Red Claw

Jun 23, 2012 Gavin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Wow. (I’m not sure if that is a good wow or a bad wow.) Where do I begin with this novel? Let’s start by saying this novel is a postmodernist’s wet dream of a book. It implores various voices of storytelling: first-person diary; third-person omniscient and detached narrator; even the author’s voice enters the narrative. The writing style tries to be both noir and science fiction. (Surprisingly, this sort-of works.) There are footnotes that give additional insights to the psychology of the charac...more Wow. (I’m not sure if that is a good wow or a bad wow.) Where do I begin with this novel? Let’s start by saying this novel is a postmodernist’s wet dream of a book. It implores various voices of storytelling: first-person diary; third-person omniscient and detached narrator; even the author’s voice enters the narrative. The writing style tries to be both noir and science fiction. (Surprisingly, this sort-of works.) There are footnotes that give additional insights to the psychology of the characters; but there are also footnotes to the footnotes, sometimes these are linked to hypertext possibilities that have no way of ever being read. Not to mention, the narration switches from past tense on one page, only to be followed by present tense on others.

The novel itself is the epitome of a space opera. There are dozens of characters (some defined, some only given rudimentary outlines), strange worlds populated by strange beasts (and these beasts could have used a bit more imagination IMO: Godzillas, gryphons, plant matter that is animal in nature, and animal matter that is plant…you get the idea), nefarious robots, mentally conditioned soldiers, evil scientists, all with a backdrop of war that would make Tolstoy proud. You see, as humans it is our right (No, DUTY!) to terraform any world that could sustain a human presence. But after doing this for countless millennia, humans have seemed to forgotten that before terraforming occurred on said planet, there was life already present. But if humans played by the moral rules of this game, then there really would be no need for this book. Suffice to say, humans are really the Bad Guy in this novel; and while Aliens don’t exactly play the Man in White, they do have an innocence attached to them.

But there is more to the story. The real issue here is war. For a novel that is 433 pages long, it is not until the last 30 or so pages that the author really says what he wants to say. IMO he is critiquing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the prospective of allied forces but not necessarily through US eyes. The author hails from England, so his mockery of “our” wars is justified in the sense that he is looking from the outside in. But what I don’t get with this novel is: If what you wanted to say is that war is bad, why the fuck did it take 433 pages to do so? Let me elaborate. Red Claw is not a good novel. To be more precise, it’s hokey as all hell. The writing isn’t impressive. The characters are cardboard cutouts. Even the action sequences (which could have been mind-blowing-ly original) are riddled with clichés and repetition. And too boot, the author’s preoccupation with the word fuck becomes distracting, bordering on juvenile…

But…here I am again looking the fool...I fucking LOVED this book. Every chapter had me guessing just what idiotic thing a character was going to do or what the author had in store for them. One thing is for certain, this was not a boring book. Implausible: yes. Hard to suspend belief: most of the time. Entertaining: I will buy the other two books this guy has written only to say I have read the Holy Trinity of Stupid.

Final thought: War is bad. But writing a meandering tale that is superficially cloaked as an ecological tale about the ramifications of humans on planet earth and tossing in a ridiculous revenge tale sandwiched between love stories is utterly, hopelessly, tirelessly, beguilingly, priceless.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
(less)

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May 17, 2010 Travis rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Red Claw by Philip Palmer- This is Philip Palmer's second book, his first being Debatable Space. This is a science fiction based story.

Red Claw is about a colony of soldiers and scientists that are to categorize all the species of a planet, in this case, the planet called New Amazon. After the categorization, the team is to terraform the planet, which would destroy all life in order for the planet to become more "Earth-like." During a routine exploration, a small team comes across a Godzilla cre...more Red Claw by Philip Palmer- This is Philip Palmer's second book, his first being Debatable Space. This is a science fiction based story.

Red Claw is about a colony of soldiers and scientists that are to categorize all the species of a planet, in this case, the planet called New Amazon. After the categorization, the team is to terraform the planet, which would destroy all life in order for the planet to become more "Earth-like." During a routine exploration, a small team comes across a Godzilla creature, which they quickly subdue and capture for examination. During the examination, the robot's, called DR's, within the colony start to turn on their human masters, slaughtering all but a handful. These handful are then forced to escape and hopefully, with the help of a famous scientist, survive. However, during their travel to a safe-house the group is quickly whittled down by the creatures and the harsh environment of New Amazon. Upon reaching the safe-house, they celebrate, which turns into yet another massacre. Now out of the handful that remained from the first attack, only about a dozen survive. Forced to flee, the survivors find out that someone isn't who he seems and the reason behind the robots going haywire links with the false person. It's up to the team to pull together and defeat the robots and their leader and to conquer the New Amazonian jungle.

