Most helpful customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Who is Santiago?, Dec 12 2002
This is one of my top ten all time favorite sci-fi novels and has been since I first read it when I was about 13 (I am more than TWICE that age now and that's all we'll say on that subject). The book has held up through many years and many re-readings and I enjoy it every time. Far from being traditional and technical science fiction, this is one part pulp western, one part space opera, one part Robin Hood type adventure and five hundred parts cool. Here Resnick has peopled a far flung corner of the Universe with more unique and colorful characters than you would normally get in ten such novels, and the dialogue is snappier than any other book of this genre, guaranteed. The book runs very fast and is fun from start to stop. I couldn't put it down almost two decades ago and I still usually read it in one or two sittings.
Santiago is the most notorious criminal in the galaxy with a price on his head like no other man past or present. He is a legend of close to mythic proportions. The only problem is no one has ever seen his face or dealt with him directly in his many years of looting and pillaging. This doesn't, of course, keep every bounty hunter on the galactic rim from trying to hunt him down. Sebastian Cain is one such bounty hunter, a disillusioned freedom fighter who decided to start killing people for profit once he realized all of his fighting to make the universe a better place was futile. The book begins with his receiving a simple tip in a small out of the way bar that puts him on the trail of the most notorious criminal in history. His adventures take him to many ports of call and he crosses paths with gamblers, assassins, a gun toting preacher, a starving artist, a sentient spaceship, alien indians and even a reporter or two. The only problem is that The Angel, the best bounty hunter in the biz, is also close to figuring out the puzzle that is Santiago. The book is a race, a chase, an adventure of the highest order and makes the point that nothing is ever really what it seems. After all, in a world where your name is a description of who and what you are (Poor Yorick, Jolly Swagman, Man-Mountain Bates), the most dangerous man in the universe is named Santiago. Look it up and see what it means.
There was a point when the paperback of this book came with a blurb saying it was soon to be made into a movie. I guess this never came to fruition, but it would certainly make the best animated sci-fi flick I can think of. I also see that Amazon is advertising for the sequel to be published soon. I cannot wait. Like I said, this is one of my favorite fun books ever and if the follow up is only half as good, it will still be an absolute blast.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Space Cowboys, Aug 11 2002
When I bought SANTIAGO, I was expecting a "space opera" type of novel. That is, a melodrama typified by shallow characterization, simple plot line and lots of action. What I wasn't quite prepared for was a "space western". That's what this is, though. It reads like a cowboy story complete with bounty hunters, a lawless frontier culture, and aliens calling themselves "the sioux nation" and living in teepees.My first reaction was to laugh. The parallels are so blatant that it seemed comical. Resnick posits a galactic "frontier" where cheap, personal inter-stellar transportation is available and goes the whole nine yards in comparing it to the western frontier of the U.S. in the second half of the nineteenth century. It's like Dodge City goes galactic. The surprising thing here is that Resnick actually pulls this off. It may seem a little corny at first (at least, it did to me), but overall it's entertaining and fun to read. Not only does the story move along at a good pace, but it is populated with some of the oddest and most intriguing characters imaginable. They aren't deep, but each is quirky and VERY different in his/her own way. Some are likable, some are at least sympathetic, some are downright despicable, but they're not boring. This progression of wierd characters is enough to keep the book from getting dull all by itself. SANTIAGO isn't a deep, thought-provoking tale, but it is entertaining. I enjoyed it. It's fluff, but it works. If that works for you, give it a try. I recommend it as a good, light scifi read.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Songbird and Moonripple -, May 30 2002
This is not a love story by a long shot, but it is a story of love. Each personality performs as would be expected under the conditions. Some perform better, some worse, some live, some die. You may not agree with any of them, but you will understand what and why they do what they do.
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