Save Yourselves!

Regolith by Brent Reilly

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Avoid this book. Repeat: avoid this book. Step away from the book.



I bought it at $2.99 to try out on my Kindle. The price is the only reason I can imagine for its ranking on Amazon. The first reviews at Amazon rated it high. The rest gave it the lowest rating. Sadly, when I bought it only the good reviews were up. I doubt I'll be buying anything from this publisher again.



The author's favorite word is "fuck." This is followed by "fucker," "fucking," and "motherfucker." I counted the term four times in one page. It is used by every male character. Profusely. Here's hoping the author's vocabulary improves. Having only one swear word in one's repetoire limits one's self expression.



Science. The author likes science. Fair enough. Most of the first part of the book is spent in pages and pages of dreary explanation of the main character's invention of a special kind of steel. To save my sanity, I have blocked out the name of the steel. The author displays a lot of pride in his knowledge of materials. It's as if the author was saying "Look at me! I'm a genius!"



The main character is. forgive my language, an asshole. Yes, his inventions and money save lots of lives in this train-wreck of a disaster novel. The way he makes the trillions (yes, trillions) of dollars to pull off this rescue is despicable. He is cruel. His only redeeming value is he loves his dog. The dog's name is the Spanish word for "fart."



During the story, the main character's daughter gets engaged. She is 16 and her fiancee is considerably older. Pedophilia anyone?



The sex scenes were laughable. They seemed to be stuck in at random so the author can say "see, I can write a sex scene! Naughty me!" I would say they were gratuitous, but they're not even good enough for that.



During extended periods of inner-dialogue, the main character even uses parenthesis. Who thinks with parenthesis? Really, author, I know that the Diamondbacks (Phoenix) are indeed a (Phoenix) baseball team.



Extended rants against the Bush presidency permeate the book. The author is furious with Bush. The rants go on and on and on. The book, at these points, more resembles a political diatribe than a novel.



I want to assure you I read it cover-to-cover. The whole thing had the feel of a train-wreck. I just couldn't look away. And God knows I wanted to.



Would I recommend this to a Science Fiction fan? No



Would I recommend this to a fan of disaster fiction? No



Would I recommend this to a scientist? No



Would I recomment this to a man in a bear suit? Oh hell no!



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