If you’ve been reading Lensman and you liked Bill the Galactic Hero, you must find and read Harry Harrison’s Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers.
It is a note-perfect subversion and parody of classic space opera in general and the Lensman series in particular, especially all those problematic aspects, and parts of it reliably have me in hysterical laughter whenever I reread it.
Dialog like “The accumulators are crackling with barely restrained power, Chuck!”, and an interstellar space drive made from irradiated processed cheese food.
I will keep it in mind. My holds showed up so now I am rereading the first few Stainless Steel Rat books as it has been 20+ years and I just have vague memories of them now. Also the 2nd of the St. Mary’s time travel series as I really enjoyed the first one.
I see Michael has gotten banhammered, so I will be more specific in case he happens by and reads this.
Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series, which is set in the fantasy Draegaran Empire, and starts with Jhereg, includes a subplot near the middle of the series that involves a dehumanized racial minority trying to start a socialist revolution. It’s fun stuff.
The quality is somewhat variable among the individual books in the series, but I really enjoy the main character, who is sort of purposely out of place in a genre fantasy setting. These are also the only enjoyable books I’ve ever read that were originally inspired by a D&D type role-playing scenario.
It’s gotten to the point now that family members buy the hardback for me as soon as a new one comes out.
I don’t care for the related books from outside the Taltos main series very much, myself, but that’s because of the different writing style. I prefer Dashiell Hammett to Alexandre Dumas.
Great series. I was thinking about that particular book yesterday, as it includes some of the details which hint throughout the series that it is as much science fiction as it is fantasy. As I recall it hints that the organizers had access to Marxist literature which had been somehow smuggled from Earth long ago.
