What do you think?
Rate this book
Icerigger #1
Icerigger
Ethan Fortune was simple salesman — knowledgeable and civilized . . . a sophisticated traveler between many worlds. But he had certainly never thought of himself as a hero.
Skua September, on the other hand, never thought of himself as anything else.
A matched pair, if ever there was one!
When the two of them were suddenly stranded on a deadly frozen world, Ethan Fortune incredibly found himself cast in the role of Leader.
And he didn't find that at all amusing . . .
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
82 people are currently reading
1106 people want to read
About the author
Alan Dean Foster
498 books2,033 followersBestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.
Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.
Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.
Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.
Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
July 16, 2020
So, good news for all you fans of ice planets without strapping barbarian princes. This is a Regular Adventure with pretty interesting aliens in a traditional first contact scenario.
Prospective adventurers Must Be Okay With Wings. If not, please don't apply. Or better yet, just don't go on this adventure at all. No matter how good the trade might be, you ARE going to get cold.
Still, a solid novel, from accident to discovery to getting to know the locals and get into fisticuffs with them to fighting barbarian hoards...
Hey, wait... is this a fantasy? *checks cover* No, this seems to be a standard SF. Did they put the wrong cover on this? No. Wait. The humans are the aliens. These aren't ice-dragons. Sorry! My mistake!
Still, if you like ice adventures, there are many worse adventures to choose from. :)
Prospective adventurers Must Be Okay With Wings. If not, please don't apply. Or better yet, just don't go on this adventure at all. No matter how good the trade might be, you ARE going to get cold.
Still, a solid novel, from accident to discovery to getting to know the locals and get into fisticuffs with them to fighting barbarian hoards...
Hey, wait... is this a fantasy? *checks cover* No, this seems to be a standard SF. Did they put the wrong cover on this? No. Wait. The humans are the aliens. These aren't ice-dragons. Sorry! My mistake!
Still, if you like ice adventures, there are many worse adventures to choose from. :)
March 9, 2020
You can't go wrong with an Alan Dean Foster SiFi book. Always a nice entertaining read. Very good start to a trilogy set in his Humanx Commonwealth Universe. I know i'll enjoy the rest of the books as he is one of my top 5 SiFi writers. Recommended
November 25, 2015
The action starts almost immediately in this book and, while there are necessary lulls in the action, it doesn’t ever go away for long. I think this novel would make for a really good space opera/fantasy movie… They’d need a really big special effects budget though, what with the novel largely taking place on an ice planet populated with various species of exotic alien.
As usual, Foster’s biggest strengths are his world-building and his seemingly boundless enthusiasm for the outlandish scenarios he places his characters in. This isn’t hard s.f. by and means but it’s a Hell of a lot of fun if you like your space opera on the bloody side.
My only complaint is that one of the protagonists is a rich young lady who is significantly overweight. Initially, I was overjoyed at this, thinking how good it was that there was a prominent female character in a novel that wasn’t described as if she’d just jumped off the cover of Vogue for once. Unfortunately, as the story unfolded, it became clear that Foster was mainly interested in making fat jokes about her. In fact, the last paragraph of the novel contains a sight gag at her expense that could have come straight out of a ‘Carry On’ movie. Foster is a competitive weight-lifter (as I used to be for about a heartbeat and a half in my younger days) and seems to exhibit the same contempt for people who don’t meet their own standards of fitness that a lot of exercise fanatics do. Disappointing, but there you go.
Despite this minor annoyance, I still really enjoyed this book.
As usual, Foster’s biggest strengths are his world-building and his seemingly boundless enthusiasm for the outlandish scenarios he places his characters in. This isn’t hard s.f. by and means but it’s a Hell of a lot of fun if you like your space opera on the bloody side.
My only complaint is that one of the protagonists is a rich young lady who is significantly overweight. Initially, I was overjoyed at this, thinking how good it was that there was a prominent female character in a novel that wasn’t described as if she’d just jumped off the cover of Vogue for once. Unfortunately, as the story unfolded, it became clear that Foster was mainly interested in making fat jokes about her. In fact, the last paragraph of the novel contains a sight gag at her expense that could have come straight out of a ‘Carry On’ movie. Foster is a competitive weight-lifter (as I used to be for about a heartbeat and a half in my younger days) and seems to exhibit the same contempt for people who don’t meet their own standards of fitness that a lot of exercise fanatics do. Disappointing, but there you go.
