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isabellarobinson7's review
3.0
Rating: 3 stars
Firehand “written” by Andre Norton was very clearly not written by her at all. I wonder just how much input she actually had despite her name being given an equal, if not more prominent, placement on the cover alongside the “co-author”, P.M. Griffin.
Basically, the fifth Time Traders novel starts with Ross and Gordon relaxing on the Hawaii planet after having saved it in the previous book. Then Eveleen, a weapons expert from Earth, shows up to tell them the evil alien Baldies are trying to destroy this other planet called Dominion of the Virgin (don’t ask). Fearing Earth will be next, our team leaves with Eveleen to go undercover and thwart the Baldies’ plans.
Dominion is a generic patriarchal society where regular mediaeval combat takes place. Think swords, shields, bows-and-arrows, good old-fashioned slicing and dicing. The only difference is that people ride deer instead of horses (again, don’t ask). With Eveleen serving as his lieutenant, Murdock quickly gains quite the reputation as a local warlord, even garnering the nickname “Firehand”, and finds himself in a much more successful position than he had ever been in on Earth. In fact, he starts to see no use in returning home at all...
That’s pretty much the entire plot of Firehand. The rest of the pages are filled up with battles. And I mean FILLED: politicking about battles, preparing for battles, fighting in battles, recovering from battles, training for battles, planning the next battle... LOTS of stabby action in this book. Quite a bit of political intrigue too, which I am not mad about, just a rather large divergence from the previous books.
Ashe kind of faded into the background of this book because the story had more important things to focus on - romance. Yes my friends, Ross Murdock, former petty criminal and all around social reject gets a wife. And it happens so quickly, if you blink you will miss it. I kid you not, they have their first kiss on one page, and by the very next one the wedding ceremony has been fast-tracked and they are already calling each other husband and wife. Good for them, I guess, but keep in mind I’m the definitive last person you should be talking to about romance.
I know I still have two books to go, but I am already ranking the series in my head. Book one, The Time Traders, is still my favourite; then Key Out of Time, book four; then either Galactic Derelict or this book (Firehand) in third; and (without a doubt) The Defiant Agents in last.
Firehand “written” by Andre Norton was very clearly not written by her at all. I wonder just how much input she actually had despite her name being given an equal, if not more prominent, placement on the cover alongside the “co-author”, P.M. Griffin.
Basically, the fifth Time Traders novel starts with Ross and Gordon relaxing on the Hawaii planet after having saved it in the previous book. Then Eveleen, a weapons expert from Earth, shows up to tell them the evil alien Baldies are trying to destroy this other planet called Dominion of the Virgin (don’t ask). Fearing Earth will be next, our team leaves with Eveleen to go undercover and thwart the Baldies’ plans.
Dominion is a generic patriarchal society where regular mediaeval combat takes place. Think swords, shields, bows-and-arrows, good old-fashioned slicing and dicing. The only difference is that people ride deer instead of horses (again, don’t ask). With Eveleen serving as his lieutenant, Murdock quickly gains quite the reputation as a local warlord, even garnering the nickname “Firehand”, and finds himself in a much more successful position than he had ever been in on Earth. In fact, he starts to see no use in returning home at all...
That’s pretty much the entire plot of Firehand. The rest of the pages are filled up with battles. And I mean FILLED: politicking about battles, preparing for battles, fighting in battles, recovering from battles, training for battles, planning the next battle... LOTS of stabby action in this book. Quite a bit of political intrigue too, which I am not mad about, just a rather large divergence from the previous books.
Ashe kind of faded into the background of this book because the story had more important things to focus on - romance. Yes my friends, Ross Murdock, former petty criminal and all around social reject gets a wife. And it happens so quickly, if you blink you will miss it. I kid you not, they have their first kiss on one page, and by the very next one the wedding ceremony has been fast-tracked and they are already calling each other husband and wife. Good for them, I guess, but keep in mind I’m the definitive last person you should be talking to about romance.
I know I still have two books to go, but I am already ranking the series in my head. Book one, The Time Traders, is still my favourite; then Key Out of Time, book four; then either Galactic Derelict or this book (Firehand) in third; and (without a doubt) The Defiant Agents in last.
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