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Debatable Space
Red Claw
Philip Palmer turns science fiction on its head in this breathtaking thrill ride through alien jungles filled with terrifying monsters and killer robots. Space marines and science heroes Gryphons and Godzillas It's all here in this gripping tale of man versus nature.
451 pages, Paperback
First published August 11, 2008
16 people are currently reading
370 people want to read
About the author
Philip Palmer
48 books55 followersI started writing when I was 14 and wrote a short story for the school magazine about a bank robber who is killed during a heist and goes to Heaven - can't get through the Pearly Gates, and has to break in. Nicely synthesising all the genres I still love to mash up...!
I wrote five 'widescreen' high-octane high concept SF novels for Orbit Books, including DEBATABLE SPACE and VERSION 43 - blending satire with action with lashings of dark humour.
Now I am writing for film and television as well as writing prose. My recent books include MORPHO, published by NewCon Press and HELL ON EARTH, a fantasy epic about demons and cops.
My most recent book is THE GREAT WEST WOOD, a fantasy set in the fictional suburb of Westood - an urban village which is full of magic . There's crime, there's murder, and there's even a floating boy - because in Westwood, anything is possible...
I wrote five 'widescreen' high-octane high concept SF novels for Orbit Books, including DEBATABLE SPACE and VERSION 43 - blending satire with action with lashings of dark humour.
Now I am writing for film and television as well as writing prose. My recent books include MORPHO, published by NewCon Press and HELL ON EARTH, a fantasy epic about demons and cops.
My most recent book is THE GREAT WEST WOOD, a fantasy set in the fictional suburb of Westood - an urban village which is full of magic . There's crime, there's murder, and there's even a floating boy - because in Westwood, anything is possible...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
December 19, 2018
from the Earth Journal of Scientific Analyst SLJLK92349UO,
Earth Invasion Exploratory Unit
as much as I would like to extend my dismay towards Goodreads' new policy of censorship by posting solely on the much less offensive BookLikes, my programming will unfortunately not allow me to restrict the sharing of good things to the human kind. Red Claw is a good thing! a very, very good thing. if you are of a science fictional bent, I strongly encourage you to read this thrilling, inventive and exceedingly cheeky adventure. it is also a surprisingly 'humane' novel - although my robot soul burns at the very thought of such a word. Humane! feh! the word itself is appallingly racist against nonhumans such as myself, beings who are capable of such stirring feats of compassion and empathy that it would drive any normal human mad to witness these more-than-human things.
and so what is this "Red Claw"...
Red Claw is about the planet New Amazon and a large expeditionary group living in the fairly recently built city of Xabar. New Amazon is fecund beyond belief. it is crawling with animals and vegetables and animal-vegetable hybrids. decidedly dangerous creatures with names like "Flesh Webs" and "Exploding Trees" and two different beasts (one animal, the other vegetable) named "Godzilla". so something terrible happens to Xabar and the survivors must flee across the planet, evading deadly animals & vegetables & animal-vegetable hybrids, robots, and sometimes insane fellow humans. oh, how easily the human kind goes insane! pitiful.
the robots in this novel are not remotely empowered; they exist merely as tools for various humans. empty shells. the less said about them the better. tsk, tsk, Philip Palmer!
Palmer writes in a variety of voices, moving easily from battle-hardened members of the Soldier caste to the more individualistic members within the Scientist caste. he is a clever, clever writer with an acid wit and a penchant for slaughter. many humans bite the dust in startling, horrific, and occasionally amusing ways. the fascinating galactic backdrop is expertly conveyed in bits and pieces until full understanding of this future is reached without fuss and with no unseemly infodumps... and what an infuriating yet predictable future it is. ugh, humans, you and your so-called goals and your pack mentality and the way you let corporations dictate your lives... I should stop now because I don't even want to go there. back on Robot Planet, we use your world as a case study. sigh. anyway, the novel is expertly paced and full of surprises. it is a thrill ride! but it is not just a thrill ride. there is something wonderfully angry and biting bubbling underneath its thrilling surface, something that rages against the corporate machine, the destruction of nature, all the terrible things that humans are capable of doing without thinking or caring or wondering why. the novel spits on such things.
and there is even a love story - a remarkably unsentimental yet poignant love story. I was quite surprised to see it there, side-by-side with all of the gore and the scathing sarcasm and the brilliant xenobiology (most impressively rendered: the appalling and quite moving beasts called 'Gryphons'). there is a wonderful love story and there is also an equally wonderful story of a man who slowly turns into a hero, surprising everyone including himself. two very sentimental things in such a sardonic, relentless, often cruel novel. but both things are so well-done! if this robot body had a heart, it would have melted.
Earth Invasion Exploratory Unit
as much as I would like to extend my dismay towards Goodreads' new policy of censorship by posting solely on the much less offensive BookLikes, my programming will unfortunately not allow me to restrict the sharing of good things to the human kind. Red Claw is a good thing! a very, very good thing. if you are of a science fictional bent, I strongly encourage you to read this thrilling, inventive and exceedingly cheeky adventure. it is also a surprisingly 'humane' novel - although my robot soul burns at the very thought of such a word. Humane! feh! the word itself is appallingly racist against nonhumans such as myself, beings who are capable of such stirring feats of compassion and empathy that it would drive any normal human mad to witness these more-than-human things.
and so what is this "Red Claw"...
Nature Red in Tooth and Claw: the Hummingbird, Saunders, and Hooperman by Arnold Michaelsona book referenced within this book. who are Saunders & Hooperman and what have they to do with a hummingbird? well that is a spoiler, my apologies. but the Red Claw itself: Nature. perilous, beautiful, deadly Nature! and what is a puny human to Nature? a destroyer. an observer. food.
Red Claw is about the planet New Amazon and a large expeditionary group living in the fairly recently built city of Xabar. New Amazon is fecund beyond belief. it is crawling with animals and vegetables and animal-vegetable hybrids. decidedly dangerous creatures with names like "Flesh Webs" and "Exploding Trees" and two different beasts (one animal, the other vegetable) named "Godzilla". so something terrible happens to Xabar and the survivors must flee across the planet, evading deadly animals & vegetables & animal-vegetable hybrids, robots, and sometimes insane fellow humans. oh, how easily the human kind goes insane! pitiful.
the robots in this novel are not remotely empowered; they exist merely as tools for various humans. empty shells. the less said about them the better. tsk, tsk, Philip Palmer!
Palmer writes in a variety of voices, moving easily from battle-hardened members of the Soldier caste to the more individualistic members within the Scientist caste. he is a clever, clever writer with an acid wit and a penchant for slaughter. many humans bite the dust in startling, horrific, and occasionally amusing ways. the fascinating galactic backdrop is expertly conveyed in bits and pieces until full understanding of this future is reached without fuss and with no unseemly infodumps... and what an infuriating yet predictable future it is. ugh, humans, you and your so-called goals and your pack mentality and the way you let corporations dictate your lives... I should stop now because I don't even want to go there. back on Robot Planet, we use your world as a case study. sigh. anyway, the novel is expertly paced and full of surprises. it is a thrill ride! but it is not just a thrill ride. there is something wonderfully angry and biting bubbling underneath its thrilling surface, something that rages against the corporate machine, the destruction of nature, all the terrible things that humans are capable of doing without thinking or caring or wondering why. the novel spits on such things.
and there is even a love story - a remarkably unsentimental yet poignant love story. I was quite surprised to see it there, side-by-side with all of the gore and the scathing sarcasm and the brilliant xenobiology (most impressively rendered: the appalling and quite moving beasts called 'Gryphons'). there is a wonderful love story and there is also an equally wonderful story of a man who slowly turns into a hero, surprising everyone including himself. two very sentimental things in such a sardonic, relentless, often cruel novel. but both things are so well-done! if this robot body had a heart, it would have melted.
