home > SF > book reviews > F. M. Busby
Google > F. M. Busby


Novels/Collections

Short works

Other information

Author review:
F. M. Busby's stories often involve a protagonist who overcomes a poor, even abusive, upbringing (the Rissa and Tregare novels take this to extremes!) to become a competent hero, involved in various 'space opera' style adventures, usually with some fairly 'hard' science component. Good romps.

Author rating: 3
[ unmissable | great stuff | worth reading | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]

Novels/Collections : reviews

[no cover]

F. M. Busby. The Demu Trilogy. Pocket. 1980

An omnibus volume, comprising Cage A Man, The Proud Enemy, End of the Line

 

F. M. Busby. Cage A Man. 1973

 

F. M. Busby. The Proud Enemy. 1975

 

F. M. Busby. End of the Line. 1980

 

[no cover]

F. M. Busby. Getting Home. Ace. 1987

 

Contents (possible spoilers)

• A Gun for Grandfather. 1957
• Of Mice and Otis. 1972
• The Puiss of Krrlik. 1972
• The Absence of Tom Leone. 1972. = Here, There and Everywhere
• Proof. 1972
• The Real World. 1972
• Tell Me All About Yourself. 1973
• Once Upon a Unicorn. 1973
• Road Map. 1973
• If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy. 1974
• Three Tinks on the House. 1973
• The Learning of Eeshta. 1973
• I'm Going to Get You. 1974
• 2000 1/2: A Spaced Oddity. 1973
• Time of Need. 1974
• Retroflex. 1974
• Misconception. 1974
• The Signing of Tulip. 1975
• Advantage. 1975
• Getting Home. 1974

[cover]

F. M. Busby. Islands of Tomorrow. Avon. 1994

Rating: 3.5
[ unmissable | great stuff | worth reading | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]

reviewed 23 March 1997

Luke Tabor is a physics grad student in a near future university. He get involved in a protest against a new tax, egged on by a charismatic figure, Derion. The next thing he knows, he's in jail with the protest group, which is rescued by Derion, who drags them to his own time in the far future. There Luke and his companions undergo various adventures, being flung around in time by Derion's enemies and allies, as they try to find a way home.

Derion turns out to be one of the Changed, mutants with psi powers, who can move through time. This travelling is restricted to certain 'Islands' in the past, and no one can be in the same time twice. Derion's solution of how to get round this latter constraint is quite interesting.

The complexities of time travelling, and how it can affect the past, is all handled quite well. But the story takes a long time to get going, and is rather choppy. And all the women have secondary, rather passive, roles -- and accept their final fate with mind-boggling equanimity.

An engaging enough story on the whole, but not riveting.