Negatives:
1) Explanations/ Descriptions. Within the first few pages you are mercilessly thrust into a world were you have no idea what is happening at all, and I mean at all. There is no real background on what is going on, what these alien species are, what these "DR's" are, nothing. It makes the story almost unbearable to read. I just found it frustrating and just utterly pointless to list off all these species, only to mention them maybe once or twice throughout the story. Then you have the attempted, half-hearted explanations and descriptions of things. For example, a lot of the creatures have simple names, such as Two-Tails. That's really all the description the reader really gets. Of course, here and there you get a little tidbit of information (if you're lucky) about this or that. A little more effort would have gone a long way in this department.
2) Short, Pointless Scenes. There were times when you get a scene that doesn't add to a character or the plot. For example, in the first chapter, you get a scene in which one character is just moving his hands to lower these "Dravens" (which I still have no idea what they are). It doesn't set up anything, or add to anything, seeing as the previous two scenes pretty much summed up what just happened. Were these scenes really necessary? No. I really think that it would have benefited if they were totally removed and some better descriptions took their places.
3) Profanity. Now I don't have any problem with cursing at all. But this book is just too much. And needless to say, it's pointless. Honestly, do I need to read the f-word almost every few sentences? Profanity does have a purpose, to emphasize a point. Yet when I read this book, I honestly felt like I was reading something a middle schooler, who just discovered cursing, would write. It bothered me like nothing else. And it got old fast. Seriously, if you're going to use the f-word, at least use it to stress a situation and not in everyday language. It's just juvenile in the usage.
4) Structure. It was horrible, confusing, and caused everything to seem pointless. It just jumps around WAY too much. What I mean is that the scenes don't feel finished. They feel rushed and seemed to be cut off to soon and then you are immediately into the next scene. Nothing feels finished. Then you have the problem with jumping into someone else's viewpoint only to see them die within a sentence. Which leads me into my next point...
5) Pointless Deaths/ Characters. This is hard to really explain without talking about the characters. To put it simply, why introduce someone just to have them killed within the next few paragraphs? This happened to probably half the characters within the story. Because of that, you never really have a good chance to have a relationship or start to think of so-and-so as interesting. For example, one of the neatest ideas presented were these humanoid species called the Noirs. Not much information was given about them (look at negative point 1), yet they were fascinating. But what happens? All but two die. Oh only two left, eh? Lets just make that one. Now let's forget about the remaining Noir and suddenly remember that, oh shoot, we still have the last Noir alive, better kill him off. Seriously, that happens. Another example is early in the story you are suddenly introduced to this character (I'm sorry, I don't remember her name or where it is). She seems interesting at first and all of a sudden, her rover goes down, she's injured. Her companion lives her to die. Is it necessary to introduce a character, only to kill her within a few pages? No, it's annoying and stupid. But, there are times when it is okay to do this, such as enforcing something. But does that happen in either of the cases I mentioned? No, they are utterly pointless deaths. You never get to connect with any of these characters because you never know who is next to bit the bullet.

Positives:
1) Humor. I have to give the story something, it was pretty funny at times. This is mostly due to the journal entries by Hugo, a scientist. Then some of the dialogue was humorous. For example the Beebe's conversations. The Beebe's are a husband and wife that talk to each other ironically and I imagine very quickly. I just found it funny.
2) Three Characters. There were three interesting characters. The first is Professor Helms. I can't really say why he was interesting, else I give away the story. But then again, I will not recommend anyone reading this so, basically Helms isn't who he says he is. He's the main reason the robots went berserk and he is surprisingly noble, in a way. The second is the man I mentioned above, Hugo. Mostly because of his humor. The last interesting character is Ben. The reason is that he is a psychopath.

Side Note:
1) Noirs. I mentioned how I thought they were interesting above. Yet, I don't remember anything about them. Why is this? Because they were stupidly glanced over. Honestly, I'd like to read more about them.
2) Cover Art. I really like it. The two toy spacemen standing over those dead bugs are just funny. It really catches my eye for some reason.

