The Road to the Rim / The Hard Way Up

John Grimes: Survey Service #1 & 3

by A. Bertram Chandler

Chandler, A. Bertram, Road to the Rim, The

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Arthur Bertram Chandler (28 March 1912–6 June 1984) was an Australian science fiction author. He also wrote under the pseudonyms George Whitley, George Whitely, Paul T. Sherman, Andrew Dunstan, and S.H.M.

He was born in Aldershot, England. He was a merchant marine officer, sailing the world in everything from tramp steamers to troopships. He emigrated to Australia in 1956 and became an Australian citizen. He commanded various ships in the Australian and New Zealand merchant navies, and was the last master of the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne as the law required that it have an officer on board while it was laid up waiting to be towed to China to be broken up.

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chandler fostered my dreams of space exploration and the endless vastness thereof. With his background at sea, he spun a wide variety of seafaring (space faring) yarns that captivated me. One of SF's authors I truly wish I'd met and had time for a conversation.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found these a real hard slog.
The first book is ok but quite unremarkable. There are an awful lot of pages with not much happening. Some people have said the characters Is a bit chauvinistic, I disagree, that would imply there is something mildly interesting about him.
The second book was very tiresome. It is like collection of very bad, quite pointless, episodes of "Tales of the Unexpected"
Technically not that great either, characters tend to appear in conversations. Description of locations are also very sparse.

[John Walls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course a bit dated (written in 1967), but not a bad start to a series. But seeing as I am inputting this review a year after reading the book, and I have not gone on to the next in the series - maybe not a great start, either.

[SciFiOne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ace Double Novel 0-44-73100-7-173
Road To The Rim, grade B, book 1?
Hard Way Up, grade C, book 2?