Thursday, February 21, 2013

Book Review: Space Captain Smith

Space Captain Smith (Chronicles of Isambard Smith #1)Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you're looking for a good time sf/fantasy read without a lot of heavy thinking involved, look no further than to Toby Frost's Space Captain Smith. The first of a series, Isambard Smith's saga is full of farce and fun, puns and double entendre galore. Smith longs for a space command but when he's given a spaceship (from the bottom of the heap of course) and a female simulant pilot named Pollyanna (with a very shady past), he chooses to take along his head-hunting warrior alien friend Suruk for back up. Wise plan it is, too, as those nasty space ants, The Ghast, want his passenger, space hippy Rhianna, for their own evil purposes to dominate the galaxy. Fortunately for Captain Smith even though Rhianna is a pacifist she's got her own special means of self-preservation. For those who think the sun never set on the British Empire--instead it headed for the stars and did its best to "civilize" the rest of the universe with tea and handlebar moustaches--the Space Captain Smith series will provide just the right amount of comedy, adventure, and "moral fibre" to entertain. So...how about a cuppa?

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2 comments:

A J said...

This is an enjoyable read. Although I found the writing a bit uneven in places, it's well worth sticking with. The next two books are better, and laugh aloud in places. :)

Celine said...

It definitely has "first novel-itis" in places, but overall, I found the characters so charming and entertaining that the uneven places didn't bother me very much. Very impressive on Toby Frost's part, since I'm a most nit-picky critic at times and I tend to dwell on the rough patches in stories! ;)