waste of time reading if I had had anything else to read.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite in this series. I remember reading it to my youngest sister one summer. Very funny and ridiculous.