Will Sargent reviewed THRESHOLD by David R. Palmer
Review of 'THRESHOLD' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
Man, I loved this book. It was cheesy as hell when I picked it up (in Norwich, mostly for the man riding a pterodactyl) and reading the first few pages -- naked girl and her cat proclaims to be space aliens to the multi-millionaire protagonist (who they reveal is precisely the ridiculously perfect human being he is because he's the end result of a thousand year long eugenics program, so that's alright then) and then fly the alien's planet where they get shot down and he's stranded naked at the wrong end of the planet surrounded by a huge variety of things that want to eat him.
So yeah, it's cheesecake. It's also remarkably effective cheesecake -- you never spend time worrying about whether this makes sense or not, because the author makes it clear this is a ride and lampshades the silliest bits of it (in the vein of …
Man, I loved this book. It was cheesy as hell when I picked it up (in Norwich, mostly for the man riding a pterodactyl) and reading the first few pages -- naked girl and her cat proclaims to be space aliens to the multi-millionaire protagonist (who they reveal is precisely the ridiculously perfect human being he is because he's the end result of a thousand year long eugenics program, so that's alright then) and then fly the alien's planet where they get shot down and he's stranded naked at the wrong end of the planet surrounded by a huge variety of things that want to eat him.
So yeah, it's cheesecake. It's also remarkably effective cheesecake -- you never spend time worrying about whether this makes sense or not, because the author makes it clear this is a ride and lampshades the silliest bits of it (in the vein of Scalzi) while moving the plot along in some interesting ways.
The book was clearly planned out as the first in a series, but it stands alone well -- if you find it in a second hand bookstore or need a quick Kindle fix, this is entertaining without being mindnumbingly stupid.