Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (1923–2002)

A weak sequel to All the Colors of Darkness. In the first novel, there was one set of aliens, and, for 60s SF, they were relatively alien. Here, there are half a dozen alien races and they all sound like humans, with cocktail parties and the rest. The setting of the first novel was the Moon. The setting of this novel is galactic. But our hero -- and his senior citizen tough as nails companion -- have no trouble acclimating. It's that annoying lack of concept of scale, where one galaxy invading another is like two countries at war,, and one human can deal with this, as if such a thing for a country would not be overwhelming, much less a world, or a planetary system. And worst of all, the resolution of the core mystery of how the invasion is happening is both hard to credit and has been in-your-face for at least half the book.

Not objectionable but nothing to recommend.… (mehr)

A slightly dated but enjoyable lightweight SF novel, the first in the Jan Darzek series. Interestingly, Jan is introduced in the second chapter. The first chapter and nearly half of this short novel features an engineer named Ted Arnold. Ted is fairly colorless, so it's not surprising that Darzek returned for future stories, despite knowing no science. Instead, he is a classic detective -- observant, unflappable, and occasionally slightly annoying. The initial setup is more like a locked room mystery -- how are people disappearing in transit in a new teleportation system when there's only here and there? The book has dated when it comes to portraying women, business, and aliens. The feeling is more 1940s than the book's 1963 publication date, with a whiff of Heinlein.

Recommended for lovers of classic SF.… (mehr)