Despite this minor annoyance, I still really enjoyed this book.
December 15, 2022
Ethan Fortune never thought of himself as a hero, just a salesman. But a series of events leads to his being among a group of people stranded on a hostile ice planet. And they appoint him Leader.
Icerigger is a splendid novel of adventure and survival. It deserves its classic reputation. The Tran make for a great alien race, and the details of their world ring true. The book is a definite page-turner. It's apparently the first in a trilogy, and I'm definitely interested in reading the rest.
My only complaint is the treatment of the female characters–and how few of them there are. This book would not pass the Bechdel Test, for sure. And there's some definite fat-shaming going on, which makes me think the less of Ethan, and, by extension, Alan Dean Foster. True, the book was published in 1974, but still …
If you can get past those flaws, it's a heck of a ride. But your mileage may vary.
Icerigger is a splendid novel of adventure and survival. It deserves its classic reputation. The Tran make for a great alien race, and the details of their world ring true. The book is a definite page-turner. It's apparently the first in a trilogy, and I'm definitely interested in reading the rest.
My only complaint is the treatment of the female characters–and how few of them there are. This book would not pass the Bechdel Test, for sure. And there's some definite fat-shaming going on, which makes me think the less of Ethan, and, by extension, Alan Dean Foster. True, the book was published in 1974, but still …
If you can get past those flaws, it's a heck of a ride. But your mileage may vary.
June 2, 2007
I remember picking up ICERIGGGER because the wonderful Dean Ellis cover caught my eye, and then reading it all through the night in a single sitting because I got caught up in the wonderful adventures of Skua September and Ethan Fortune on Tran-ky-ky. Once in a very rare, almost-magical while a book will (for no apparent or rational reason) grab onto you and won't let go until the end. This one was one of -those- for me.
June 24, 2008
I'm a hardcore Foster apologist and pretty much love most of his work. But really, guys, who couldn't love an frozen world with ice-skating bat-like people who are roundabout medieval in their social development?
February 7, 2017
I first read this book in the very early '80s, when I picked up a copy of the seventh printing (April 1981). I remember that I liked it—which I must have done, since I've held on to this yellowed paperback for 35 years now—but I had, frankly, forgotten almost all the details. It was high time to reread it.
Ethan Frome Fortune is a young traveling salesman, journeying aboard a luxury starliner to his next port of call, where he plans to sell a consignment of goods at a tidy profit. Along the way, the liner makes a quick stop at Tran-ky-ky, which used to be a pelagic world but has since frozen over, with vast seas of ice broken only by a few island chains and other minor land masses.
During the stop, Ethan stumbles across a kidnapping in a remote part of the ship: two thugs are trying to abduct a wealthy industrialist and his feisty daughter, forcing them into one of the liner's escape pods at gunpoint. The crooks are reluctant to kill Ethan for fear of alerting the ship's crew, so they make him come with them. Unfortunately the escape pod is damaged as it leaves the ship, and the group have to crash-land in the frozen waste of Tran-ky-ky.
Before long they encounter the local sophonts, a race of tall, warlike felines known as the tran, who have natural blades of bone on their feet for skating across ice, and folds of skin under their arms, like a flying squirrel, for catching the winds that constantly blow. They use the wind to propel them at amazing speeds across the ice, but the blades make it difficult for them to walk on non-ice surfaces.
The tran prove courteous despite their fierce nature, and promise to help Ethan and his companions reach the only human settlement on the planet...but first they have to withstand a siege by the Horde, a massive army of feral tran that appear every few years to sack towns and exact tribute.
I like how Alan Dean Foster has devised tran physiology to show how they've adapted to their frozen world. Their culture is a little too derivative of medieval Vikings to be believable, but on the other hand it's nice to have some familiar points of reference given the otherwise exotic setting and natives.