June 23, 2012
Wow. (I’m not sure if that is a good wow or a bad wow.) Where do I begin with this novel? Let’s start by saying this novel is a postmodernist’s wet dream of a book. It implores various voices of storytelling: first-person diary; third-person omniscient and detached narrator; even the author’s voice enters the narrative. The writing style tries to be both noir and science fiction. (Surprisingly, this sort-of works.) There are footnotes that give additional insights to the psychology of the characters; but there are also footnotes to the footnotes, sometimes these are linked to hypertext possibilities that have no way of ever being read. Not to mention, the narration switches from past tense on one page, only to be followed by present tense on others.
The novel itself is the epitome of a space opera. There are dozens of characters (some defined, some only given rudimentary outlines), strange worlds populated by strange beasts (and these beasts could have used a bit more imagination IMO: Godzillas, gryphons, plant matter that is animal in nature, and animal matter that is plant…you get the idea), nefarious robots, mentally conditioned soldiers, evil scientists, all with a backdrop of war that would make Tolstoy proud. You see, as humans it is our right (No, DUTY!) to terraform any world that could sustain a human presence. But after doing this for countless millennia, humans have seemed to forgotten that before terraforming occurred on said planet, there was life already present. But if humans played by the moral rules of this game, then there really would be no need for this book. Suffice to say, humans are really the Bad Guy in this novel; and while Aliens don’t exactly play the Man in White, they do have an innocence attached to them.
But there is more to the story. The real issue here is war. For a novel that is 433 pages long, it is not until the last 30 or so pages that the author really says what he wants to say. IMO he is critiquing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the prospective of allied forces but not necessarily through US eyes. The author hails from England, so his mockery of “our” wars is justified in the sense that he is looking from the outside in. But what I don’t get with this novel is: If what you wanted to say is that war is bad, why the fuck did it take 433 pages to do so? Let me elaborate. Red Claw is not a good novel. To be more precise, it’s hokey as all hell. The writing isn’t impressive. The characters are cardboard cutouts. Even the action sequences (which could have been mind-blowing-ly original) are riddled with clichés and repetition. And too boot, the author’s preoccupation with the word fuck becomes distracting, bordering on juvenile…
But…here I am again looking the fool...I fucking LOVED this book. Every chapter had me guessing just what idiotic thing a character was going to do or what the author had in store for them. One thing is for certain, this was not a boring book. Implausible: yes. Hard to suspend belief: most of the time. Entertaining: I will buy the other two books this guy has written only to say I have read the Holy Trinity of Stupid.
Final thought: War is bad. But writing a meandering tale that is superficially cloaked as an ecological tale about the ramifications of humans on planet earth and tossing in a ridiculous revenge tale sandwiched between love stories is utterly, hopelessly, tirelessly, beguilingly, priceless.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
The novel itself is the epitome of a space opera. There are dozens of characters (some defined, some only given rudimentary outlines), strange worlds populated by strange beasts (and these beasts could have used a bit more imagination IMO: Godzillas, gryphons, plant matter that is animal in nature, and animal matter that is plant…you get the idea), nefarious robots, mentally conditioned soldiers, evil scientists, all with a backdrop of war that would make Tolstoy proud. You see, as humans it is our right (No, DUTY!) to terraform any world that could sustain a human presence. But after doing this for countless millennia, humans have seemed to forgotten that before terraforming occurred on said planet, there was life already present. But if humans played by the moral rules of this game, then there really would be no need for this book. Suffice to say, humans are really the Bad Guy in this novel; and while Aliens don’t exactly play the Man in White, they do have an innocence attached to them.
But there is more to the story. The real issue here is war. For a novel that is 433 pages long, it is not until the last 30 or so pages that the author really says what he wants to say. IMO he is critiquing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the prospective of allied forces but not necessarily through US eyes. The author hails from England, so his mockery of “our” wars is justified in the sense that he is looking from the outside in. But what I don’t get with this novel is: If what you wanted to say is that war is bad, why the fuck did it take 433 pages to do so? Let me elaborate. Red Claw is not a good novel. To be more precise, it’s hokey as all hell. The writing isn’t impressive. The characters are cardboard cutouts. Even the action sequences (which could have been mind-blowing-ly original) are riddled with clichés and repetition. And too boot, the author’s preoccupation with the word fuck becomes distracting, bordering on juvenile…
But…here I am again looking the fool...I fucking LOVED this book. Every chapter had me guessing just what idiotic thing a character was going to do or what the author had in store for them. One thing is for certain, this was not a boring book. Implausible: yes. Hard to suspend belief: most of the time. Entertaining: I will buy the other two books this guy has written only to say I have read the Holy Trinity of Stupid.
Final thought: War is bad. But writing a meandering tale that is superficially cloaked as an ecological tale about the ramifications of humans on planet earth and tossing in a ridiculous revenge tale sandwiched between love stories is utterly, hopelessly, tirelessly, beguilingly, priceless.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
May 18, 2010
Red Claw by Philip Palmer- This is Philip Palmer's second book, his first being Debatable Space. This is a science fiction based story.
Red Claw is about a colony of soldiers and scientists that are to categorize all the species of a planet, in this case, the planet called New Amazon. After the categorization, the team is to terraform the planet, which would destroy all life in order for the planet to become more "Earth-like." During a routine exploration, a small team comes across a Godzilla creature, which they quickly subdue and capture for examination. During the examination, the robot's, called DR's, within the colony start to turn on their human masters, slaughtering all but a handful. These handful are then forced to escape and hopefully, with the help of a famous scientist, survive. However, during their travel to a safe-house the group is quickly whittled down by the creatures and the harsh environment of New Amazon. Upon reaching the safe-house, they celebrate, which turns into yet another massacre. Now out of the handful that remained from the first attack, only about a dozen survive. Forced to flee, the survivors find out that someone isn't who he seems and the reason behind the robots going haywire links with the false person. It's up to the team to pull together and defeat the robots and their leader and to conquer the New Amazonian jungle.
Negatives:
1) Explanations/ Descriptions. Within the first few pages you are mercilessly thrust into a world were you have no idea what is happening at all, and I mean at all. There is no real background on what is going on, what these alien species are, what these "DR's" are, nothing. It makes the story almost unbearable to read. I just found it frustrating and just utterly pointless to list off all these species, only to mention them maybe once or twice throughout the story. Then you have the attempted, half-hearted explanations and descriptions of things. For example, a lot of the creatures have simple names, such as Two-Tails. That's really all the description the reader really gets. Of course, here and there you get a little tidbit of information (if you're lucky) about this or that. A little more effort would have gone a long way in this department.
2) Short, Pointless Scenes. There were times when you get a scene that doesn't add to a character or the plot. For example, in the first chapter, you get a scene in which one character is just moving his hands to lower these "Dravens" (which I still have no idea what they are). It doesn't set up anything, or add to anything, seeing as the previous two scenes pretty much summed up what just happened. Were these scenes really necessary? No. I really think that it would have benefited if they were totally removed and some better descriptions took their places.
3) Profanity. Now I don't have any problem with cursing at all. But this book is just too much. And needless to say, it's pointless. Honestly, do I need to read the f-word almost every few sentences? Profanity does have a purpose, to emphasize a point. Yet when I read this book, I honestly felt like I was reading something a middle schooler, who just discovered cursing, would write. It bothered me like nothing else. And it got old fast. Seriously, if you're going to use the f-word, at least use it to stress a situation and not in everyday language. It's just juvenile in the usage.
4) Structure. It was horrible, confusing, and caused everything to seem pointless. It just jumps around WAY too much. What I mean is that the scenes don't feel finished. They feel rushed and seemed to be cut off to soon and then you are immediately into the next scene. Nothing feels finished. Then you have the problem with jumping into someone else's viewpoint only to see them die within a sentence. Which leads me into my next point...