Overall: 1/5

Final Thoughts:
Okay, so you are asking why am I so critical about this story? I HATED it. It started off bad, the middle section was painful, and the ending was slightly better, but still horrible. Why? It's just confusing, petty, stupid, pointless, and juvenile. Heck, I've read horrible, disgusting fan fiction that Red Claw wished it could be. This really felt like a chore to read though. It would have helped greatly if there were more descriptions or less pointless scenes.(less)

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Jan 11, 2010 Jesse Bullington rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Short review: Just about everything I love about SF crammed into a fast-paced, gripping, and at times hilariously nasty adventure.

Slightly longer review that's still short as I am, myself, short on time: Red Claw is the best SF I've read in a very long time--smart, sharp, topical, engaging, and, above all, a helluva lot of fun. Right out of the gate Palmer subverts the beguilingly simple premise of scientists and soldiers fighting for survival on a hostile alien world with a crackling sense of d...more Short review: Just about everything I love about SF crammed into a fast-paced, gripping, and at times hilariously nasty adventure.

Slightly longer review that's still short as I am, myself, short on time: Red Claw is the best SF I've read in a very long time--smart, sharp, topical, engaging, and, above all, a helluva lot of fun. Right out of the gate Palmer subverts the beguilingly simple premise of scientists and soldiers fighting for survival on a hostile alien world with a crackling sense of dark humor, and as the plot unfolds and the reader is drawn into the deadly New Amazon jungle it becomes readily apparent that Palmer is doing something more than a soft Sci-Fi send-up. Any quibbles I had were few and far between as I tore through in a few late night reading sessions.

One of the impressive feats Palmer pulls off is juggling his large cast of characters, many of whom are devoured, crushed, melted, cut in half, trampled, strangled, and worse--through deft writing the reader gets the feeling that every single character is expendable to Palmer, though certainly not to the rapidly dwindling cast or the slowly unfolding plot. What is so remarkable about this is that even in the last few chapters the reader is never allowed to be assured of any single character's safety, and yet I came to care very deeply for a few of the characters who I knew Palmer would brutally kill off without hesitation or fanfare. This makes for tense, compelling reading, and is no easy trick.

Another wonderful element to the novel is that it takes a conservationist stance while depicting natural forces as almost uniformly disgusting, cruel, and highly dangerous--you know, like nature can be? New Amazon is one of the single deadliest alien worlds I've ever come across, a jungle teeming with murderous flora and fauna--and quite a few in-betweens or neithers--that pisses down literal acid raid, and yet through the eyes of the scientists we come to regard the planet as being worth saving from the fate of so many inhospitable alien worlds--terraforming. The message that even the most hostile, terrible places and creatures deserve preservation is one far too often overlooked by simplistic, heavy-handed SF where the big bad military/corporation/etc. is trying to destroy a beautiful, peaceful world--the true spirit of ecological conservation is to spare the acid-drenched shitholes teeming with deadly monsters as well as the lovely, quiet beaches and serene, safe woodlands.

If you share my sense of humor you'll doubtless find Red Claw to be pretty damn hilarious at points as well, and so you've got adventure, romance (after a fashion), horror, social issues, action, depth, and humor to carry you through. And just a huge array of monsters, be they alien, human, in-between, or neither. Highly recommended.(less)

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Sep 23, 2009 Liviu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009_release_read, review_fbc, genre-sf, read_2009, t2_recommended_2009

A standalone "expedition, planet with monsters, rogue soldiers and the like" novel, it is a step back from the panache and ambition of the author's debut Debatable Spaces; good but nothing special since I read way too many "Planet with monsters" books to be impressed and the literary bent of the novel leads sometimes to an unwieldy mix;

David Drake's Redliners to which Red Claw has some similarities (though Drake's is a militaristic take, while here, well gotta read it to see the scorn and fun P....more

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Sep 05, 2011 Paul (rhymes with "tall" ... why is that so hard f Fenton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are a lot of things I liked about Philip Palmer’s novel “Red Claw”.

I liked the stereotypical concept of humans colonising a distant planet, executed with tongue so firmly poked into cheek it must have left a bruise; but that’s not what I liked best.

I liked the “Lost in Space” kind of story told with a “From Dusk till Dawn” delight for making people go crunch and r-r-rip and sploosh, often in several different directions at once; but that’s not what I liked best.

I liked the setting, a plan...more There are a lot of things I liked about Philip Palmer’s novel “Red Claw”.

I liked the stereotypical concept of humans colonising a distant planet, executed with tongue so firmly poked into cheek it must have left a bruise; but that’s not what I liked best.