Foster has a great knack for describing characters, environments, and epic events (which is one reason he's been tapped to write so many novelizations of blockbuster films, including many from the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises), and he puts his skills to great use in this book. The battle scenes are gripping, and the interactions among the characters are always compelling—especially when they involve Ethan's partner, the giant and enigmatic mercenary Skua September. Why this book has never been made into a major motion picture baffles me; I would actually pay money to see a good treatment of this book in a theater, rather than yet another tiresome Batman or Spiderman reboot.
UPDATE: I have no idea why Goodreads classifies this book as "Fantasy." It's space opera science fiction at its 1970s finest.
Ethan Frome Fortune is a young traveling salesman, journeying aboard a luxury starliner to his next port of call, where he plans to sell a consignment of goods at a tidy profit. Along the way, the liner makes a quick stop at Tran-ky-ky, which used to be a pelagic world but has since frozen over, with vast seas of ice broken only by a few island chains and other minor land masses.
During the stop, Ethan stumbles across a kidnapping in a remote part of the ship: two thugs are trying to abduct a wealthy industrialist and his feisty daughter, forcing them into one of the liner's escape pods at gunpoint. The crooks are reluctant to kill Ethan for fear of alerting the ship's crew, so they make him come with them. Unfortunately the escape pod is damaged as it leaves the ship, and the group have to crash-land in the frozen waste of Tran-ky-ky.
Before long they encounter the local sophonts, a race of tall, warlike felines known as the tran, who have natural blades of bone on their feet for skating across ice, and folds of skin under their arms, like a flying squirrel, for catching the winds that constantly blow. They use the wind to propel them at amazing speeds across the ice, but the blades make it difficult for them to walk on non-ice surfaces.
The tran prove courteous despite their fierce nature, and promise to help Ethan and his companions reach the only human settlement on the planet...but first they have to withstand a siege by the Horde, a massive army of feral tran that appear every few years to sack towns and exact tribute.
I like how Alan Dean Foster has devised tran physiology to show how they've adapted to their frozen world. Their culture is a little too derivative of medieval Vikings to be believable, but on the other hand it's nice to have some familiar points of reference given the otherwise exotic setting and natives.
Foster has a great knack for describing characters, environments, and epic events (which is one reason he's been tapped to write so many novelizations of blockbuster films, including many from the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises), and he puts his skills to great use in this book. The battle scenes are gripping, and the interactions among the characters are always compelling—especially when they involve Ethan's partner, the giant and enigmatic mercenary Skua September. Why this book has never been made into a major motion picture baffles me; I would actually pay money to see a good treatment of this book in a theater, rather than yet another tiresome Batman or Spiderman reboot.
UPDATE: I have no idea why Goodreads classifies this book as "Fantasy." It's space opera science fiction at its 1970s finest.
August 17, 2024
This book was such a delightful surprise! 8/10 read for me. There are a lot of really creative/fantastical aspects about this book that the author did such an amazing job of helping the reader visualize. Some great examples of this are the native aliens the Tran, and the native fauna the Stavanzer. Overall, this book was an amazing otherworldly expedition. I shall definitely be finishing the icerigger trilogy and may hop into other works of the The Humanx Commonwealth.
August 3, 2016
Gave up. Artificial setting, characters, plot. Couldn't connect.
Foster can write better than this.
(Okay, this was written in 1976. Don't waste your time. Better books out there.)
Foster can write better than this.
(Okay, this was written in 1976. Don't waste your time. Better books out there.)
September 20, 2020
First re-read in many years of one of my favorites by Alan Dean Foster, and it holds up remarkably well, considering it was written in 1978. Sure, not everything makes perfect sense here, and it's not particularly deep. The tran culture comes across as a bit superficial, in the vein of Star Trek / Star Wars aliens, and the offworlders befriend the Sofolders with impressive ease, almost immediately becoming key members of the society. But the writing is well above average for this type of SF adventure, with more than one literary turn of phrase. The deadly battles are all in good fun, with little to no grim drama - which may be one reason I prefer a light-hearted writing style to this day.