5) Pointless Deaths/ Characters. This is hard to really explain without talking about the characters. To put it simply, why introduce someone just to have them killed within the next few paragraphs? This happened to probably half the characters within the story. Because of that, you never really have a good chance to have a relationship or start to think of so-and-so as interesting. For example, one of the neatest ideas presented were these humanoid species called the Noirs. Not much information was given about them (look at negative point 1), yet they were fascinating. But what happens? All but two die. Oh only two left, eh? Lets just make that one. Now let's forget about the remaining Noir and suddenly remember that, oh shoot, we still have the last Noir alive, better kill him off. Seriously, that happens. Another example is early in the story you are suddenly introduced to this character (I'm sorry, I don't remember her name or where it is). She seems interesting at first and all of a sudden, her rover goes down, she's injured. Her companion lives her to die. Is it necessary to introduce a character, only to kill her within a few pages? No, it's annoying and stupid. But, there are times when it is okay to do this, such as enforcing something. But does that happen in either of the cases I mentioned? No, they are utterly pointless deaths. You never get to connect with any of these characters because you never know who is next to bit the bullet.
Positives:
1) Humor. I have to give the story something, it was pretty funny at times. This is mostly due to the journal entries by Hugo, a scientist. Then some of the dialogue was humorous. For example the Beebe's conversations. The Beebe's are a husband and wife that talk to each other ironically and I imagine very quickly. I just found it funny.
2) Three Characters. There were three interesting characters. The first is Professor Helms. I can't really say why he was interesting, else I give away the story. But then again, I will not recommend anyone reading this so, basically Helms isn't who he says he is. He's the main reason the robots went berserk and he is surprisingly noble, in a way. The second is the man I mentioned above, Hugo. Mostly because of his humor. The last interesting character is Ben. The reason is that he is a psychopath.
Side Note:
1) Noirs. I mentioned how I thought they were interesting above. Yet, I don't remember anything about them. Why is this? Because they were stupidly glanced over. Honestly, I'd like to read more about them.
2) Cover Art. I really like it. The two toy spacemen standing over those dead bugs are just funny. It really catches my eye for some reason.
Overall: 1/5
Final Thoughts:
Okay, so you are asking why am I so critical about this story? I HATED it. It started off bad, the middle section was painful, and the ending was slightly better, but still horrible. Why? It's just confusing, petty, stupid, pointless, and juvenile. Heck, I've read horrible, disgusting fan fiction that Red Claw wished it could be. This really felt like a chore to read though. It would have helped greatly if there were more descriptions or less pointless scenes.
Red Claw is about a colony of soldiers and scientists that are to categorize all the species of a planet, in this case, the planet called New Amazon. After the categorization, the team is to terraform the planet, which would destroy all life in order for the planet to become more "Earth-like." During a routine exploration, a small team comes across a Godzilla creature, which they quickly subdue and capture for examination. During the examination, the robot's, called DR's, within the colony start to turn on their human masters, slaughtering all but a handful. These handful are then forced to escape and hopefully, with the help of a famous scientist, survive. However, during their travel to a safe-house the group is quickly whittled down by the creatures and the harsh environment of New Amazon. Upon reaching the safe-house, they celebrate, which turns into yet another massacre. Now out of the handful that remained from the first attack, only about a dozen survive. Forced to flee, the survivors find out that someone isn't who he seems and the reason behind the robots going haywire links with the false person. It's up to the team to pull together and defeat the robots and their leader and to conquer the New Amazonian jungle.
Negatives:
1) Explanations/ Descriptions. Within the first few pages you are mercilessly thrust into a world were you have no idea what is happening at all, and I mean at all. There is no real background on what is going on, what these alien species are, what these "DR's" are, nothing. It makes the story almost unbearable to read. I just found it frustrating and just utterly pointless to list off all these species, only to mention them maybe once or twice throughout the story. Then you have the attempted, half-hearted explanations and descriptions of things. For example, a lot of the creatures have simple names, such as Two-Tails. That's really all the description the reader really gets. Of course, here and there you get a little tidbit of information (if you're lucky) about this or that. A little more effort would have gone a long way in this department.
2) Short, Pointless Scenes. There were times when you get a scene that doesn't add to a character or the plot. For example, in the first chapter, you get a scene in which one character is just moving his hands to lower these "Dravens" (which I still have no idea what they are). It doesn't set up anything, or add to anything, seeing as the previous two scenes pretty much summed up what just happened. Were these scenes really necessary? No. I really think that it would have benefited if they were totally removed and some better descriptions took their places.
3) Profanity. Now I don't have any problem with cursing at all. But this book is just too much. And needless to say, it's pointless. Honestly, do I need to read the f-word almost every few sentences? Profanity does have a purpose, to emphasize a point. Yet when I read this book, I honestly felt like I was reading something a middle schooler, who just discovered cursing, would write. It bothered me like nothing else. And it got old fast. Seriously, if you're going to use the f-word, at least use it to stress a situation and not in everyday language. It's just juvenile in the usage.
4) Structure. It was horrible, confusing, and caused everything to seem pointless. It just jumps around WAY too much. What I mean is that the scenes don't feel finished. They feel rushed and seemed to be cut off to soon and then you are immediately into the next scene. Nothing feels finished. Then you have the problem with jumping into someone else's viewpoint only to see them die within a sentence. Which leads me into my next point...
5) Pointless Deaths/ Characters. This is hard to really explain without talking about the characters. To put it simply, why introduce someone just to have them killed within the next few paragraphs? This happened to probably half the characters within the story. Because of that, you never really have a good chance to have a relationship or start to think of so-and-so as interesting. For example, one of the neatest ideas presented were these humanoid species called the Noirs. Not much information was given about them (look at negative point 1), yet they were fascinating. But what happens? All but two die. Oh only two left, eh? Lets just make that one. Now let's forget about the remaining Noir and suddenly remember that, oh shoot, we still have the last Noir alive, better kill him off. Seriously, that happens. Another example is early in the story you are suddenly introduced to this character (I'm sorry, I don't remember her name or where it is). She seems interesting at first and all of a sudden, her rover goes down, she's injured. Her companion lives her to die. Is it necessary to introduce a character, only to kill her within a few pages? No, it's annoying and stupid. But, there are times when it is okay to do this, such as enforcing something. But does that happen in either of the cases I mentioned? No, they are utterly pointless deaths. You never get to connect with any of these characters because you never know who is next to bit the bullet.
Positives:
1) Humor. I have to give the story something, it was pretty funny at times. This is mostly due to the journal entries by Hugo, a scientist. Then some of the dialogue was humorous. For example the Beebe's conversations. The Beebe's are a husband and wife that talk to each other ironically and I imagine very quickly. I just found it funny.
2) Three Characters. There were three interesting characters. The first is Professor Helms. I can't really say why he was interesting, else I give away the story. But then again, I will not recommend anyone reading this so, basically Helms isn't who he says he is. He's the main reason the robots went berserk and he is surprisingly noble, in a way. The second is the man I mentioned above, Hugo. Mostly because of his humor. The last interesting character is Ben. The reason is that he is a psychopath.
Side Note:
1) Noirs. I mentioned how I thought they were interesting above. Yet, I don't remember anything about them. Why is this? Because they were stupidly glanced over. Honestly, I'd like to read more about them.
2) Cover Art. I really like it. The two toy spacemen standing over those dead bugs are just funny. It really catches my eye for some reason.
Overall: 1/5
Final Thoughts:
Okay, so you are asking why am I so critical about this story? I HATED it. It started off bad, the middle section was painful, and the ending was slightly better, but still horrible. Why? It's just confusing, petty, stupid, pointless, and juvenile. Heck, I've read horrible, disgusting fan fiction that Red Claw wished it could be. This really felt like a chore to read though. It would have helped greatly if there were more descriptions or less pointless scenes.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2010
Short review: Just about everything I love about SF crammed into a fast-paced, gripping, and at times hilariously nasty adventure.
