Galaxy Trucker: Rocky Road

by Jason A. Holt

Fran thought that galaxy trucking would be her dream job. No one told her about the meteors on Route 135. Her trucks keep getting blasted to bits, and now she's deep in debt. Does she need a new route or a new career?

Maybe she just needs a friend.

Galaxy Trucker: Rocky Road is the story of a woman and an alien trying to deliver a load of sewer pipes. It's set in the goofy Galaxy Trucker universe, so you know it's gonna be funny. It's also kinda sweet.

Genres: Science Fiction, Games

204 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 2017

About the author

Jason writes the Edgewhen series of fantasy adventure novels. And when he's not writing novels, he works in the board game industry. He translated the rulebook for Galaxy Trucker, he wrote the rulebook for Underwater Cities, and he designed the English-language word list for Codenames.

In the Fighter Fred series, Jason combines his love of fantasy with his love of rulebooks and discovers that the result can be hilarious.

You can find out more about Jason by checking JasonAHolt.com.

Reviews

[Kryptomite · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a little tragic that this book is associated with Galaxy trucker the board game. I've owned Galaxy trucker several times throughout my life and I love it. It's cruel and ruthless and hilarious and a lot of fun. That being said, I thought this book would be the same. I thought I'd laugh, I thought I'd think it was fun that a board game got turned into a book, and I figured I'd read it and toss it back on the shelf and move on. Instead, I found a novel that was written quite well and made me care a great deal about two unsuspecting characters (Fran and Wally) that I would have never believed were worth caring about in a setting like this. Galaxy trucker is written in the same vein as hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy, and it does a very good job trading punches with that book right and left. In fact, I'd say this book is better than the other books in the hitchhiker's guide trilogy. I think if more people gave this book a chance, not knowing it was based on a board game, it might reach a certain level of fame. I found the world in which these characters inhabit to be all too tragically familiar, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I hope this review encourages you to read it even if you haven't played the game. The game itself allows you to appreciate elements of the book in a different light, but it certainly don't stop you from appreciating this book's brilliance in any way whatsoever, and there are no references to the game specifically that will go over a non-gaming reader's head. Great book with a charming story and well thought out characters!

[Peter Brichs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeg havde ikke regnet med, at det her rent faktisk ville være en god bog - men på en eller anden måde har det lykkedes at skrive en sjov sci-fi bog (den smager sådan lidt af Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), som fungerer i Galaxy Trucker universet. Altså, der er en scene hvor rumskibene bliver bygget som i spillet. Wally og Fran - jeg er fan.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is surreal goofy fun. I couldn't resist the book when I spotted it and found it to be a light and entertaining read during a business trip.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Galaxy Trucker is one of my favourite board games. It is a frantic experience of building a ship from tiles while competing with several other players trying to do the same, followed by the harrowing experience of testing your ramshackle ship against pirates, smugglers, meteors, slavers, and more as you try to make it through with as many pieces still attached as possible. The app also presents an intriguing narrative experience through missions as you travel between planets, and so I was really interested in how a book based on the game - written by the author of the rulebook, which definitely has a unique sense of storytelling among its tabletop cohort.

Rocky Road, as well as the rulebook, have an obvious influence from Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy which is particularly evident in the whimsical tone of the storytelling and the occasional asides peppered throughout the narrative. Although I appreciated a few such moments throughout the novel, I did find the emulation of that tone to be a bit distracting, mostly because no one can be Douglas Adams - even arguably Adams himself by the time he wrote the fifth book in the series, Mostly Harmless. It's such a distinct tonality that coming close to it at all highlights how much it's not Adams' work.

That said, I did enjoy much of this book and how it did capture the feel of the Galaxy Trucker universe overall. There are a number of very entertaining passages, as well as a few moments in which Holt is able to bring out an idea from the game in an unexpected and enjoyable way. Rocky Road is a fun diversion - though I would definitely rather be playing an actual game of Galaxy Trucker.

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 3 out of 5]

After playing this board game with the kids so many times, I had to read the book. The game is really fun, even though somehow little Genevieve always managed to get the character that let her yell "Fire drill!", requiring us to get up and run around the table twice while she kept building her ship. The book is fun too, on the order of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett or Robert Asprin, but not as fun. Here's an excerpt, to help you decide whether it's your thing:

Fran tried to remember the basic survival tips. Let's see, there was PUKE:

Prepare for rescue
Use up any rations you have
Keep hoping for rescue
Engage in a positive attitude by hoping for rescue

I haven't decided whether to read the sequel or not.

[Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received this as a prize on International Tabletop Day. The book works as an explanation of why the ships in the game Galaxy Truckers look the way they do, but beyond that it lacked something. I hate to give this one star, because I didn't hate it, but I couldn't find anything to like about it either.

The author works for a game company translating/creating rules for board games, which is an awesome job. I just can't help wondering if that connection got this book published and if that connection didn't exist would this book have been better when it did get published? I really think the author has a great story to tell, I am just not sure that this was the right vehicle for it.

[Mauritzvd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoy reading the rulebooks of board games by Vlaada Chvátil, because of the light tone and the absurd jokes rulewriter Jason A. Holt is prone to. Sadly, I believe he should just stick to rulebooks.
The typical light tone is present in this book, as are the jokes, but they don't add up to something truly enjoyable.

This book had a real meager story to tell, with a protagonist who isn't really driven. She sucks at her job, and she doesn't want to suck at it. That's not a dramatic need.
Towards the end of the book, something happens that does give her some kind of drive, albeit just for 25 pages or something like that.

Too bad.
Too late.

I might be wrong, but I sense a strong influence from Douglas Adams' books, and this one doesn't get it right. Not the right tone, not the right characters, not even the right jokes.

Great game though.
And great rulebook.
I mean it.

[Nightstar · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unexpected new favorite! Let me start off by saying, I've had a bit of a contentious relationship with Galaxy Trucker the board game. It's chaotic, requires building in an incredibly short time limit, and no matter how well you plan in the beginning, chances are you're pulling into the dock with half your ship missing. For someone who loves taking their time to painstakingly build the perfect ship, this is a nightmare.

That being said, this book managed to make me fall in love with the board game. The author did a wonderful job translating this absurd world with its grab bag of parts, frequent meteor showers, and merciless pirates into a wonderful story full of adventure and heart. Seeing this crazy game from the perspective of Fran completely changed how I thought of all those elements that stressed me out before, and about halfway through reading the book, I downloaded the mobile game just so I could practice "getting good" at it before trying my hand at the board game again.

It's a shame that this book didn't seem to resonate with my fellow gamers as much as I'd expect, but I hope the author can appreciate how much of an impact this story had on me. It was funny, full of adventure, and made me feel far more for these characters than I expected.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice light hearted very soft sci-fi. There's humour here, but not quite as much as I was hoping for. A few wry smiles rather than out and out chuckles or belly laughs. It's probably worth a read for fans of the board game, if for no reason that board games don't often make the transition to other mediums, Tim Curry's Clue being a notable exception.

[Edwin Nealley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little story

If you are a fan of Galaxy Trucker either online or the boardgame, this story is a fun jaunt through the backstory of A. Typical Trucker for Corp Inc.

Not deep, but a quick read.

[Heather Wassing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun read. So evocative of the game!
Some weird bits (about God and Satan and Catholicism) and a little bit of trouble pulling it all together, but it was a cute, fun buddy adventure and I'm glad to have read it.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is exactly what you expect it to be: a fun lore extension for Galaxy Trucker that doesn't try too hard or take itself too seriously, much like a spaceship made out of plumbing components.

[Dev S · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick fun read. Really only to be recommended if you are familiar with and a fan of the board game.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are a fan of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy you will come away from this book thinking somehow this story would fit in perfectly if they had ever decided to hitchhike with a trucker.

[Eric Juneau · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first book I read based on a board game. I got this game for Christmas, really liked it, and the instructions are kinda complicated. But more than that--they were funny. The game's premise is that you build a ship using little cardboard squares with lasers, shields, crew, engines, etc., then race around the galaxy to see if your ship lasts against meteors, space pirates, etc. But the instruction manual is delightful.

The book jumps doesn't deviate from those concepts. It's about a lone trucker and her partner, an alien trying to become an actor, who has to literally build her ship like in the game, then has pieces of it fly off. I think it takes the concept a little too literally.

It reads very much like an indie science fiction humor comic book. The humor is like someone trying to imitate Douglas Adams, but that's an impossible goal--no one can be like Douglas Adams. So it falls short of amusing (although that could be on me -- I'm on a lot of mood-stabilizing medication). The jokes are nothing new--hackneyed humor about the incessant bureaucracy of the future (gotta find the right form!), technobabble, incompetent enemies, etc.

I feel like if you want some science fiction humor, there are better places than this. This one is skippable.