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Title/Author

Colony

Rob Grant

Average Review Rating Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)
Book Details

Publisher : Viking

Published : 2000

Copyright : Rob Grant 2000

ISBN-10 : HB 0-670-88965-2
ISBN-13 : HB 978-0-670-88965-5

Publisher's Write-Up

The generation ship Willflower is on a mission to colonise the stars. Crewed by only the cream of humanity, the best of the very best, its voyage will take several lifetimes to complete. Children born on board are trained from infancy to inherit their parents' jobs.

But by the tenth generation things have gone wrong. Seriously wrong.

The captain is an irresponsible adolescent with a penchant for naming planets after unpleasant bodily functions. The science officer is a religious zealot nutball, who responds to technical problems by singing hymns and whipping herself. And the ship is savagely damaged, out of control and on a deadly collision course with a grotesquely large planet.

The only man who can save them is Dr Piers Morton. And he has problems of his own. Like: he's not a doctor, he's not even Piers Morton, and all that's left of his body are his head, his spinal column and absolutely nothing else. Better yet, somebody on board is trying to kill what's left of him.

Because, although he doesn't know it, knowledge that will save the human race is locked in his brain. And the key is in the fabulous secret of the ship.

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Reader Reviews

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Review by Nigel (310301) Rating (8/10)

Review by Nigel
Rating 8/10
This is Rob Grant's first novel since Backwards and has nothing to do with Red Dwarf. Good, that's out the way!

We first meet the main character of this story, Eddie O'Hare, in desperate straits trying to win back mob money lost by his computer... one minute it was there, snug in the bank, next the account reads zero and it's Eddie's neck on the line.

He is all set to give in and end his life before someone does it in a less humane manner when, by swapping places with a social scientist, he ends up with a one way ticket on a generation Starship. Thinking he is safe he tries to play the part of his new identity, until...

I can't really tell you any more without giving too much away. Suffice to say the start is funny but it gets down right hilarious after Eddie loses his body! The waking up scene is fantastic and will have you in stitches.

A very good second novel (if you don't include the joint ones with Doug Naylor) and one that moves Rob Grant away from Red Dwarf, although you will sometimes recognise a 'Dwarfism'.

Highly recommeneded and not a scutter in sight!
Nigel (31st March 2001)

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