Slightly longer review that's still short as I am, myself, short on time: Red Claw is the best SF I've read in a very long time--smart, sharp, topical, engaging, and, above all, a helluva lot of fun. Right out of the gate Palmer subverts the beguilingly simple premise of scientists and soldiers fighting for survival on a hostile alien world with a crackling sense of dark humor, and as the plot unfolds and the reader is drawn into the deadly New Amazon jungle it becomes readily apparent that Palmer is doing something more than a soft Sci-Fi send-up. Any quibbles I had were few and far between as I tore through in a few late night reading sessions.
One of the impressive feats Palmer pulls off is juggling his large cast of characters, many of whom are devoured, crushed, melted, cut in half, trampled, strangled, and worse--through deft writing the reader gets the feeling that every single character is expendable to Palmer, though certainly not to the rapidly dwindling cast or the slowly unfolding plot. What is so remarkable about this is that even in the last few chapters the reader is never allowed to be assured of any single character's safety, and yet I came to care very deeply for a few of the characters who I knew Palmer would brutally kill off without hesitation or fanfare. This makes for tense, compelling reading, and is no easy trick.
Another wonderful element to the novel is that it takes a conservationist stance while depicting natural forces as almost uniformly disgusting, cruel, and highly dangerous--you know, like nature can be? New Amazon is one of the single deadliest alien worlds I've ever come across, a jungle teeming with murderous flora and fauna--and quite a few in-betweens or neithers--that pisses down literal acid raid, and yet through the eyes of the scientists we come to regard the planet as being worth saving from the fate of so many inhospitable alien worlds--terraforming. The message that even the most hostile, terrible places and creatures deserve preservation is one far too often overlooked by simplistic, heavy-handed SF where the big bad military/corporation/etc. is trying to destroy a beautiful, peaceful world--the true spirit of ecological conservation is to spare the acid-drenched shitholes teeming with deadly monsters as well as the lovely, quiet beaches and serene, safe woodlands.
If you share my sense of humor you'll doubtless find Red Claw to be pretty damn hilarious at points as well, and so you've got adventure, romance (after a fashion), horror, social issues, action, depth, and humor to carry you through. And just a huge array of monsters, be they alien, human, in-between, or neither. Highly recommended.
Slightly longer review that's still short as I am, myself, short on time: Red Claw is the best SF I've read in a very long time--smart, sharp, topical, engaging, and, above all, a helluva lot of fun. Right out of the gate Palmer subverts the beguilingly simple premise of scientists and soldiers fighting for survival on a hostile alien world with a crackling sense of dark humor, and as the plot unfolds and the reader is drawn into the deadly New Amazon jungle it becomes readily apparent that Palmer is doing something more than a soft Sci-Fi send-up. Any quibbles I had were few and far between as I tore through in a few late night reading sessions.
One of the impressive feats Palmer pulls off is juggling his large cast of characters, many of whom are devoured, crushed, melted, cut in half, trampled, strangled, and worse--through deft writing the reader gets the feeling that every single character is expendable to Palmer, though certainly not to the rapidly dwindling cast or the slowly unfolding plot. What is so remarkable about this is that even in the last few chapters the reader is never allowed to be assured of any single character's safety, and yet I came to care very deeply for a few of the characters who I knew Palmer would brutally kill off without hesitation or fanfare. This makes for tense, compelling reading, and is no easy trick.
Another wonderful element to the novel is that it takes a conservationist stance while depicting natural forces as almost uniformly disgusting, cruel, and highly dangerous--you know, like nature can be? New Amazon is one of the single deadliest alien worlds I've ever come across, a jungle teeming with murderous flora and fauna--and quite a few in-betweens or neithers--that pisses down literal acid raid, and yet through the eyes of the scientists we come to regard the planet as being worth saving from the fate of so many inhospitable alien worlds--terraforming. The message that even the most hostile, terrible places and creatures deserve preservation is one far too often overlooked by simplistic, heavy-handed SF where the big bad military/corporation/etc. is trying to destroy a beautiful, peaceful world--the true spirit of ecological conservation is to spare the acid-drenched shitholes teeming with deadly monsters as well as the lovely, quiet beaches and serene, safe woodlands.
If you share my sense of humor you'll doubtless find Red Claw to be pretty damn hilarious at points as well, and so you've got adventure, romance (after a fashion), horror, social issues, action, depth, and humor to carry you through. And just a huge array of monsters, be they alien, human, in-between, or neither. Highly recommended.
July 23, 2014
A standalone "expedition, planet with monsters, rogue soldiers and the like" novel, it is a step back from the panache and ambition of the author's debut Debatable Spaces; good but nothing special since I read way too many "Planet with monsters" books to be impressed and the literary bent of the novel leads sometimes to an unwieldy mix;
David Drake's Redliners to which Red Claw has some similarities (though Drake's is a militaristic take, while here, well gotta read it to see the scorn and fun P. Palmer pours at least on some soldiers) was better in a sense since it had a clear theme, while this one ambles from this to that; great scenes and lots of emotion and suspense, but the total result is less then the sum of its parts, though it is a novel that will keep you absorbed end to end and I would recommend it without qualms - if you are a newbie to "planet with weird, deadly creatures" sub-genre, this one is perfect for you, though as mentioned veterans of the sub-genre saw it all earlier..
Overall, good but Debatable Spaces had ambition and panache which excused its flaws imho, while this one lacks both, so it may be technically better but it's also much more forgettable...
David Drake's Redliners to which Red Claw has some similarities (though Drake's is a militaristic take, while here, well gotta read it to see the scorn and fun P. Palmer pours at least on some soldiers) was better in a sense since it had a clear theme, while this one ambles from this to that; great scenes and lots of emotion and suspense, but the total result is less then the sum of its parts, though it is a novel that will keep you absorbed end to end and I would recommend it without qualms - if you are a newbie to "planet with weird, deadly creatures" sub-genre, this one is perfect for you, though as mentioned veterans of the sub-genre saw it all earlier..
Overall, good but Debatable Spaces had ambition and panache which excused its flaws imho, while this one lacks both, so it may be technically better but it's also much more forgettable...
August 18, 2014
..a rip-roaring monster of a book that I only picked up because it caught my eye as I was leaving a library, mostly for its awful cover and you know when you pick up a book intending just to turn to a randam place and read a few lines and see how you feel about it, well I did that and it grabbed me so hard that I stood there reading the first 67 pages and was late home for dinner and everything, but the point is that its an immediate book in that it sucks you in and never lets you out or down right through to the last page, which is just as good as the first and do you see how I'm writing here without a pause, well that's how the book is and if you want to know what it's all about you can read the synopsis and if you want a good entertaining read, you should look no further, and if you want literature, well maybe you should try Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, but not now.. FIRST READ THIS!
August 10, 2018
Strong echoes of J.Scalzi with snarky characters and witty banter. Equal, if not better than N.Asher with seriously freaky flora and fauna. Some hints of old school SF ala J.Haldeman's body armor and A.C.Clark's space elevator. The first half was a SF thrill ride worthy of 4.5 stars. However, the second half was demoted to 3.5 stars for cringe inducing silly-ass Fantasy. I will be checking out the author's follow-on VERSION 43.
June 14, 2015
After reading the synopsis I was really looking forward to immersing myself in this book. Sadly it didn't quite deliver. It did keep my attention and some of the passages were exciting, but the characterisation was underdeveloped for my taste and there were several points that as a woman, hit a nerve.
