Rating: Summary: A Starship Full of Fun! Review: Pat Murphy (writing as Max Maxwell, for no reason I can deduce) has taken the plot of Tolkien's The Hobbit, and set it as far-future science fiction. I'll let future Murphy scholars dissect it for its literary merits... I just had a whole lot of fun reading it! Those who have not read The Hobbit might still find it a fun read, but those who spent a large part of their youth re-reading Tolkien's epic will find it fun to try to predict where she is going with the story. I recommend it whole-heartedly.
Rating: Summary: A Starship Full of Fun! Review: Pat Murphy (writing as Max Maxwell, for no reason I can deduce) has taken the plot of Tolkien's The Hobbit, and set it as far-future science fiction. I'll let future Murphy scholars dissect it for its literary merits... I just had a whole lot of fun reading it! Those who have not read The Hobbit might still find it a fun read, but those who spent a large part of their youth re-reading Tolkien's epic will find it fun to try to predict where she is going with the story. I recommend it whole-heartedly.
Rating: Summary: Cute Review: Pat Murphy writes with engaging facility, and there are some clever ideas here. (The Moebius strip analog for the One Ring is especially fun.)The problem is that I would have enjoyed this more if it had been presented as a light hearted space opera. The comparison with Tolkien doesn't work for me. The characters are facile, and very politically correct, but they're dull. None of Tolkien's irony, his glimpses of horror--and the corresponding appreciation of beauty--make the cross-over. I found my attention flagging halfway through, and picked up THE HOBBIT to read again. The Max Merriwell stuff added at the end seemed, finally, really self indulgent--an in-joke that got put into print, and dragged out much too long.
Rating: Summary: Delightful Retelling of the Hobbit as Space Opera Review: Pat Murphy's new novel, _There and Back Again, by Max Merriwell_, purports to be a space opera by one Max Merriwell, who Murphy in an afterword suggests is a 50ish SF writer from a sort of alternate timeline. There's also an afterword by "Merriwell", in which he acknowledges the obvious fact that this book borrows its plot very directly from _The Hobbit_, as signaled by the title. It's a very enjoyable book, though rather light. Some have complained that it takes the ambiguous and dark aspects of _The Hobbit_ and nicens them too much. This is a valid criticism, but perhaps it asks more of the book than Murphy intended. It is what it is. It's not as good as Tolkien, it's not as true as Tolkien, but I think it does what its trying to do. To that end, the parallels with _The Hobbit_ work as a game for the reader, though perhaps not a very difficult one: they are thumpingly obvious. And indeed, Murphy does back away from the darker implications: her Ring-analog is not nearly as dangerous as Tolkien's Ring, her Gollum-analog is only briefly onstage. But it is fun to see her ways of making science fictional parallels with the elements of the Hobbit: for example hobbits become norbits (people who live "in orbit") while the Shire becomes the homey Asteroid belt. There are also nice references to Lewis Carroll's poem "The Hunting of the Snark": Murphy uses quotes from the Carroll poem as chapter headings, and builds the plot around a search for a particular Snark, which is the term used in her future for the mysterious and valuable but dangerous artifacts of the "Old Ones" (vanished aliens). Briefly, the story is about a norbit named Bailey Beldon, who becomes involved with an expedition of clone sisters from a powerful clone family to the Galactic Center. One of their other sisters has found a wormhole route to the Galactic Center and evidence that a trove of Snarks awaits there. The expedition meets a number of dangers on the way: Reconstructionists (a scary bunch), pirates, space spiders (natch!), warring factions, and of course a Boojum. Much is made (to some good use) of the effects of time dilation on space travellers; some jokes are made at Bailey's expense, many interesting characters are encountered. I quite enjoyed the book, and took the various sillinesses (the super crowded asteroid belt, the implausible space spiders, etc.) as part and parcel of the light package.
