Review: A funny little bit of space pulp
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 22, 2012
Junior Officer (Probationary) Dana Loy of the Drantini Unified Police and Emergency Service (DUPES) gets her first duty fresh out of the Academy. She is assigned to an aging patrol ship guarding, or, more accurately, largely ignoring a quiet sector of space. The only other officer on the ship is her incompetent commander, Lieutenant Detective Hackenthrush, although he is renting out an extra cabin to an alien civilian.During her first day, they detect a drifting lifeboat at the edge of their patrol sector. In accordance with the well-know truism that good deeds do not go unpunished, they become unwittingly involved in a massive and dangerous police sting operation as a result.The main character of this short book is the woman they rescue. Charlene Cortez is mostly human, although she has a whizz-bang cybernetic arm. I'd say more about her but it would be a spoiler, so I won't. Let's just say she has connections with the Galactic Authority Police.And then there's Igon, an untrustworthy, lovesick robot.All of the characters are fun, often simply silly. There is nothing profound or insightful about them. They may make you smile, but they won't make you think (to misquote Jethro Tull from Thick as a Brick - a great classic rock album, which has nothing to do with this book).Rocketship Patrol is a pulp Sci-Fi novella that intentionally parodies the books from the 1950s and 1960s. At 31,000 words (about 100 paperback pages if it were available in paperback, which it's not) it is about a third the length of a regular novel. I picked up a copy during a recent free Kindle promotion and read it the same evening. I noted a few typos, but not many more than I normally find in traditionally published books.I recommend this for pulp Sci-Fi fans interested in a short, fun read.