There are many personalities that we are introduced to and for me there were too many. The main two are Sorcha, a focused, driven and if somewhat brainwashed soldier whose sole purpose is to serve and then die a 'glorious death' (meaning to die in battle). Professor Helms, a genius whose actions contradict, until we are given answers halfway through the book, and who I also become to like, even though the ending for this character is a little cliched. There are many other characters who play a large part in the story and there's a lot of dialogue between them, but there is not enough inner reflection. With the exception of Dr Hugo Daal, who is exceedingly irritating in my opinion, I didn't really get to know any of the characters and to completely immerse myself in a novel I have to know the characters and their thoughts.
There's a lot of double-dealing, lies, secrets and they are all revealed by the end of the book, which was rather satisfying. I'm not one for ambiguity in a stand alone novel. There are deaths of certain main characters, which I'm sure should have caused a gasp or two when they were killed, but because I didn't really get to know the characters, the shock was never felt. To be honest I didn't really care.
The most disappointing aspect to this novel is that the typical stereotypes are all still here. Even though, as a species, we are now able to travel to distant planets and completely take over with apparent ease. Even though we are now able to live for hundreds of years. Even though we have moved on so much in so many ways, women are still sexual objects treated like inferior beings.
Women soldiers are fondled, groped, sexually abused and raped (as most of the sexual encounters that were hinted at were against the woman's wishes). This is not what I enjoy reading about. Even Sorcha, an intelligent, high ranking soldier, had to succumb and fall for a guy, (professor Helms), and act like a love sick school girl. She hated him, then loved him, then hated him again. And although he was described as a not very attractive man or particularly appealing physically, somehow he was just so amazing in bed then she managed to organism five times in a row! Hmmm... Really?
Apart from the very obvious sexism, this book did have some good qualities. Palmer's world-building is pretty detailed, although at times complex. The description of the planet and it's inhabitants are excellent. I enjoyed reading about the intelligence of other life-forms, but then saddened to think that we as human being could just wipe out an entire planet for our own uses. Then again, a species will always fight to survive, so I suppose if we had nowhere else to go and our own species depended on that particular planet to live, maybe I could see us performing such a terrible act.
Verdict:
Red Claw is an interesting read and at times exciting. It did keep my attention, but overall there were just too many points that were of the negative kind and kept me from really enjoying it. And lastly, I didn't like the cover either.
I actually gave this 5/10 on my blog but Goodreads still doesn't offer half stars.
There are many personalities that we are introduced to and for me there were too many. The main two are Sorcha, a focused, driven and if somewhat brainwashed soldier whose sole purpose is to serve and then die a 'glorious death' (meaning to die in battle). Professor Helms, a genius whose actions contradict, until we are given answers halfway through the book, and who I also become to like, even though the ending for this character is a little cliched. There are many other characters who play a large part in the story and there's a lot of dialogue between them, but there is not enough inner reflection. With the exception of Dr Hugo Daal, who is exceedingly irritating in my opinion, I didn't really get to know any of the characters and to completely immerse myself in a novel I have to know the characters and their thoughts.
There's a lot of double-dealing, lies, secrets and they are all revealed by the end of the book, which was rather satisfying. I'm not one for ambiguity in a stand alone novel. There are deaths of certain main characters, which I'm sure should have caused a gasp or two when they were killed, but because I didn't really get to know the characters, the shock was never felt. To be honest I didn't really care.
The most disappointing aspect to this novel is that the typical stereotypes are all still here. Even though, as a species, we are now able to travel to distant planets and completely take over with apparent ease. Even though we are now able to live for hundreds of years. Even though we have moved on so much in so many ways, women are still sexual objects treated like inferior beings.
Women soldiers are fondled, groped, sexually abused and raped (as most of the sexual encounters that were hinted at were against the woman's wishes). This is not what I enjoy reading about. Even Sorcha, an intelligent, high ranking soldier, had to succumb and fall for a guy, (professor Helms), and act like a love sick school girl. She hated him, then loved him, then hated him again. And although he was described as a not very attractive man or particularly appealing physically, somehow he was just so amazing in bed then she managed to organism five times in a row! Hmmm... Really?
Apart from the very obvious sexism, this book did have some good qualities. Palmer's world-building is pretty detailed, although at times complex. The description of the planet and it's inhabitants are excellent. I enjoyed reading about the intelligence of other life-forms, but then saddened to think that we as human being could just wipe out an entire planet for our own uses. Then again, a species will always fight to survive, so I suppose if we had nowhere else to go and our own species depended on that particular planet to live, maybe I could see us performing such a terrible act.
Verdict:
Red Claw is an interesting read and at times exciting. It did keep my attention, but overall there were just too many points that were of the negative kind and kept me from really enjoying it. And lastly, I didn't like the cover either.
I actually gave this 5/10 on my blog but Goodreads still doesn't offer half stars.
October 20, 2013
There was just so much wrong with this book that I not only couldn't finish it, I barely got started.
First, the science is horrible. As I like to say, I'm not a biologist, I only play one on the Internet, but I've been working with Taxonomists for over a decade, and I just can't believe that a new discovery on an alien planet would be described as:
Kingdom: Plantae or Animalia, maybe
Phylum: Spermatophyta???
Class: Don't know
Order: Can't tell
Family: Have no notion whatsoever
Genus: Fragoarbor
Species: Fragoarbor Type A
So let's start at the bottom. Species would never be Fragoarbor Type A: it's fragoarbor (no capital), and if they found a "Type B", it would have a different species name—or else both would be fragoarbor and they'd have subspecies names. Class/Order/Family would never be "unknown". They'd be assigned, and then taxonomists would argue for decades over whether the original assignments were valid. The Kingdom Plantae doesn't actually have phyla, it has Subkingdoms and Divisions, but that's pretty irrelevant as life found on other worlds would be assigned to completely different Kingdoms, unless it was proved that somehow they really were related to our own lifeforms.
I don't expect every author to be a scientific genius, but it's a matter of a few minutes to find this stuff out.
Then there's the language:
"…drenched, as sheets of humidity splashed upwards from the undergrowth…" I'm sorry, humidity doesn't come in sheets.
and
"So Tonii repented his rage,…" That was appropriate in the King James Bible, but seems pretty odd in Science Fiction.
This expedition has lost 13 soldiers in two years to phenomenally dangerous lifeforms, but the scientists still treat them (that is, the lifeforms and the soldiers) practically with contempt. There's simply nothing believable about this story.
The cover blurb says "Philip Palmer turns science fiction on its head in this breathtaking thrill ride through alien jungles filled with terrifying monsters and killer robots." I'm not sure how he can turn SF on its head with something that's been done so many times before (the one's I've read most recently Weber & Ringo's March Upcountry and Redliners by David Drake), but if you really want such a breathtaking thrill ride, read Redliners.
First, the science is horrible. As I like to say, I'm not a biologist, I only play one on the Internet, but I've been working with Taxonomists for over a decade, and I just can't believe that a new discovery on an alien planet would be described as:
Kingdom: Plantae or Animalia, maybe
Phylum: Spermatophyta???
Class: Don't know
Order: Can't tell
Family: Have no notion whatsoever
Genus: Fragoarbor
Species: Fragoarbor Type A
So let's start at the bottom. Species would never be Fragoarbor Type A: it's fragoarbor (no capital), and if they found a "Type B", it would have a different species name—or else both would be fragoarbor and they'd have subspecies names. Class/Order/Family would never be "unknown". They'd be assigned, and then taxonomists would argue for decades over whether the original assignments were valid. The Kingdom Plantae doesn't actually have phyla, it has Subkingdoms and Divisions, but that's pretty irrelevant as life found on other worlds would be assigned to completely different Kingdoms, unless it was proved that somehow they really were related to our own lifeforms.
I don't expect every author to be a scientific genius, but it's a matter of a few minutes to find this stuff out.
