Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The publisher, Ace used to be famous for producing two - novel books - a front cover on each side. This is a revisitation of the same idea, but with a twist; the first portion of the book is a science fiction novel, the second a collection of mostly science fiction related poetry.
Mr. Baxley takes us on a frenetic series of adventures of the greenmyn (the aliens) with their human friends in tow. Unlike the majority of science fiction tales, there are no nearly-believable technological devices or gee-whiz wonders. This is a long and continuing romp through unbelievable occurrences and impossible technology that pokes gentle fun at the world of science fiction. The tales (there are more than one) are loosely connected by the same characters, and are written in a style to appeal to youngsters from seven to the mid teens, especially if those youngsters are well versed in the literature of science fiction and the science fiction channel: I believe that Mr. Baxley has expropriated virtually every hackneyed gadget and device to be found therein, and given each his personal twist. Consider just one example: the Wormhole Pocket. Wormhole pocket? a wormhole is basically a shortcut tunnel through space, and, as such has two ends, but a pocket, with one opening has to twist the mind a bit! The humor is intrinsic to the writing but does not interfere with the rapid progression of the action. Occasional riolindas and pithy Earth references are educational and spice up the storytelling. Some of the tales are blatantly scatological and are obviously aimed at the younger set.
This book would be a comfortable five-star read, except that it suffers from the plague of so many electronically published books: a lack of intense editing. Typos and mixed phonemes along with the occasional mangled sentence structure detract from the reading pleasure. That being said, the kids will LOVE this.
Now to poetry: Mr. Fraccalvieri's poems all have a science or science fiction theme, and some have a touch of the religious. Most of these, I believe, will appeal to a more mature audience than Mr. Baxley's tales: if deliberate, this is well done - the book becomes a family read.
The poems run from gentle humor to serious concerns, sociology to hard science, psychology to technology. The casual reader will find that some of the selections just don't scan well for either poetry or blank verse; when you encounter these, read them aloud - they are really tone poems, playing with beat and accent. The quality is spotty, as though the writer included every poem he ever wrote, each scribble, in an attempt to fill the pages - a triumph of quantity over quality. Now poetry is hardly my strong suite, but a fair number of these, both poems and tone poems are quite good, leaving me the feeling that I was mining gems out of a rather extensive clay bank.
Like Mr. Baxley's work, a sharp editing job that would pre-pluck the gems from the clay would have improved this effort immensely. Some of the gems still glitter in my memory.
John Cooley, authorDear Madman
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EXTRA!EXTRA!Read all about them.Yes, them, the extra-terrestrials who have haunted our imaginations for decades.Read all about them in this large intergalactic newspaper from teacher and author Ron Baxley and poet Joe Fraccalveiri.
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