The characters are interesting enough, even if each is a caricature of his type - Ethan, the unwilling protagonist; September, the confident and good-hearted tough guy: Williams, the bookish one, etc. The female characters are even less well-defined, with Elfa being decidedly silly; Collette manages to be at least somewhat multi-dimensional in her role as a woman for Ethan to underestimate and misunderstand. As for the tran, their biology, if not their culture, is certainly original and fascinating, and Hunnar is a solid character, if a bit bland.
The construction of the eponymous Slanderscree happens surprisingly late in the book; I'd remembered it coming onto the scene earlier, maybe from having accidentally read the sequel (Mission to Moulokin) before this one. Will plan for a re-read of that one too. Anyway, I was not as knowledgeable about sailing back in '82 when I first read this, so I was gratified to see this time that there were no obvious blunders when it came to nautical concepts and terminology - which is not at all the case with modern SF/F, though you'd think writers could do enough research to confirm that they know their sheets from their spars.
So, my four star rating stands, even accounting for the nostalgia factor, and I'd recommend this for anyone looking for a light, quick, fairly original SF adventure.
The characters are interesting enough, even if each is a caricature of his type - Ethan, the unwilling protagonist; September, the confident and good-hearted tough guy: Williams, the bookish one, etc. The female characters are even less well-defined, with Elfa being decidedly silly; Collette manages to be at least somewhat multi-dimensional in her role as a woman for Ethan to underestimate and misunderstand. As for the tran, their biology, if not their culture, is certainly original and fascinating, and Hunnar is a solid character, if a bit bland.
The construction of the eponymous Slanderscree happens surprisingly late in the book; I'd remembered it coming onto the scene earlier, maybe from having accidentally read the sequel (Mission to Moulokin) before this one. Will plan for a re-read of that one too. Anyway, I was not as knowledgeable about sailing back in '82 when I first read this, so I was gratified to see this time that there were no obvious blunders when it came to nautical concepts and terminology - which is not at all the case with modern SF/F, though you'd think writers could do enough research to confirm that they know their sheets from their spars.
So, my four star rating stands, even accounting for the nostalgia factor, and I'd recommend this for anyone looking for a light, quick, fairly original SF adventure.
January 15, 2011
Gotta read this one every couple of years. Don't know why: It's just a cheesy, pulpy space story. But I love it.
June 19, 2023
A super incredible book that wraps you in the story from the first page
July 7, 2023
This book was just as good as I remember it from twenty or more years ago when I was a teenager. My goodness. Everything you want from space opera!
April 14, 2020
1975 grade A
1994 grade A
2020 grade A-/B+
Series book I1 (aka Ice Rigger)
A half dozen passengers from a space liner crash on an ice covered planet with a medieval civilization and promptly get involved in various typical intrigues and bloody battles typical of earth at that level. It is a Very enjoyable adventure story but a bit predictable once the basic world building is done. The characters and story are great. But, unlike Heinline's "Citizen of the Galaxy," which I had a hard time putting down, I got tired of reading this one each session and had to stop for a while. I could stay away as long as needed before returning too. The difference is subtle but basically this one is not quite as intellectual.
Recommended reading.
1994 grade A
2020 grade A-/B+
Series book I1 (aka Ice Rigger)
A half dozen passengers from a space liner crash on an ice covered planet with a medieval civilization and promptly get involved in various typical intrigues and bloody battles typical of earth at that level. It is a Very enjoyable adventure story but a bit predictable once the basic world building is done. The characters and story are great. But, unlike Heinline's "Citizen of the Galaxy," which I had a hard time putting down, I got tired of reading this one each session and had to stop for a while. I could stay away as long as needed before returning too. The difference is subtle but basically this one is not quite as intellectual.
Recommended reading.
November 2, 2023
This scifi opener to a trilogy is fine. Average man stumbles into heist, crashes on warrior planet, and he and his buddies are much more knowledgeable and somehow stronger and more capable than the warrior species. The alien ladies are horny for earth men. The human ladies are into them also. The ladies have almost no other qualities this whole first book. It isn't clever enough or funny enough to make the magically superior human man in a scifi trope worth reading.
January 15, 2010
Another fun journey from Mr Foster! I've had this book on my shelf for ages but was missing the third book and had to wait till I had it. Then I found it on Amazon so decided to start the trilogy. The cover promotes it as a space opera but its not really-its an adventure story on another (very cold!) world. Either way its a captivating aand fun read!
