Here's some quick comments by Bryan...
My comments on "Space War Blues":
Yuck! I had read somewhere that Lupoff was one of the best unknown writers, and I was expecting much better. This is probably the worst book I've ever read in my life. I hated it 100% and could find no redeeming feature.
Well, there are a couple things that make it notable. I did think the "zombie" idea was kind of cool. That should have been fleshed out somewhat and made more of the focus of a more dedicated novel.
Also, I found it interesting that there was so much on the topic of race. Very few SF books ever deal with black/white race relations, but this attempted. I just wish that the white characters (the racist ones) knew how to talk. I *hate* reading baby talk, especially 40 or 50 pages of it. It did not add character to them, it just made for annoying reading. Sure, it emulated the "deep south" accent, and that's implied racism on a different level, but I still don't enjoy reading baby talk junk. Sorry, Dick Lupoff, but it sucks.
I think the novel really suffered from having too many stories in it. In any other novelized collection of stories, the stories might fall in chronological order or be integrated more seamlessly. In this one, everything runs together. So you get a little of this story in this chapter, and then a little of the next story in the next chapter (written in baby talk), and then a little of this story in the next chapter (in a different style again), and you get very confused about the characters and the plots.
In any event, I will be sure to flip through any Lupoff books to search for baby talk before I make another purchase.
Bryan