I liked the “Lost in Space” kind of story told with a “From Dusk till Dawn” delight for making people go crunch and r-r-rip and sploosh, often in several different directions at once; but that’s not what I liked best.

I liked the setting, a planet where everything – and I mean everything, including the soil, the rain, the air, the plants, the murderous robots who turned on their human masters – wanted to kill you, and succeeded more often than not; but that’s not what I liked best.

No, what I liked best was the title: Red Claw. Even as I write this I have no idea what it refers to. Really, no idea – and it wasn’t for a lack of looking for clues. It’s either deliberately random in order to mislead, or some sci-fi in-joke of which I’m fecklessly ignorant.

The chief protagonist is Professor Richard Helms, the senior scientist on a mission to “terraform” the planet known as New Amazon. This is what the human race does in Palmer’s future: having rendered Earth all but uninhabitable, they travel to distant galaxies, identify suitable host planets, then study and document all signs of life before scorching the whole thing flat to be rebuilt in a human-friendly way. Viewpoint jumps around the cast: Dr Hugo Baal, the Smithers to Helms’s Burns; Major Sorcha Molloy, the fierce Amazonian soldier who has been genetically and socially bred to kill, kill, kill, and who is also screwing Professor Helms on the side (and the back, and the front, and upside down … in any position she chooses, really, because she is just that freaking strong); and well over a dozen others. Some of them end up going crunch or r-r-rip or sploosh, so the viewpoint cast does narrow down over time.

New Amazon couldn’t be more inhospitable. The flora and fauna seem to be interchangeable, or the same thing, and everything seems to be covered by a flesh web, some sprawling meaty plant organism which is as gross as it sounds. When it rains, it rains acid. The low temperatures and shredding winds make it inadvisable to frolic around even partially nude. Monsters roam freely and trees explode. The scientists are there to study and document everything, and when they’re finished they, with the help of the soldiers, will burn it all to ash. To assist them in their mission are countless “DR’s” (Doppleganger Robots), powerful machines which all inexplicably and suddenly turn on the humans and reduce them to a small band of survivors who are forced to brave the harsh elements of New Amazon, fighting for their lives.

The story is a hoot, and at times turns a powerful lens on the less-attractive aspects of human nature. Then it makes human nature go sploosh.

You know what I think we have in Red Claw? I think we have a credible alternative to Avatar. Take a look, James Cameron, have a read: this is how you do it. Let’s forget all about that awful blue 3D cliché and embrace the superior, ambitious and hilarious Red Claw. When exploring a new planet with a view to exploiting it in some way, you shouldn’t always have to be considerate of the ecosystem’s delicate balance and its pony-tail-dick blue-skinned freak inhabitants. Sometimes you do, yes; but sometimes you need to let your plasma cannon sort things out. Sometimes you need to wield your Red Claw. (No, I still don’t know what it means.)

Red, I think, is the new blue – or it should be.

*As reviewed at Booksquawk (http://www.booksquawk.com)(less)

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Aug 05, 2012 Meagan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the second book I've read by Philip Palmer, the first being Version 43 (which I liked even more than this book), and I really like his style of writing. He conceals things and reveals things well, though at the beginning I was frustrated by a lack of explanation about the planet the novel is set on. I still wish there were more of an explanation about the planet, even though that was not the point of the book, it would've been interesting to have my theories confirmed or changed.

The char...more

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Apr 04, 2010 Christopher rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Much better than Debatable Space, especially without the incredibly long personal journals (there are personal journals in this, too, but they're much briefer). Some might get confused if they haven't read Debatable Space, since this has quite a few references to it, takes place in the same universe (it sometimes suggests itself as a prequel), and a couple of times mentions characters from the novel. Debatable Space's biggest problem was inconsistency and the overly frequent and lengthy personal...more

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Dec 14, 2009 William Gerke rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I started RED CLAW thinking it was pulp roller-coaster with a unique style. I ended feeling like it was a decent book, containing some interesting ideas, but hampered by erratic writing. I was disappointed, because I wanted to really enjoy it, and I found that I did not.