December 27, 2012
Fine book, young feller-me-lad. Read it and enjoy Skua September. There's two more to come.
January 15, 2025
Ethan Fortune, itinerant salesman, is on his way to the frozen planet Tran-ky-ky to sell some heaters to the humanx settlers at the base called Brass Monkey. The night before his ship arrives Jason stumbles over a kidnapping of the wealthy patriarch of the du Kane family and his daughter Colette. They were in a shuttle when the charges set on the transport ship blew, sending them planetward uncontrollably. This wakes the drunken two-metre brawler called Skua September, who the crew had hogtied till he slept it off in the shuttle. Laying about with a will he despatches one kidnapper and disables another. Then their shuttle makes a very poor landing, breaking up, halfway around the planet, where the freezing point of water is a hot day. Meeting some locals they barter their shuttle’s metal for some aid in getting to Brass Monkey, but wind up becoming enmeshed in a battle against the ravening Horde. Alan Dean Foster has given us a wonderful blood-and-thunder adventure tale, with horrific beasts like the droom and the stavanzer, and court intrigue. Not to mention the unwanted attention of the Landgrave’s not-quite-humanx daughter and homicidal monks. It won’t change your life but it is lots of fun and well worth a read. First of three connected books with Ethan Fortune et al.
March 25, 2018
In Icerigger the (human) characters crash on a planet. The planet is covered in ice, with islands popping up from the once ocean. While there is a human base on the planet, they crashed on the wrong side of the planet and they are way to far to radio them. They end up having to work with some of the natives, first to survive, then to make their way to the human base.
I love this book and its two sequels for several reasons, first it does a good job of letting the world and it's people unfold. Learning about them is a shear pleasure. The second thing is the interaction between the humans and the natives. The humans end up using their superior science to help the natives, how they were able to do so makes a lot of sense, and is not as easy as many authors would make it.
While not hard science fiction by any means it is also not as soft as is all to common in many books with FTL.
I love this book and its two sequels for several reasons, first it does a good job of letting the world and it's people unfold. Learning about them is a shear pleasure. The second thing is the interaction between the humans and the natives. The humans end up using their superior science to help the natives, how they were able to do so makes a lot of sense, and is not as easy as many authors would make it.
While not hard science fiction by any means it is also not as soft as is all to common in many books with FTL.
March 7, 2023
I bought this book second hand in 81'. Tried to read it so many times and couldn't. Finally in 2023 I decided to conquer every book that I have failed to finish. The book does start out very quickly. I like some of the characters, but I find they are very hollow. The two main characters one a salesmen and the other a soldier/renegade. That's it, you know them both now as much as I do after reading the story. A romantic interest starts between the salesman and one alien princess. That's it...she showed interest and he was scared...done. The crash of their spaceship, contact with a newer alien world. A human city located miles away in a frozen world. The concept was fun the action fast, the entire story feels like a short story. Nothing deep, like a comic book. The end was weak but it ended.
November 25, 2024
I begrudgingly gave this a four. The 3.8 average I am seeing is about right but it does seem slightly dated all these years later. ADF probably wanted a break from this first two Flinx novels which were very well received. This does take place within the Commonwealth Universe but with brand new characters. You can tell he read (and re-read) the Heinlein juvenile books. This is basically a shipwrecked pirate story that takes place on a world nearly completely covered by a frozen ocean with a few volcanic peaks poking through. I am not sure how a sentient feline species would have evolved to survive a catastrophic rise in sea levels followed by a deep freeze but it is great fun ... complete with flagons of grog, sword fights and pirate ships. There is an unlikely maiden in distress and an equally unlikely hero. Great fun!
January 19, 2018
Classic Science Fiction. Maybe I need to start a new category for my reviews for this type of story. I tend to hold these stories to a different standard. I don't know if that is fair. But on the other hand, I do take into account the target audience of a story and the publish date, so perhaps I am not being unfair.
The hard science part has some major flaws, but I tend to ignore them for this publish date. I found the world building interesting, but not ground breaking, but if I was reading this closer to the publish date, it would have been wonderful. Time is not friendly to this story. I am reading this as a trilogy, but felt I should consider reviewing each book separately, since that is the way these stories were originally written.
