Saucerers and Gondoliers

By Dominic Green
$0.00 Rating: 1 star1 star1 star0.5 star
(3.50 based on 4 reviews)

Published: Aug. 12, 2011
Words: 55,993 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781466124233


Short description

It was supposed to be a walk in the woods. Abduction by a UFO was certainly not supposed to happen. Especially not a UFO made in England... From Dominic Green, Hugo-award-nominated science fiction author, comes a story of two British teenagers catapulted into an interstellar conflict.

Extended description

Flying saucers do not land in country parks. They are not piloted by Englishmen. They do not bear nameplates saying "HAWKER SIDDELEY AVIATION." And they are never, ever filled with smuggled catering packs of Monster Munch.

Britain has had a top secret colony in space for decades. Unfortunately, the colony has grown tired of being run by the mother country - and the mother country has decided it's time to send in the troops. Between these two sides are Anthony Stevens and Cleopatra Shakespeare, abducted from England and hurled into a war between Britain, America, and the newly, fiercely independent United States of the Zodiac.

Where is the mysterious hidden colony of Gondolin? How did the United States of America come to have interstellar spacecraft in the 1950s? And who or what is Truman J. Slughound the Third? Find out in a story guaranteed to contain colour-changing aliens, Godless communists from Altair, rednecks from Barnard's Star, space fighters, rocket pistols, death.. (Read more)


Tags

adventure, fantasy, young adult, childrens, science fiction, outer space, sf, ant and cleo

Available ebook reading formats

This book is free. How to download ebooks to e-reading devices and apps.
Format Full Book
Online Reading (HTML, good for sampling in web browser)View
Kindle (.mobi for Kindle devices and Kindle apps)Download
Epub (Apple iPad/iBooks, Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, and most e-reading apps including Stanza, Aldiko, Adobe Digital Editions, others)Download
PDF (good for reading on PC, or for home printing)Download
RTF (readable on most word processors)Download
LRF (Use only for older model Sony Readers that don't support .epub)Download
Palm Doc (PDB) (for Palm reading devices)Download
Plain Text (download) (flexible, but lacks much formatting)Download
Plain Text (view) (viewable as web page)View

Reviews

Log-in to write a Review   Log-in to add a Video Review

Review by: C.M. Gray on June 21, 2012 : star star star star
Hmmmm, yes ...interesting, I really enjoyed Saucerers and Gondoliers, it was a new slant on sci fi humour and very original. The author has a good writing voice and introduces some great characters, notably Ant  and Cleo, our heroes and Truman J Slughound, the super tracking slug that can find our heroes  anywhere and then helps on numerous occasions with escapes. This sci fi world has various secret colonies in space, unknown to the rest of us down here on earth. We meet the Russians, still very soviet , the Americans who are very 'red neck' and the Brits who are 'very British!'
The Russian, Captain Popov was a great character who had me grinning several times and I may well be one of the few readers that remembers the Banana Splits from my childhood summer mornings during school holiday, thanks for that blast from the past.
All in all a very entertaining story, well written and edited, I would look for more from this author.
(review of free book)

Review by: Victoria Zigler on May 31, 2012 : star star star star
An unusual, amusing, and entertaining read. I wouldn't class it as one of my favourites, but I would read it again.
(review of free book)

Review by: Daniel Scott White on March 03, 2012 : star star
This is just a sample. You will be directed to the full version on the last page... sigh.
(review of free book)

Review by: Maria Violante on Dec. 12, 2011 : star star star star
What kind of novel is it? Well it's sort of satire science fiction ... erm ... it's political commentar... er, that's not really right either ... how about this: there are aliens, and the book is an absolute riot. The dialogue is great, the descriptions are droll and witty. Here's an example:

There's only two sorts of people who wear jumpers, coats and ties," said Ant under his breath.

"Racetrack tic tac men and policemen. Leg it."

They legged it.

Unfortunately, he legged it after them.
There are one or two places where it wears a bit thin, but I found myself chuckling on pretty much every "page." The two main characters, Ant and Cleo, are well developed, heartwarming, cocky teenagers that somehow manage to stow away on an Alien craft (even getting their chance to vomit in zero gravity!) Their shenanigans get them involved in an interplanetary cold-war type conflict.

A few notes. One, the book is by a British author. There were a few slang passages that I had to really think through, but it isn't incomprehensible by any means. Two, being British, it sometimes pokes fun at Americans. If you are militantly patriotic and can't take a joke, perhaps you should, you know, not read it. If you can take a joke and enjoy a discworld type humor, only from a sci-fi angle, you should definitely grab this one.

Overall Rating: Four Stars. If you are into campy, quirky dry humor - or if you have a secret desire to send all of the rednecks to the moon - I recommend this book as an excellent read.
(reviewed the day of purchase)

Report this book