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<blockquote data-quote="Wofano Wotanto" data-source="post: 9348588" data-attributes="member: 7044704">Finished a re-read of John Maddox Roberts' Space Angel after stumbling on a copy at a local consignment shop, of all places.&nbsp; I first read this when it came out in 1979 and it briefly put the author on kid me's watch list, only to fall right back off after reading the sequel, the first book of Cingulum and one of his dreadful Conan pastiches, at which point I gave up.&nbsp; Had no idea he'd written as many books (most historical mysteries) as he did until I looked at his Goodreads page, and I honestly don't recall seeing any of his other books on store shelves at all, which is a little weird.Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Space Angel held up quite well for its age.&nbsp; It's not sophisticated and I might be less tolerant without the nostalgia of a barely-teenage kid, but it's got a solid premise that could easily have been an RPG campaign, decent descriptive writing and toward the end a nicely OTT sense of scale, which is something I like to see in a space opera.&nbsp; Maybe it's a fluke for Roberts (the very loose sequel is kind of awful and didn't need to exist - only the characters carry over) or maybe his work I haven't seen is much better, but taken as a solo novel Space Angel gets a thumbs up from me.If you want a light, innocuous bit of reading where the story is more about the spectacle than the characters this will do fine.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wofano Wotanto, post: 9348588, member: 7044704"] Finished a re-read of John Maddox Roberts' Space Angel after stumbling on a copy at a local consignment shop, of all places. I first read this when it came out in 1979 and it briefly put the author on kid me's watch list, only to fall right back off after reading the sequel, the first book of Cingulum and one of his dreadful Conan pastiches, at which point I gave up. Had no idea he'd written as many books (most historical mysteries) as he did until I looked at his Goodreads page, and I honestly don't recall seeing any of his other books on store shelves at all, which is a little weird. Still, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Space Angel held up quite well for its age. It's not sophisticated and I might be less tolerant without the nostalgia of a barely-teenage kid, but it's got a solid premise that could easily have been an RPG campaign, decent descriptive writing and toward the end a nicely OTT sense of scale, which is something I like to see in a space opera. Maybe it's a fluke for Roberts (the very loose sequel is kind of awful and didn't need to exist - only the characters carry over) or maybe his work I haven't seen is much better, but taken as a solo novel Space Angel gets a thumbs up from me. If you want a light, innocuous bit of reading where the story is more about the spectacle than the characters this will do fine. [/QUOTE]

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