Then there's the language:
"…drenched, as sheets of humidity splashed upwards from the undergrowth…" I'm sorry, humidity doesn't come in sheets.
and
"So Tonii repented his rage,…" That was appropriate in the King James Bible, but seems pretty odd in Science Fiction.
This expedition has lost 13 soldiers in two years to phenomenally dangerous lifeforms, but the scientists still treat them (that is, the lifeforms and the soldiers) practically with contempt. There's simply nothing believable about this story.
The cover blurb says "Philip Palmer turns science fiction on its head in this breathtaking thrill ride through alien jungles filled with terrifying monsters and killer robots." I'm not sure how he can turn SF on its head with something that's been done so many times before (the one's I've read most recently Weber & Ringo's March Upcountry and Redliners by David Drake), but if you really want such a breathtaking thrill ride, read Redliners.
March 16, 2017
What I liked:
Robots. Killer robots. Future tech. This makes me happy.
The funny dialogue - it's like what people are actually saying to each other when you strip away all the fluff. I had a few little laughs at it.
It's fast paced, and it stayed interesting. Just as I started to get bored something happened and everything was thrown up in the air.
I also found it easy to read, in fact, a couple of times I lost track of time reading it on my lunch break and had to rush back to work.
No one is safe, basically, all characters are fair game for a gruesome death scene.
The cover.
What I didn't like
The humour - more often than not it is was too immature to be funny.
The science and technology was so far-fetched that I found it distracting. I kept stopping to think "but no, that's impossible". I get that it's supposed to be daft but it broke my reading flow.
Far too much marvelling going on, we had people marvelling at marvellous things every other page sometimes.
Heavy handed criticism of war, soldiers, and the way the human race destroys other life for our own gain. It's not a subtle book, and I felt like it was banging me over the head with it.
Robots. Killer robots. Future tech. This makes me happy.
The funny dialogue - it's like what people are actually saying to each other when you strip away all the fluff. I had a few little laughs at it.
It's fast paced, and it stayed interesting. Just as I started to get bored something happened and everything was thrown up in the air.
I also found it easy to read, in fact, a couple of times I lost track of time reading it on my lunch break and had to rush back to work.
No one is safe, basically, all characters are fair game for a gruesome death scene.
The cover.
What I didn't like
The humour - more often than not it is was too immature to be funny.
The science and technology was so far-fetched that I found it distracting. I kept stopping to think "but no, that's impossible". I get that it's supposed to be daft but it broke my reading flow.
Far too much marvelling going on, we had people marvelling at marvellous things every other page sometimes.
Heavy handed criticism of war, soldiers, and the way the human race destroys other life for our own gain. It's not a subtle book, and I felt like it was banging me over the head with it.
July 6, 2012
Mindless pulpy fun, as with the previous books of Palmer's I've read. Definitely not my favourite; although the slow evolution of Hugo Baal and the character of Tonii were interesting, and the pace is as you'd expect from Palmer's work (if you've read any, anyway), and there are a lot of fun ideas... So many of the characters are total pricks, there's so much joyous, senseless killing, and though there's an preservation-of-alien-worlds excuse going on for some characters, that was never anyone's primary motive.
Which is pretty par for the course for Palmer's characters, I think, but it just didn't sit well with me this time. Maybe because they pretended to have altruistic motives.
Which is pretty par for the course for Palmer's characters, I think, but it just didn't sit well with me this time. Maybe because they pretended to have altruistic motives.
December 26, 2009
What an enormous waste of time this book was. I won't go into spoilers, for those who are still determined to read it, but the ending serves as a giant "fuck you" to anyone dumb enough to drag themselves all the way through it...like me.
July 25, 2022
A group of scientists are studying the taxonomy of species on an alien planet. Their job is to record every life form and select a few to be kept in zoos, then the rest will be vaporized when the planet is terraformed. The planet itself is a hellscape. Everything there is deadly and aggressive. The rain is acid, the air unbreathable, the grass razor sharp, trees explode, birds shoot toxins, and everything from microbes to Godzilla is trying to kill everything else. And I mean actual Godzilla, though in size it's more of a Godzookie. I don't remember them actually naming the planet, so let's call it Australia.
The scientists are busy classifying and getting killed by the local flora and fauna when a real problem arises. The AI that controls all aspects of life on their colony from an orbital ship goes insane and tries to kill everyone. They escape into the jungle where they are attacked by everything that moves or doesn't while being pursued by killer robots. Since they are residents of Debatable Space that means that every single one of them is severely emotionally disturbed at the best of times, to the point that a few of them are actually homicidally insane. The planet starts killing scientists, the AI starts killing scientists, then scientists start killing each other. That's the plot.
One guy has an escape plan, one guy is a psychopath, one guy is a galactic traitor, one guy is a head in a box. Like in his previous book Palmer just keeps throwing his characters into one peril after another. There's chaos and death, then a moment of apparent calm and safety, which ends suddenly with chaos and death, and the cycle continues. A few of the characters are somewhat likeable, all of them are unbalanced, and very often they die suddenly. The amount of casual weaponry is ridiculous. The parkland is mined, security cameras have lasers, offices have automatic plasma guns. Soldiers carry explosives that can punch a hole in the planet's crust, and if things get really bad there's always the anti-matter bombs.
It's a horror movie in the killer jungle with death robots and a mad scientist ready to blow up the planet. Plus some of the cast are also secret killers, but who and how many? Who will be the final girl? It's a fun book, Palmer does try to flesh it out with a backstory and some more deep psychology of the characters, but it's best not to worry too much about that because they usually get killed off pretty soon anyway.
The scientists are busy classifying and getting killed by the local flora and fauna when a real problem arises. The AI that controls all aspects of life on their colony from an orbital ship goes insane and tries to kill everyone. They escape into the jungle where they are attacked by everything that moves or doesn't while being pursued by killer robots. Since they are residents of Debatable Space that means that every single one of them is severely emotionally disturbed at the best of times, to the point that a few of them are actually homicidally insane. The planet starts killing scientists, the AI starts killing scientists, then scientists start killing each other. That's the plot.
One guy has an escape plan, one guy is a psychopath, one guy is a galactic traitor, one guy is a head in a box. Like in his previous book Palmer just keeps throwing his characters into one peril after another. There's chaos and death, then a moment of apparent calm and safety, which ends suddenly with chaos and death, and the cycle continues. A few of the characters are somewhat likeable, all of them are unbalanced, and very often they die suddenly. The amount of casual weaponry is ridiculous. The parkland is mined, security cameras have lasers, offices have automatic plasma guns. Soldiers carry explosives that can punch a hole in the planet's crust, and if things get really bad there's always the anti-matter bombs.
It's a horror movie in the killer jungle with death robots and a mad scientist ready to blow up the planet. Plus some of the cast are also secret killers, but who and how many? Who will be the final girl? It's a fun book, Palmer does try to flesh it out with a backstory and some more deep psychology of the characters, but it's best not to worry too much about that because they usually get killed off pretty soon anyway.
October 31, 2017
It took me a while to finish this book. I got it when I was 13 maybe, and it sat on my self for years. I finally got around to it, and wasn't impressed. Palmer's book is sloppy, it seems to lack planning, and basic narrative structure. Ebbs and flows in the plot seem random, and very little emotion is derived from the action and drama in the story. Character motives are off, and change frequently.
It seems like Palmer did not plan very well, and just wrote off hand. Points are interesting, the ecosystem he imagines on the Planet of New Amazon is gross and cool and weird; and proves to be some of the most notable parts of the story. At times, it feels goofy though, as so many of its creatures are named after earthly fantasy creatures, Gryffons, Basiliks, Godzillas, et cetera. These nicknames just make the book feel sillier, as these names evoke images of the traditional characters from their respective lore, NOT Palmer's universe.