Point of view shifts at whim. Pacing stutters, stops, stutters, and roars. The day-by-day, blow-by-blow approach enhances the man vs. nature survival elements, but leads to an awkward flow. Characters come and go, live and die, a...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Peter Walton-Jones rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

This story is a science fiction riot on the senses. It is set on a planet about to be terra-formed...we are doing that pretty regularly in Palmer's future....But terraforming involves complete destruction of the life on the planet so the scientists are there "salvaging" the lifeforms for the zoological record. The soldiers are there for protection, ...right, ...and then it all goes wrong when apparently the DR's go nuts. So we have a chase to the death, love on the run, the full range of human e...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Riveting, action-packed story. And maybe the most plausible sci-fi novel I've ever read about human exploration of another planet. The alien world and the critters who inhabit it are *extremely* alien and violently inhospitable to homo sapiens. But the greater threat lies in the competing agendas of the human explorers and their willingness to kill one another to advance them. The idea of us taking our homicidal terrestrial squabbles about territory, religion/philosophy, personal ambition, etc....more

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Nov 08, 2009 Eric rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, 2009

Things go awry for a group of scientists during a tricky terraforming assignment. Not only does the planet bite back, but a decades-old feud erupts to endanger the mission (between men, writes the author, there is no closer bond than being enemies). Well written, highly entertaining, and full of crazy surprises. I've just discovered that "Monsters on a Planet" is a sub-genre of science fiction. I need to read more of this stuff.

Coda: here's a bit of science fiction sex (the author, I'm sure, is...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Jonathx rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was the first Philip Palmer book I read and it wowed the socks off me. I was particularly impressed by the vividness of the descriptions of the various forms of alien life encountered and the sheer inventiveness of Philip Palmer's imagination.

The actions scenes were great, extraordinarily violent but thrillingly and meticulously described. It's also a very darkly funny and brilliantly smart book- all of the scientific descriptions of the aliens are particularly interesting. It was a truly...more

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May 15, 2013 David Agranoff rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bizarro, dark-humor, military-sci-fi, space-opera

I have very mixed feelings on this book. A part of me really liked it. It is a bold novel in many ways. Seeming on some levels it seems to be a gonzo tongue in cheek version of Avatar. The text breaks lots of rules. First person journal entires with footnotes, Third person action, present tense, past tense…the writing style is kinda of a mess.

A pretty and often inventive mess I was laughing often and entertained reading it.
The novel takes place on a hostile jungle world called New Amazon. The m...more

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Mar 01, 2010 Tim S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Take a modern comic book -- full of excessive ultra-violence, high concepts, flawed superhuman heroes and villains, and unabashed silliness -- then add a dash of black humor and a surprising smidgeon of genuine pathos, and you get a Philip Palmer novel. I personally felt RED CLAW was a little more focused than DEBATABLE SPACE, avoiding the overlong narrative asides of that one and its jarring leaps through time, while even managing to show some heart (blood, ventricles, and all) along the way.

T...more

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Dec 25, 2012 Book Chick City rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, book-list-2009

After reading the synopsis I was really looking forward to immersing myself in this book. Sadly it didn't quite deliver. It did keep my attention and some of the passages were exciting, but the characterisation was underdeveloped for my taste and there were several points that as a woman, hit a nerve.

There are many personalities that we are introduced to and for me there were too many. The main two are Sorcha, a focused, driven and if somewhat brainwashed soldier whose sole purpose is to serve a...more After reading the synopsis I was really looking forward to immersing myself in this book. Sadly it didn't quite deliver. It did keep my attention and some of the passages were exciting, but the characterisation was underdeveloped for my taste and there were several points that as a woman, hit a nerve.

There are many personalities that we are introduced to and for me there were too many. The main two are Sorcha, a focused, driven and if somewhat brainwashed soldier whose sole purpose is to serve and then die a 'glorious death' (meaning to die in battle). Professor Helms, a genius whose actions contradict, until we are given answers halfway through the book, and who I also become to like, even though the ending for this character is a little cliched. There are many other characters who play a large part in the story and there's a lot of dialogue between them, but there is not enough inner reflection. With the exception of Dr Hugo Daal, who is exceedingly irritating in my opinion, I didn't really get to know any of the characters and to completely immerse myself in a novel I have to know the characters and their thoughts.

There's a lot of double-dealing, lies, secrets and they are all revealed by the end of the book, which was rather satisfying. I'm not one for ambiguity in a stand alone novel. There are deaths of certain main characters, which I'm sure should have caused a gasp or two when they were killed, but because I didn't really get to know the characters, the shock was never felt. To be honest I didn't really care.

The most disappointing aspect to this novel is that the typical stereotypes are all still here. Even though, as a species, we are now able to travel to distant planets and completely take over with apparent ease. Even though we are now able to live for hundreds of years. Even though we have moved on so much in so many ways, women are still sexual objects treated like inferior beings.

