FEATURED AUTHOR - Cate Beauman is the multi-award-winning, international bestselling author of The Bodyguards of L.A. County series and the Carter Island Trilogy. She is known for her full-length, action-packed romantic suspense and contemporary stories. Cate’s novels have been named Readers’ Favorite Five Star books and have won the Booksellers’ Best Award, Maggie Award for Excellence, the Holt Medallion Award, two-time Aspen Gold Medal, two-time Readers’ Favorite International Gold Medal, three-time Readers’…
Read more
Recent comments: User reviews
He fears the warn's natural predators might make a bad infestation worse, so he turns to earth and opens a door between earth and the problem planet to get a human "predator" to hunt and kill the warn.
The door opens in Alaska and it entices a hardbitten Alaskan trapper/hunter/tracker/loner type to enter because of the promise of good hunting.
The warn and the Alaskan battle it out to the bitter end. No surprise who wins, but the battle is ever so much fun to follow.
The setting is Walden, a planet taken over by minimalist agrarian oriented colonists. They wrested the planet from the Pukpuks, who were technologically oriented, and basically raped the planet of natural resources. The Pukpuls are now waging a guerilla war against the Waldenites. The Waldenites are reforesting the planet and the Pukpuks are torching the forests, sometimes dying in the process by becoming "torches", using their own bodies to start fires. To confuse matters, some Waldenites support the PukPuks.
Our protaganist is Spur, a Gary Cooper of quiet guy who is a volunteer firefighter from a small village. He has been severely burned trying to save his brother-in-law who was evidently a "torch" working for the Pukpuks. He has nightmares about his brother-in-law. How does he tell his wife after promising to protect him. Firefighting seems to be a losing battle, his wife is divorcing him, and he really is confused, not really understanding the momentous events going on around him or how to respond.
To help healing, he contacts the "upsiders" who are very strange technologically sophisticated off planet humans inhabiting a large number of settled worlds. They provide a robot doctor bot to heal him and come to Walden to check out what is going on. Big doings for the simple farmer Waldenites who have proscribed most technology in their simple lives.
The middle of the story seems slow, taken up with character development, at first seeming like a soap opera, but designed for the reader to get to know the characters well. And you will get to liking and identifying with them.
A fire ensues, threatening his village, Spur tries to control it, doubting his abilities, but using his training until help arrives.
During the chaotic fire and the firefighting, secret agendas are revealed involving the the off planet upsiders, Spur's wife and the Pukpuks which lead to a very interesting and surprising ending.
That's enough to get started.
The most celebrated FBI agent is recruited to catch a telepath in the Yucca Flats Research Lab who is selling national secrets. The agent has been very successful in past cases, but he really feels rather low, because he thinks he is just lucky and not good. He caries this attitude throughout the story, acting like a depressed puppy.
So how do you catch a telepath? With another telepath, of course. There is a stop along the way to check out a catch-22 telepath detector machine which will only detect if someones mind is being read, maybe. The nationwide search for telepaths turns up several, but unfortunately, they are all in mental institutions and loonier than Bugs Bunny. The FBI boss orders the agents to humor the crazy telepaths (one not so crazy after all) so they will help catch the criminal.
From there, the story takes you along with the Queen of England and her costumed court (the FBI agents), a buxom nurse, a night in Vegas complete with a car chase and attempted shooting, and finally the showdown in the Flats.
Fun.
Do you care after reading this piece of trash? No!
Pulp, pulp, pulp. Fun if you like it.
Farnsworth has created a rubber ball he hoped would be an eraser, but he messed up and the new rubber compound takes heat energy out of it's surroundings and uses it to bounce higher and higher. It becomes a danger, bouncing ever higher out of control. They chase it, finally to find it kills itself by hitting the ground so hard it makes a crater and breaks into pieces. They then bury the pieces to prevent a repeat. Who are these guys anyway? They live in San Francisco; I don't know, does that explain any of it?
Well, I disagree with the last reviewer. I think this story is ridiculous, and not worth a read. At least it's mercifully short. Do you hear me Farnsworth! I am going to write a story about a chicken liver that can play scrabble!
He takes it home and interacts. The therapy machine doesn't understand. It thinks the problem is that he doesn't honor his Gloricae, the tree that nourished him from birth. He replies "no tree nourished me" And so on.
but therapy is completed, and.......Well, you'll just have to read what happened. 5 stars for being a 50's classic short story that has endured, and good for a yuk or two.
Doc Feldman, a caring doctor married the Daughter of the grand poobah of the medical lobby and has been labelled a "pariah" by the Lobby for performing emergency surgery outside of a hospital to try to save the life of a friend. If he is caught practicing medicine again, well... the penalty may be death! He is hounded by his wife who wants him punished. They are separated because of his "transgression". (I guess the good samaritan law got repealed)
He wanders, penniless and unemployable, but gets a crewman's ticket to Mars from a dead spacer. Mars is a crude frontier colony and they shelter him from the medical lobby as he dedicates himself to caring for the Martians.
He comes across the first martian disease which threatens not only Mars but Earth as well and embarks on a search for a cure with a few test tubes and a stethoscope; all the while being hounded by the Lobby and his wife.
Comment; The story is Ok, the social commentary about the way the world went may cause some pucker to anyone today who follows current events, but the medical science is totally stupid.
And, If I were Doc Feldman, I'd have killed my Bi*ch of a wife in chapter one-or any subsequent chapter she pops up in. Like a prior reviewer said. 'Not up to Del Ray's standard.