It would be very hard to overstate the impact this book had on my life when I was a kid. Heinlein was, bar none, my favorite SF writer, and this was, bar non, my favorite story by him. It didn’t hurt at all that I discovered it during those lonely days of my adolescence when a kid hits that “Oh, I get it now” stage in your neurological development and his ability to amass new knowledge far outstrips his social skills. I very much identified with the character “Mike,“ consequently.

I generally avoid “media novels,” such as Star Trek or Star Wars tie-ins because I think they harm the genre by taking shelf space away from original SF and F; however, I could not resist picking up Michael Moorcock’s Dr. Who novel because I’ve been an avid reader of Moorcock since my teenage years, and I’ve recently started watching Dr. Who via Netflix.

The Republispouse was looking to get me some gag gifts for my birthday this year, and stumbled across a couple of novels "By" Bruce Boxleitner in the local Save-A-Buttload. With it's lurid cowboy front cover that would make Louis L'amour wince, and it's Babylon 5 Promotional Photo rear cover showing Boxleitner in an Earthforce uniform, flashing his "Hi, I'm Handsome!" smile, it is just one painfully embarrassing tome to be seen holding in public. My wife instantly knew she had a hit, and picked it up.

Man, what a crappy book.

Several people pointed this scrap heap out to me since it was first published, and I just instinctively knew it would suck, so I passed on their recommendations, and eventually I forgot about it. More recently I stumbled across it again, and, for some reason or another, my Early Warning Crap Detection System wasn't working, so I ordered it, and was promptly told by Miguel Cielo that, "Hey, that's the book I recommended to you three years ago!"