Have a GoodReads.
The hard science part has some major flaws, but I tend to ignore them for this publish date. I found the world building interesting, but not ground breaking, but if I was reading this closer to the publish date, it would have been wonderful. Time is not friendly to this story. I am reading this as a trilogy, but felt I should consider reviewing each book separately, since that is the way these stories were originally written.
Have a GoodReads.
July 3, 2017
I didn’t know what I was getting when I picked up this science fiction book. Turns out that I got fun.
Triggers: aircraft crash, aliens that eat humans, war violence, super cold climate/iceworld
Ethan Fortune was simple salesman -- knowledgeable and civilized . . . a sophisticated traveler between many worlds. But he had certainly never thought of himself as a hero. Skua September, on the other hand, never thought of himself as anything else. A matched pair, if ever there was one! When the two of them were suddenly stranded on a deadly frozen world, Ethan Fortune incredibly found himself cast in the role of Leader. And he didn't find that at all amusing . . .
Triggers: aircraft crash, aliens that eat humans, war violence, super cold climate/iceworld
Ethan Fortune was simple salesman -- knowledgeable and civilized . . . a sophisticated traveler between many worlds. But he had certainly never thought of himself as a hero. Skua September, on the other hand, never thought of himself as anything else. A matched pair, if ever there was one! When the two of them were suddenly stranded on a deadly frozen world, Ethan Fortune incredibly found himself cast in the role of Leader. And he didn't find that at all amusing . . .
January 2, 2018
This book is *nothing* like I expected, in a really good way! I don't even want to mention what I thought it was going to be, but what it turned out to be is a fast-moving sci-fi adventure starting with a kidnapping from a starship orbiting a frozen world, which leads to a shipwreck onto said frozen world, leading to a tale of surviving the unforgiving elements on that frozen world. And that's only the start! I've always loved the worlds that Foster builds and the eccentric characters he fills them with, and he does not disappoint with this book. I highly recommend it!
July 6, 2021
I expected to like this book more than I did. I've read a few of the Pip and Flinx novels, and they are entertaining, light SF adventure. The same might be said of this novel, but I found the book overlong. The world-building is solid enough, and Tran-Ky-Ky and the alien Trans are believable and well described. Foster's prose is easy to read. Ultimately, I think the main problem with the book is that the characters are not particularly engaging.
July 28, 2018
More of a space adventure rather than a proper sci-fi, as it doesn't boast many original ideas. I considered dumping it many times, although I kept coming back for more, chapter after chapter. It was an OK adventure novel, I guess, although I don't think I will be picking up the sequel anytime soon.
August 21, 2018
I kinda wanted to give this 4 stars because it was an enjoyable read, but not really memorable. I appreciated learning about the tran and thinking about the differences of living on a planet where the temperature rarely gets above freezing. Sci-fi, but also stepping back to a culture that is pre-gun powder and combustion engines.
April 7, 2022
What a wonderful book! Interesting premises, fast-paced plot, well developed characters, funny and entertaining prose, good finishing.
It brought to mind one of Pol Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories, "The Man Who Counts"... Lest I spoil the story, I will say only that if you read and liked it, you're sure to move this one.
I just hope the other two books in this trilogy are as good.
It brought to mind one of Pol Anderson's Polesotechnic League stories, "The Man Who Counts"... Lest I spoil the story, I will say only that if you read and liked it, you're sure to move this one.
I just hope the other two books in this trilogy are as good.
June 14, 2024
I just couldn't do it. The writing was bad, the plot was terrible. I mean...these people are walking around with 200KPH winds and -100 degree temps!!! There is also wildlife and plants as well as a native civilization on this planet. Gimme a break. At least make the science somewhat plausible. There are other books to read than something that cannot grab me.
September 3, 2017
Omg if I'd seen the cover of this book, I would've left t on the shelf! But it's a Kindle special, and I'm really enjoying it! Foster creates a fascinating and likely world with plants and animals as creative as the story itself. I'm going to finish the rest of the trilogy in short order.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews