cjh%CCA-UNIX@csin.UUCP (02/03/84)
The reason few people are discussing shoot-em-up space opera is that most of
us, even the software weenies, have outgrown it. I read all of the Dumarest
series in a month or so, back when there were only 12-14 of them, and found
them "not \that/ bad, but, Lord, it wasn't good." The polite term for books in
which the same scene (cyclan scout interfacing with master brain) appears on p.
37 of every volume in the series is "hackwork".
The fact that Tubb wrote a SPACE: 1999 ("marked down from 2001") book is a
good measure of his ability. (Yes, I know Blish, Haldeman, and MacIntyre have
written STAR TREK books, but (aside from the fact that ST was a great deal
better) Blish was dying and the ones by H and V are far better than the rest of
them.)