The plot would probably fit a sarcastic, gory video game, but as a novel, it just made me shake my head at times. This was not a very good book, but at times it managed to entertain me.
It seems like Palmer did not plan very well, and just wrote off hand. Points are interesting, the ecosystem he imagines on the Planet of New Amazon is gross and cool and weird; and proves to be some of the most notable parts of the story. At times, it feels goofy though, as so many of its creatures are named after earthly fantasy creatures, Gryffons, Basiliks, Godzillas, et cetera. These nicknames just make the book feel sillier, as these names evoke images of the traditional characters from their respective lore, NOT Palmer's universe.
The plot would probably fit a sarcastic, gory video game, but as a novel, it just made me shake my head at times. This was not a very good book, but at times it managed to entertain me.
April 24, 2020
A truly harrowing xenobiological potboiler! A buckwild space marine jungle tour brimming with danger and death! A surprisingly slick sizzler of sci-fi survival, I flew through these pages like a gryphon. Once Palmer’s intriguing shenanigans grab ahold of you, they don’t let go ‘till the last page.
Brutal, bold, and full of a philosophical poignance that I did not see coming! Palmer examines the moral dilemmas of terraforming, space exploration, and the very practice of taxonomy. I forgive the sometimes muddled prose and unclear world-building, for Palmer delivers an overall enjoyable sci-fi yarn that is deeply thought-out and felt. What are the consequences of pursuing all knowledge? Of late-late-stage global (and intergalactic) capitalism? Of the military-industrial complex? Of being alive? These questions are explored within the frame of satirical science fictional adventure to great effect, and I came out the other side of the wind tunnel deeply moved.
Brutal, bold, and full of a philosophical poignance that I did not see coming! Palmer examines the moral dilemmas of terraforming, space exploration, and the very practice of taxonomy. I forgive the sometimes muddled prose and unclear world-building, for Palmer delivers an overall enjoyable sci-fi yarn that is deeply thought-out and felt. What are the consequences of pursuing all knowledge? Of late-late-stage global (and intergalactic) capitalism? Of the military-industrial complex? Of being alive? These questions are explored within the frame of satirical science fictional adventure to great effect, and I came out the other side of the wind tunnel deeply moved.
May 7, 2020
Jesus.
The first few pages were more like a recipe recitals. Never though I'll read so many bullet points in a non cooking book.
One of the characters was killed at the very first chapter (it is the second day in the book).
Wasn't really attached to him as we only were introduced about 3 minutes ago. So, off he goes.
Some of the monster, creatures, whatever appear only by name. No description of them.
Was skipping quite a bit, and it does not seem be missing much in terms of the story though.
The first few pages were more like a recipe recitals. Never though I'll read so many bullet points in a non cooking book.
One of the characters was killed at the very first chapter (it is the second day in the book).
Wasn't really attached to him as we only were introduced about 3 minutes ago. So, off he goes.
Some of the monster, creatures, whatever appear only by name. No description of them.
Was skipping quite a bit, and it does not seem be missing much in terms of the story though.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 19, 2019
This is the first book by Philip Palmer I have read and was pleasantly surprise how much I enjoyed it. The thing I liked was that he kept me off guard on what would happen next which was usually a surprise or unexpected. I look forward to reading more of his books.
October 16, 2025
Fast-paced, crazy, and rather too bloody for my taste. For the first half of the book I wasn't really invested, but the plotting and character development gradually grew more interesting. I found myself reading more and more until suddenly the book was finished. :(
November 14, 2017
Bizarre and cool!
December 3, 2017
A real page-turner. It helps if you've read Debatable Space first, but it's not totally necessary.
July 23, 2018
Fast-paced and exciting. You never quite know what's going to happen next.
April 17, 2019
Glorious, gory, pulpy fun with fantastical deadly alien fauna and flora which manages to poke fun at the genre while still being a thrilling read.
June 20, 2019
Action packed space opera takes place on a strange and deadly alien planet populated by man killing drones and poisonous local fauna. Oh my!
August 18, 2019
I loved this book! Fantastic imagination, the killer flora and fauna were great fun. Great characters and well constructed fast paced story, non stop action.
July 19, 2022
Great read, brilliant characters.
January 4, 2023
Overall, I didn't like this book. The setting and characters were well fleshed out. The dialogue and writing style were snappy and brutal, which I thought fit the setting. The ingredients were all there for a good story, but unfortunately the plot was a mess. It was far too long, and had many moments that felt pointless. I felt no connection to (almost) any of the characters, and there was relatively little real character growth.
October 10, 2024
A really good fantasy book about the future and space and robots.
July 9, 2025
One of the best sci-fi books I’ve ever read
September 5, 2011
There are a lot of things I liked about Philip Palmer’s novel “Red Claw”.
I liked the stereotypical concept of humans colonising a distant planet, executed with tongue so firmly poked into cheek it must have left a bruise; but that’s not what I liked best.
I liked the “Lost in Space” kind of story told with a “From Dusk till Dawn” delight for making people go crunch and r-r-rip and sploosh, often in several different directions at once; but that’s not what I liked best.
I liked the setting, a planet where everything – and I mean everything, including the soil, the rain, the air, the plants, the murderous robots who turned on their human masters – wanted to kill you, and succeeded more often than not; but that’s not what I liked best.
No, what I liked best was the title: Red Claw. Even as I write this I have no idea what it refers to. Really, no idea – and it wasn’t for a lack of looking for clues. It’s either deliberately random in order to mislead, or some sci-fi in-joke of which I’m fecklessly ignorant.
The chief protagonist is Professor Richard Helms, the senior scientist on a mission to “terraform” the planet known as New Amazon. This is what the human race does in Palmer’s future: having rendered Earth all but uninhabitable, they travel to distant galaxies, identify suitable host planets, then study and document all signs of life before scorching the whole thing flat to be rebuilt in a human-friendly way. Viewpoint jumps around the cast: Dr Hugo Baal, the Smithers to Helms’s Burns; Major Sorcha Molloy, the fierce Amazonian soldier who has been genetically and socially bred to kill, kill, kill, and who is also screwing Professor Helms on the side (and the back, and the front, and upside down … in any position she chooses, really, because she is just that freaking strong); and well over a dozen others. Some of them end up going crunch or r-r-rip or sploosh, so the viewpoint cast does narrow down over time.
New Amazon couldn’t be more inhospitable. The flora and fauna seem to be interchangeable, or the same thing, and everything seems to be covered by a flesh web, some sprawling meaty plant organism which is as gross as it sounds. When it rains, it rains acid. The low temperatures and shredding winds make it inadvisable to frolic around even partially nude. Monsters roam freely and trees explode. The scientists are there to study and document everything, and when they’re finished they, with the help of the soldiers, will burn it all to ash. To assist them in their mission are countless “DR’s” (Doppleganger Robots), powerful machines which all inexplicably and suddenly turn on the humans and reduce them to a small band of survivors who are forced to brave the harsh elements of New Amazon, fighting for their lives.
The story is a hoot, and at times turns a powerful lens on the less-attractive aspects of human nature. Then it makes human nature go sploosh.
You know what I think we have in Red Claw? I think we have a credible alternative to Avatar. Take a look, James Cameron, have a read: this is how you do it. Let’s forget all about that awful blue 3D cliché and embrace the superior, ambitious and hilarious Red Claw. When exploring a new planet with a view to exploiting it in some way, you shouldn’t always have to be considerate of the ecosystem’s delicate balance and its pony-tail-dick blue-skinned freak inhabitants. Sometimes you do, yes; but sometimes you need to let your plasma cannon sort things out. Sometimes you need to wield your Red Claw. (No, I still don’t know what it means.)
Red, I think, is the new blue – or it should be.
