Review: The Old-Fashoned Space Adventure Returns
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 11, 2012
I stopped reading science fiction novels in the mid 1980s because I could no longer find books like this one. As time went on things just got worse--it seemed like all the sf authors were trying to "out-weird" each other. Truly good sf novels got harder and harder to find.Bruce Davis has filled the gap. Glowgems for Profit represents an exciting return to true science fiction adventure. Zack Mbele is a war veteran who was captured, tortured, and staked out to die. All but one of those captured with him did die, but Zack and his buddy Rabbit survived (Rabbit was left partially paralyzed). Now the war is over and Zack has his own ship (optimistically christened the Profit); he hauls freight and passengers all over the Solar System, just trying to make enough to pay his bills.But it's a dangerous solar system out there. The war may be over but rebel ideology hasn't died. Neither have the criminal cartels, and when Zack picks up a shady passenger who just has to get away from Highpoint but won't say where he wants to go or why--and someone tries to kill the passenger before they can even close the deal...well, Zack wasn't born in a test tube--something smells rotten.Zack is no stranger to trouble. He's had his share, and avoids it like an open airlock in space. But he needs money for his next loan payment on Profit and the passenger is offering to pay cash. All Zack has to do to deliver his passenger is avoid the cops, the cartels, and the assassins.Fortunately he has some interesting friends to help him out: Rabbit is the best data slicer in the star system; his war-time buddy and current crewman Deuce is expert with explosives and weapons; and Sylvia, the Artificial Intelligence computer that operates Profit, is smarter than the average bundle of bits.Finally, there's that gorgeous Asian chick with a needler in one hand and a stun baton in the other, Cleopatra Lee. With a crew like that, Zack is ready to take on whatever he must to make that next starship payment. Should be a piece of cake, right?Yeah, right.Glowgems for Profit is the old-fashioned space adventure I thought I would never see again. Exciting characters in an exotic world, fighting for survival in more ways than one. Bruce Davis has written a page-turner here, one you won't want to miss. Start it before dinner and you may not get any sleep at all. I can't wait to read the sequel, if there is one. There better be!Five stars on the story, four stars on the formatting.  Overall, a great read.