Kings of the High Frontier

by Victor Koman

Book by Koman, Victor

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Morgan Beldyk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book by accident in the sci-fi section of a used bookstore. I picked it up out of curiosity and almost put it back because it was more expensive than I was usually willing to pay for a used book, but as someone who has long been frustrated by humanity's lack of progress in human space travel, I was pretty much hooked from the first page.

It pains me to give this book 4 stars instead of 5 because I'll be honest, I loved this book. I want to sing this book's praises from the top of mountains (or maybe space, but then no one would hear me, hurr hurr). However from an objective standpoint it would be unfair to call it flawless. Many of the characters are a bit one-dimensional, especially the villains, many of whom are evil just for the sake of being evil. The author is also unafraid to be preachy about his libertarian, borderline-anarchist viewpoints. The author is scathingly anti-NASA, so fans of NASA might be put off by this book. However, it's really more that the author is scathingly-anti-government, and NASA, being part of the government, is fair game.

Despite its flaws, however, I have a feeling I'll be reading this book again and again. It makes me feel inspired, like I could go build a space ship in my own backyard (challenging, as I live in an apartment). It's a bit dated, written in 1998, but many of the issues (perhaps unfortunately) still hold true today. I'd recommend this to anyone who's a space nerd.

[Shane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. It's interesting seeing science fiction turn into alternate history. This book chronicles an alternate space race long before the "X-Prize" was offered though of a similar vein. I really struggled with the start, I was fully 20% into the book before I really became interested. The story line is interesting, the characters not so much. At times it felt like a "Mary Sue" convention and other moments it felt like there wasn't even enough development to rate being a "Mary Sue".

Koman has a distrust and possibly even a hatred of the State that I can respect but it seems to loose it's edge when it is so tightly focused at NASA. NASA has become such a "self licking ice cream cone" that it hardly merits Koman's wrath, then again this was written before the Columbia Disaster.

Heinlein stands the test of time with great stories and interesting characters even when outdated by modern technology; they are still good tales. Koman's work just doesn't hold up.

[Patrick O'Hannigan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking, but also too doctrinaire and full of libertarian self-righteousness to rank among the classics. Koman's indictment of NASA in the wake of the space shuttle "Challenger" explosion is well deserved, but I'm not libertarian enough to think that private rather than state-funded spaceflight is always and everywhere the answer, or that NASA and state or federal agencies like it can never be reformed.

What's fun is realizing the Koman wrote this story in 1996, well before private spaceflight companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX were on their way to becoming household names.

Descriptions throughout the book are good. Still, illustrations of the various spacecraft involved would have helped. Side question: Did Victor Koman set out to make every woman in this story gorgeous, or did the book just turn out that way?