Rating: Summary: Delightful Retelling of the Hobbit as Space Opera Review: Pat Murphy's new novel, _There and Back Again, by Max Merriwell_, purports to be a space opera by one Max Merriwell, who Murphy in an afterword suggests is a 50ish SF writer from a sort of alternate timeline. There's also an afterword by "Merriwell", in which he acknowledges the obvious fact that this book borrows its plot very directly from _The Hobbit_, as signaled by the title. It's a very enjoyable book, though rather light. Some have complained that it takes the ambiguous and dark aspects of _The Hobbit_ and nicens them too much. This is a valid criticism, but perhaps it asks more of the book than Murphy intended. It is what it is. It's not as good as Tolkien, it's not as true as Tolkien, but I think it does what its trying to do. To that end, the parallels with _The Hobbit_ work as a game for the reader, though perhaps not a very difficult one: they are thumpingly obvious. And indeed, Murphy does back away from the darker implications: her Ring-analog is not nearly as dangerous as Tolkien's Ring, her Gollum-analog is only briefly onstage. But it is fun to see her ways of making science fictional parallels with the elements of the Hobbit: for example hobbits become norbits (people who live "in orbit") while the Shire becomes the homey Asteroid belt. There are also nice references to Lewis Carroll's poem "The Hunting of the Snark": Murphy uses quotes from the Carroll poem as chapter headings, and builds the plot around a search for a particular Snark, which is the term used in her future for the mysterious and valuable but dangerous artifacts of the "Old Ones" (vanished aliens). Briefly, the story is about a norbit named Bailey Beldon, who becomes involved with an expedition of clone sisters from a powerful clone family to the Galactic Center. One of their other sisters has found a wormhole route to the Galactic Center and evidence that a trove of Snarks awaits there. The expedition meets a number of dangers on the way: Reconstructionists (a scary bunch), pirates, space spiders (natch!), warring factions, and of course a Boojum. Much is made (to some good use) of the effects of time dilation on space travellers; some jokes are made at Bailey's expense, many interesting characters are encountered. I quite enjoyed the book, and took the various sillinesses (the super crowded asteroid belt, the implausible space spiders, etc.) as part and parcel of the light package.
Rating: Summary: There and Back Again Is Worth the Round Trip Ticket! Review: Pat Murphy, Nebula Award Winner has done it again! Caught me by the hairs of my chinny, chin, chin & led me right along, nose to the page, to the very end! Excellent job of interweaving that which we guess about science & what we hope about science, all written with a plentiful dose of humor. Highly recommended as a fun read! For my full review & eInterview with Pat Murphy do check out my site [...].
Rating: Summary: There and Back Again Is Worth the Round Trip Ticket! Review: Pat Murphy, Nebula Award Winner has done it again! Caught me by the hairs of my chinny, chin, chin & led me right along, nose to the page, to the very end! Excellent job of interweaving that which we guess about science & what we hope about science, all written with a plentiful dose of humor. Highly recommended as a fun read! For my full review & eInterview with Pat Murphy do check out my site [...].
Rating: Summary: A terrific read for fantasy/scifi enthuasiasts and fans. Review: Reminiscent of J.R.R. Tolkien's Hobbit is this story of asteroid dweller Bailey, who is snatched from a lazy and safe life in his limited home by clones with a thirst for exploration. Bailey only longs to return home; but when he realizes home has become impossibly changed he is faced with new space adventures and challenges of his own in this warm, absorbing story. Tolkien readers will especially relish the similarities and differences in plot and characterization.
Rating: Summary: Loads of fun. Max Merriwell's finest! Review: The plot is, of course, The Hobbit In Space but the story is told in such a way that you never have the time, nor the desire, to sit back and dissect the similarities. Rather you'll find yourself half a page into a fabulous retelling of one of Bilbo's adventures when suddenly it hits you. Murphy manages to assimilate the feel of good old-fashioned Space Operas with modern SF conventions and up-to-date science. I bought this book Sunday afternoon and finished it on Tuesday evening... it sweeps you along with norbits, wormholes, clones, pataphysicians and space pirates (!) and all-around good humoured adventure. (As for the Max merriwell angle, I'd recommend checking out the author's website for a more coherent explanation than I could give)
Rating: Summary: Simply Great Review: This is simply a great book, one of the best I have ever read. Although obviously based on The Hobbit, the book takes on a life of its own. It's a real, exiciting page turner, that's worth reading more than once.
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