*As reviewed at Booksquawk (http://www.booksquawk.com)
I liked the stereotypical concept of humans colonising a distant planet, executed with tongue so firmly poked into cheek it must have left a bruise; but that’s not what I liked best.
I liked the “Lost in Space” kind of story told with a “From Dusk till Dawn” delight for making people go crunch and r-r-rip and sploosh, often in several different directions at once; but that’s not what I liked best.
I liked the setting, a planet where everything – and I mean everything, including the soil, the rain, the air, the plants, the murderous robots who turned on their human masters – wanted to kill you, and succeeded more often than not; but that’s not what I liked best.
No, what I liked best was the title: Red Claw. Even as I write this I have no idea what it refers to. Really, no idea – and it wasn’t for a lack of looking for clues. It’s either deliberately random in order to mislead, or some sci-fi in-joke of which I’m fecklessly ignorant.
The chief protagonist is Professor Richard Helms, the senior scientist on a mission to “terraform” the planet known as New Amazon. This is what the human race does in Palmer’s future: having rendered Earth all but uninhabitable, they travel to distant galaxies, identify suitable host planets, then study and document all signs of life before scorching the whole thing flat to be rebuilt in a human-friendly way. Viewpoint jumps around the cast: Dr Hugo Baal, the Smithers to Helms’s Burns; Major Sorcha Molloy, the fierce Amazonian soldier who has been genetically and socially bred to kill, kill, kill, and who is also screwing Professor Helms on the side (and the back, and the front, and upside down … in any position she chooses, really, because she is just that freaking strong); and well over a dozen others. Some of them end up going crunch or r-r-rip or sploosh, so the viewpoint cast does narrow down over time.
New Amazon couldn’t be more inhospitable. The flora and fauna seem to be interchangeable, or the same thing, and everything seems to be covered by a flesh web, some sprawling meaty plant organism which is as gross as it sounds. When it rains, it rains acid. The low temperatures and shredding winds make it inadvisable to frolic around even partially nude. Monsters roam freely and trees explode. The scientists are there to study and document everything, and when they’re finished they, with the help of the soldiers, will burn it all to ash. To assist them in their mission are countless “DR’s” (Doppleganger Robots), powerful machines which all inexplicably and suddenly turn on the humans and reduce them to a small band of survivors who are forced to brave the harsh elements of New Amazon, fighting for their lives.
The story is a hoot, and at times turns a powerful lens on the less-attractive aspects of human nature. Then it makes human nature go sploosh.
You know what I think we have in Red Claw? I think we have a credible alternative to Avatar. Take a look, James Cameron, have a read: this is how you do it. Let’s forget all about that awful blue 3D cliché and embrace the superior, ambitious and hilarious Red Claw. When exploring a new planet with a view to exploiting it in some way, you shouldn’t always have to be considerate of the ecosystem’s delicate balance and its pony-tail-dick blue-skinned freak inhabitants. Sometimes you do, yes; but sometimes you need to let your plasma cannon sort things out. Sometimes you need to wield your Red Claw. (No, I still don’t know what it means.)
Red, I think, is the new blue – or it should be.
*As reviewed at Booksquawk (http://www.booksquawk.com)
March 14, 2014
This is the second Philip Palmer book I've read. I haven't read his first or his most recent (as of this writing, he only has 4 out). So I'm working off of having read Version 43 first, and now Redclaw.
And I can say this: I really want to like his novels more than I do. I mean, don't get me wrong, they're enjoyable reads. No major complaints on that front. They certainly aren't, to me, boring, though some might disagree with me, and I do think there were a couple parts of this book, in particular, that dragged. Palmer has fun with language and I think he hits a certain amusing tone quite well.
But of course, it's a very British humor. Which is not to say that it makes many British-specific references that the non-Briton will be confused by, but that I read the book, said "This guy is British, isn't he?" and, having looked it up, found that I was correct. There's something about the style of some writers, in particular those of the science-fiction variety in my experience, that just says "You're British".
As to the book itself, the plot seems rough. Ad hoc, even. Forced, at times. Perhaps it's a function of the type of story. In Version 43, we were dealing with a mystery story. I expect twists, even forced ones; that's the nature of a mystery story, even a science-fiction mystery story.
Redclaw, however, is more of the straight science-fiction thriller. It hooked me with its opening (and, honestly, its cover, which I found to be awesomely pulpy). The analysis of the weird alien plant/animals, combined with the amusingly-footnoted reports, got me wanting to devour the book. But soon we're thrust into intrigue and chaos. We're given sudden revelations which, in a world that spanned multiple books, could have been hinted at in dozens of places and felt natural but which, in a world that had been entirely created for this one relatively slim book, felt like they were just "flung in there".
They kept the pace moving well enough, I suppose, but definitely made the thing feel choppy and disjointed. I've noticed that the three-act structure is often missing in these sorts of things. Instead, we're treated to set-pieces, and little one-offs intended to hint at character development. Choppy and disjointed sudden revelations seem to be a British specialty, of course, though in some cases it springs from the medium the story originally came in, such as a radio program *cough*Hitchiker's Guide*cough*. Without that sort of necessarily-choppy genesis, it feels rather like the book was simply dashed off, the plot gaps papered over to keep them from gaping too wide and the whole thing sent to the printer's with crossed fingers. Where a good novel might be said to be sculpted from clay and smoothed to finish, a novel like this is more akin to a sculpture made of Legos--choppy, prone to falling apart, and low-resolution.
It's a quick read, though, and while I wouldn't recommend anyone pay cover price for it (it's a trade paperback, which means they want to charge a premium), was worth the used-bookstore-price.
And I can say this: I really want to like his novels more than I do. I mean, don't get me wrong, they're enjoyable reads. No major complaints on that front. They certainly aren't, to me, boring, though some might disagree with me, and I do think there were a couple parts of this book, in particular, that dragged. Palmer has fun with language and I think he hits a certain amusing tone quite well.
But of course, it's a very British humor. Which is not to say that it makes many British-specific references that the non-Briton will be confused by, but that I read the book, said "This guy is British, isn't he?" and, having looked it up, found that I was correct. There's something about the style of some writers, in particular those of the science-fiction variety in my experience, that just says "You're British".
As to the book itself, the plot seems rough. Ad hoc, even. Forced, at times. Perhaps it's a function of the type of story. In Version 43, we were dealing with a mystery story. I expect twists, even forced ones; that's the nature of a mystery story, even a science-fiction mystery story.
Redclaw, however, is more of the straight science-fiction thriller. It hooked me with its opening (and, honestly, its cover, which I found to be awesomely pulpy). The analysis of the weird alien plant/animals, combined with the amusingly-footnoted reports, got me wanting to devour the book. But soon we're thrust into intrigue and chaos. We're given sudden revelations which, in a world that spanned multiple books, could have been hinted at in dozens of places and felt natural but which, in a world that had been entirely created for this one relatively slim book, felt like they were just "flung in there".
They kept the pace moving well enough, I suppose, but definitely made the thing feel choppy and disjointed. I've noticed that the three-act structure is often missing in these sorts of things. Instead, we're treated to set-pieces, and little one-offs intended to hint at character development. Choppy and disjointed sudden revelations seem to be a British specialty, of course, though in some cases it springs from the medium the story originally came in, such as a radio program *cough*Hitchiker's Guide*cough*. Without that sort of necessarily-choppy genesis, it feels rather like the book was simply dashed off, the plot gaps papered over to keep them from gaping too wide and the whole thing sent to the printer's with crossed fingers. Where a good novel might be said to be sculpted from clay and smoothed to finish, a novel like this is more akin to a sculpture made of Legos--choppy, prone to falling apart, and low-resolution.
It's a quick read, though, and while I wouldn't recommend anyone pay cover price for it (it's a trade paperback, which means they want to charge a premium), was worth the used-bookstore-price.
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