Steven C. (SteveTheDM) - , reviewed on 5/24/2010 + 204 more book reviews

The Ginger Star is a novel of the adventures of Eric John Stark on the dying planet of Skaith as he looks for a friend who has gone missing. Originally published in 1974, it's a novel that fits well in the late stages of pulp adventure fiction. Reading it has reminded me of something I tend to forget from time to time: I really dislike this kind of fiction.

The narrative follows Stark on his journey, jumping from spot to spot as he encounters difficulties and struggles to overcome them. Brackett does a reasonably good job coming up with varied trouble to throw at her hero, but time and again I just didn't care whether he overcame them or not. Stark is really not a likable sort of fellow.

Character development is nearly absent, and dialog almost never happens either. Maybe Brackett doesn't do either of these very well, but the book needs *something* to let me relate to the characters, and it doesn't have anything.

2 of 5 stars.

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