Bill The Galactic Hero Harry Harrison 9780743487078 Books
Download As PDF : Bill The Galactic Hero Harry Harrison 9780743487078 Books
Bill The Galactic Hero Harry Harrison 9780743487078 Books
This was an odd book, and I can only recommend it if you a) really like Harry Harrison, b) you like military parodies, and c) you like odd books.I've heard about "Bill" for years, and for some reason never got my hands on a copy. I've read all of Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books (the first few were the best) and Deathworld trilogy (all were excellent). Then I found this while wandering around the Kindle store and decided to give it a try.
It really doesn't make any sense, except as a parody. You never really get to care about Bill or relate to him, or the very peculiar universe he lives in, or its perpetual state of bureaucratic incompetence, and its never-ending war.
Once you accept the fact that nothing makes sense and just roll with it, the book is a quick read. There aren't many characters, the plots are very one-dimensional (straight line), and the dialog is minimal.
Consider this a quick read for a Harry Harrison fan, and you'll be good. It didn't suck. It never made me laugh either. A lot of people say this is the SciFi version of "Catch-22." Yeah. But it's very thin as a parody. "Bored of the Rings," this ain't. "Catch-22," this ain't. To be honest, Harrison has done better.
This book is made up of several short stories, by the way. There are other books about Bill, but I don't intend to read any more of them.
Oh: In 2014 some college film students made a live-action movie out of this book. The actors spend all their time in white space suits, so you can't see them -- and the sound is muffled, so it's hard to heard them. Still, it's impressive given that it was a student project. Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/114775119
Tags : Bill The Galactic Hero [Harry Harrison] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <P>It was the highest honor to defend the Empire against the dreaded Chingers, an enemy race of seven-foot-tall lizards. But Bill,Harry Harrison,Bill The Galactic Hero,I Books,0743487079,Science Fiction - General,Fiction,Fiction - Science Fiction,Fiction Science Fiction Action & Adventure,Fiction Science Fiction General,Fiction Science Fiction Space Opera,General & Literary Fiction,Science Fiction,Science Fiction - Space Opera
Bill The Galactic Hero Harry Harrison 9780743487078 Books Reviews
Strange, how I had never heard of Bill the Galactic Hero, until I surfed my way by accident to this book one day. I knew of Harry Harrison and had read his "Stainless Steel Rat" and several of his short stories years ago. As a youth, I read mostly what was stocked on the bookshelves of the Dallas public libraries, and this sort of literature was probably not considered worthy, and so never crossed my consciousness.
In many ways, the book's humor is reminiscent of the style of that other 60's era book "Bored of the Rings" (another book that did not make an appearance in the Dallas public libraries, but which I discovered along with the National Lampoon, and other great humor, through a roommate in college).
It's a silly, gentle sort of parody, not the dark, tear into shreds, profanity laced, edgy sort of stuff that we get so much today.
Bill is a farmboy in an outlying planet of the Empire, studying to be a Technical Fertilizer Operator, when he is literally drug-gooned into the Imperial Star Troopers. And thus begins a series of misadventures where Bill becomes a fuse tender (his job is to change the large fuses when they blow under the stresses of battle) on board the spaceship Christine Keeler (I had forgotten this one and had to look it up - Christine Keeler was the call girl who brought down the British Secretary of War John Profumo in 1961 in a sex scandal), and almost by accident becomes a hero, loses a left arm in a space battle, gets the right arm of one of his buddies transplanted so that he has TWO right arms....etc....
You get the idea.
All in all, a fast read and an amusing story, and a reminder of the gentle humor of the 1960's.
As with much of Harry Harrison's work, this is a SciFi page turner. This time, from the point of view of a poor schlub who gets aggressively recruited off a farm on an agricultural world, and is a rip roaring romp through basic training, with all the expected abuse by the drill instructor, the early sendoff to the front, and a series of escapades, including being declared a hero, going AWOL, and getting mixed up in criminal enterprises, finally becoming the high pressure recruiting agent, snatching his brother off the same farm he grew up on.
Harrison is a master of the genre, and this is a fun, light read, laced with his not well hidden disdain for the military. Worth the read, but not in the stead of the Stainless Steel Rat series.
When one considers how may mediocre and really poor books are out there, this one is certainly in 4 - 5 Star category. I would describe as an anti-war satire - and it's by no means subtle. It's amusing, but I must admit I didn't laugh out loud at any point. I think that as I get older (and I'm pretty old) the laughing doesn't come as easy as when I was young, so I won't blame the lack of laughter on the writer.
"Bill the Galactic Hero" is a perennial favorite of mine. I first read it when I was an ensign in the Navy, and I made a point to read it at least once per year through my 25 year career. It helped me maintain a much healthier perspective in the face of the sorts of bureaucratic obstacles and administrative foul-ups that I encountered in posts both ashore and afloat, as I tried my best to live up to my oath of office.
Alas, at some point in the last couple of years my dog-eared copy was transported to the center of the nearest sun after I lent it to another soul in need of neural recollimation, so I needed to procure an alternate copy. Happily, not only did I find a reprint of this classic, but I was also able to procure this copy, complete with Harry Harrison's signature. This little treasure is now happily ensconced (in protective plastic) on my bookshelf with many other Harry Harrison books.
A double-handed salute to the late, great master!
This was an odd book, and I can only recommend it if you a) really like Harry Harrison, b) you like military parodies, and c) you like odd books.
I've heard about "Bill" for years, and for some reason never got my hands on a copy. I've read all of Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books (the first few were the best) and Deathworld trilogy (all were excellent). Then I found this while wandering around the store and decided to give it a try.
It really doesn't make any sense, except as a parody. You never really get to care about Bill or relate to him, or the very peculiar universe he lives in, or its perpetual state of bureaucratic incompetence, and its never-ending war.
Once you accept the fact that nothing makes sense and just roll with it, the book is a quick read. There aren't many characters, the plots are very one-dimensional (straight line), and the dialog is minimal.
Consider this a quick read for a Harry Harrison fan, and you'll be good. It didn't suck. It never made me laugh either. A lot of people say this is the SciFi version of "Catch-22." Yeah. But it's very thin as a parody. "Bored of the Rings," this ain't. "Catch-22," this ain't. To be honest, Harrison has done better.
This book is made up of several short stories, by the way. There are other books about Bill, but I don't intend to read any more of them.
Oh In 2014 some college film students made a live-action movie out of this book. The actors spend all their time in white space suits, so you can't see them -- and the sound is muffled, so it's hard to heard them. Still, it's impressive given that it was a student project. Watch it here https//vimeo.com/114775119
0 Response to "⋙ PDF Bill The Galactic Hero Harry Harrison 9780743487078 Books"
Post a Comment