Transit to Scorpio

Rating:
Summary: True to the Edgar Rice Burroughs tradition
Review: An English seaman of the 17th century, Dray Prescot, is sent to the savage alien world of Kregen, where he has amazing adventures and falls in love with a princess. This is fun escapist literature in the lost worlds genre. The prose is rather overheated and, at times, tortuously verbose, but that's part of the fun. Author Keith Bulmer, writing under the pseudonym of Alan Burt Akers, injects a healthy amount of humor into his narrative as well. Recommended for a light, quick read.

Rating:
Summary: True to the Edgar Rice Burroughs tradition
Review: An English seaman of the 17th century, Dray Prescot, is sent to the savage alien world of Kregen, where he has amazing adventures and falls in love with a princess. This is fun escapist literature in the lost worlds genre. The prose is rather overheated and, at times, tortuously verbose, but that's part of the fun. Author Keith Bulmer, writing under the pseudonym of Alan Burt Akers, injects a healthy amount of humor into his narrative as well. Recommended for a light, quick read.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious fantasy for people who love British wisecracks
Review: I have read a huge number of SF/fantasy books, and this is my FAVORITE SERIES OF ALL TIME. I'm afraid I don't have enough room here to tell you all you need to know about the series. I will put more info in reviews for other books in the series. The books are almost all very fun, and currently there are 37 of them. I don't know if there will ever be more, but obviously I desperately hope so. The author is Kenneth Bulmer, under the pseudonym "Alan Burt Akers." Most bookstores (including Amazon) mistakenly put "Dray Prescot" as the author of some of the books. The MAIN CHARACTER in the books is Dray Prescot. The books are organized into "cycles" that sort of stand alone in the series. The first is the Delian Cycle, with the first 5 books (Transit to Scorpio, The Suns of Scorpio, Warrior of Scorpio, Swordships of Scorpio, Prince of Scorpio). The next is the Havilfar Cycle (Manhounds of Antares, Arena of Antares, Fliers of Antares, Bladesman of Antares, Avenger of Antares). The series is autobiographical of Dray Prescot, an unhappy English sailorman swept away by awesome forces to another planet, where he is much happier doing heroic stuff. It all has an Edgar Rice Burroughs quality, with huge numbers of strange races, cultures, plants and animals, picturesquely described. Dray makes friends, enemies, meets girls, works his way up in the world (just not OUR world), and has adventures! I think the ultimate target audience for the series is Americans who like British humor of the Monty Python variety. Normally, dialog is a liability for Kenneth Bulmer, but here he keeps it together. And the dialog becomes the best part! Everyone makes jokes, teases each other, and converses using lovely British phrasing. And it's hilarious! I laugh all the way through these books! The first 4 books of the series are only OK. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND starting with #1, then skipping to #5, then read #6-#10 or so, then go back for #2-#4 once you are hooked on the series. The series is hard to find - contact me if you need to. But being so long, it provides months of great enjoyment. Please don't be put off by this first book, just consider it an intro. The tone of the rest of the series is much lighter. And part of the fun is watching Dray Prescot change his opinions about things over time (but in some ways he never changes). And Dray does try to see the funny side of things, and describe his adventures in that vein. This series truly deserves to be one of the greatest fantasy series ever.