Others: Negative This was medieval England in the 1970s, again beset by the ancient Evil that had kept the Dark Ages from ever lightening. Half the country was in the grip of the fell Harriers, and it was through these Harried Lands that Duncan of Standish would have to make his way to Oxenford. His mission was to authenticate a long-lost testament which offered the only hope against the terror. Beset by Harriers, Duncan is saved by Diane, great-granddaughter of a renegade wizard, and joined by the strangest company ever assembled: a timid hermit, a ghost who knows nothing of ghosthood, a banshee, a grumpy goblin, a witch who could never quite make herself evil enough, and a demon who is AWOL from Hell. Duncan believes himself protected by the talisman of a wizard's bauble. But when the Evil forces detect the company and mount a final assault against them, Duncan sees his only hope crumble in failure. He is left with only his courage and his mission...
Genres: science fiction
Lists: …
Robert Silverberg
1967 · 222 pages · 6 reviews
Others: Mostly negativeDuncan Chalk's six-hundred-pound frame is nearly as large as his media empire. Beneath the depths of his immense rolls of flab, the fabulously wealthy mogul wields the editorial power to deliver his programming across the solar system to billions of viewers. His newest real-life romance drama is between a starman who survived painful surgical experimentation while in alien captivity, and an emotionally scarred 17-year-old virgin. When the arranged relationship takes off on a whirlwind tour of the antarctic and out to the moons of Saturn, the viewers are swept up in the romance, but Chalk's true motives are revealed when the doomed relationship begins to unravel... and Chalk can feed on the emotional anguish of the two lost souls.
What made the match, strongest first
Michael Ely
2000 · 292 pages · 1 review
Others: NegativeAfter a forty-year journey from an Earth left teetering on the brink of nuclear Armageddon, the United Nations colonial starship Unity reaches the lone habitable planet orbiting Alpha Centauri's primary star, bringing with it the hope of a new beginning for the human race. Hope turns to ashes when, on final approach to the new world, a mysterious, malfunction damages the ship, triggering a crisis that results in the death of the captain and a rash of infighting over the ship's undamaged colony pods. The Unity breaks apart in space and seven colonial factions are scattered across the surface of the planet. As the Unity survivors struggle to rebuild human civilization on this strange and mysterious alien world, old tensions resurface and on man sets in motion forces that man destroy any dream of a lasting peace.
What made the match, strongest first
James White
1974 · 217 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedWith corruption and pollution destroying Earth, John Devlin is sent on a one-thousand-year mission to find a new planet for mankind
What made the match, strongest first
Robert A. Heinlein
1985 · 385 pages · 1 review
Others: NegativeMission: retrieve the computer backups that can restore the sentient computer who masterminded the 2075 revolution that freed Luna.
What made the match, strongest first
Stanisław Lem
1967 · 221 pages · 3 reviews
Others: NeutralReads initially like the sort of traditional science fiction you might see on TV - rocket lands on foreign planet, sends out teams to discover what gives. what follows is a gripping scientific detective story as we learn the terrible secrets of a past race, and Lem takes us on a journey of wonder and awe. Reminiscent of the final passages of HG Wells' Time Machine as the author shows us beings and worlds we could never imagine. I've read this several times and will read it again and you should too.
What made the match, strongest first
Clifford D. Simak
1963 · 210 pages · 7 reviews
Others: Mostly positiveEnoch Wallace is an ageless hermit, striding across his untended farm as he has done for over a century, still carrying the gun with which he had served in the Civil War. But what his neighbors must never know is that, inside his unchanging house, he meets with a host of unimaginable friends from the farthest stars. More than a hundred years before, an alien named Ulysses had recruited Enoch as the keeper of Earth's only galactic transfer station. Now, as Enoch studies the progress of Earth and tends the tanks where the aliens appear, the charts he made indicate his world is doomed to destruction. His alien friends can only offer help that seems worse than the dreaded disaster. Then he discovers the horror that lies across the galaxy...
What made the match, strongest first
Not a fani bailed after two chapters i just could not take it was written like a 10th grader would write their first fantasy novel characters utterly uninteresting speaking to each other in these long paragraphs of pure exposition just reciting context to one another