Women soldiers are fondled, groped, sexually abused and raped (as most of the sexual encounters that were hinted at were against the woman's wishes). This is not what I enjoy reading about. Even Sorcha, an intelligent, high ranking soldier, had to succumb and fall for a guy, (professor Helms), and act like a love sick school girl. She hated him, then loved him, then hated him again. And although he was described as a not very attractive man or particularly appealing physically, somehow he was just so amazing in bed then she managed to organism five times in a row! Hmmm... Really?

Apart from the very obvious sexism, this book did have some good qualities. Palmer's world-building is pretty detailed, although at times complex. The description of the planet and it's inhabitants are excellent. I enjoyed reading about the intelligence of other life-forms, but then saddened to think that we as human being could just wipe out an entire planet for our own uses. Then again, a species will always fight to survive, so I suppose if we had nowhere else to go and our own species depended on that particular planet to live, maybe I could see us performing such a terrible act.

Verdict:

Red Claw is an interesting read and at times exciting. It did keep my attention, but overall there were just too many points that were of the negative kind and kept me from really enjoying it. And lastly, I didn't like the cover either.

I actually gave this 5/10 on my blog but Goodreads still doesn't offer half stars.(less)

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Jun 23, 2010 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fans of Sci-Fi and crazy death scenes

Recommended to Sarah by: Mike Dumiak

Shelves: amsterdam-used-books, 2010-reads

What a roller coaster ride! I liked this book pretty well - ups and downs and over the top creativity in the creation of a new world and its inhabitants. I particularly loved the Gryphons and the Godzillas. Not so fond of all the animals that constantly poop out new things. I liked the cast of characters and the way they just kept dying off and loved the "Journals" and footnoting. But after crying my eyes out over The Elegance of the Hedgehog, I just couldn't give it a 4. Still good though.

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Aug 16, 2011 Sam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A crazy mish-mash of SF ideas punctuated with some fairly over the top violence. The prose is pretty good (and sometimes hilarious) and the characters are interesting. It meanders a bit in the middle, but it remained compelling from start to finish.

If you haven't read Debatable Space (his previous novel) then the references to the wider universe, one of which underscores a major twist, will be lost on you. I'd say it's still a 3 star read even then.

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Dec 17, 2009 Martinxo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009, fiction, sci-fi

Ohhhh, I did enjoy this book, easily one of the best novels I've read this year. Great writing, full of action, laughs, all with a poignant message. Looking forward to reading his other book.

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Dec 28, 2012 David Terrill rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Even if you're not a fan of sci-fi, you will enjoy this book. His descriptions of an alien world and future technology make you feel as if you are present and familiar with them.

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Dec 27, 2011 R.John rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Classic science fiction - crisp, speedy prose that describes alien creatures, dangerous space situations and terrific new imaginary gadgets. Plus the best collection of assorted science jerks and meatheaded soldiers this side of where ever they last clashed over saving the native flora and fauna. The story is not all that new and reminded me of at least two other books immediately - Amber Spyglass and Airborn - but that did not detract from Palmer's tale. He is a good writer, able to create beli...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't like it at first; too goofy. But the silliness combined with profanity eventually won me over. A pretty fun sci-fi read

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Jul 10, 2012 Ketan Shah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Starts off as a space opera parody but adds some fascinating ideas along the way. Reminded me of Terry bisson's work for some reason.

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Jul 15, 2010 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 16, 2013 Egil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very entertaining book. Fast read, perfect for planes or just killing time. Vulgar, violent and very funny.

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Feb 25, 2010 Kia Min Phua is currently reading it · review of another edition

Looked interesting at first sight.. more to come when i actually finish it

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Oct 31, 2011 Michael O'Donnell rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fresh ideas but the concept of scientists and warriors as the only two kinds of people was a little irritating,

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Oct 28, 2011 Digitaldickinson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

great Gonzo sci-fi

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Sep 23, 2011 Reuben rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Decent writer with a super imaginative, fast paced story line. Reading it felt like I was playing toys with a particularly competitive twelve year old. I quite enjoyed it.

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Dec 26, 2009 Nick rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What an enormous waste of time this book was. I won't go into spoilers, for those who are still determined to read it, but the ending serves as a giant "fuck you" to anyone dumb enough to drag themselves all the way through it...like me.

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Sep 06, 2011 Keith rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

ok but disappointing ending

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11416787-red-claw?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328338499l/11416787.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11416787-red-claw?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Red Claw by Philip Palmer[/url]

Red Claw

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Red Claw

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