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Baxter Moon Galactic Scout
Baxter Moon's first mission is to locate a missing Aquarian ship that has been taken over by a group of aliens whose aim is to subjugate Earth by entertaining its citizens to death. His second mission is to rescue a beautiful blue-haired Aquarian princess, known affectionately as "Your Highness." Baxter is assisted in his missions by his able but peculiar shuttle crew--a genetically modified, enormous girl who's a mechanical genius, her (genetically modified) twin, a small extremely klutzy math wizard, a genetically modified chimpanzee, and a nit-picking overly sensitive computer. Baxter's and his crew must avoid killer asteroids, elude deadly TVTrons, and, by the way, head off a possible galactic war. A funny book for would-be space cadets.
- GenresScience Fiction
201 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
About the author
John Zakour
123 books66 followersFrom the Author's Website
John Zakour is a humor/sf/fantasy writer with a Master's degree in Human Behavior and slowly plugging away at his Ph.D. He has written zillions (well, thousands) of gags for syndicated comics and comedians (including: Rugrats, Grimmy, Bound and Gagged, Dennis the Menace and Joan River's old TV show.) John also writes his own syndicated comic, Working Daze for United Media. John has been the regular cartoonist for Geek.com and has sold cartoons or gags to hundreds of journals and magazines. John is also a contributor to Nickelodeon magazine writing Fairly Odd Parents and Jimmy Neutron comic books. Recently he has started writing Simpsons comics for Bongo.
John’s first humorous SF mystery book, The Plutonium Blonde (DAW 2001, co-written with Larry Ganem and started of as an interactive web story for the Sci Fi channel) was named one of the top 30 SF books of 2001 by The Chronicle of Science Fiction who called it, “the funniest SF book of 2001”. His second novel, The Doomsday Brunette (DAW Feb 2004) has made the Locus best sellers list. The third book in the series, The RadioActive Redhead, also made the SF best seller list.
Besides his novels John has sold numerous short stories to anthologies and magazines. John has written the dialog and song lyrics for Frogwares Software computer game Around the World in 80 days. For something a bit different John writes skits for the Harlem Rockets basketball team.
In the past, John has written and helped develop the first year and season of the comic book and animated series: Caramel Crew, for Mobtoons. John also has written for the independent SF TV show, “Realm of the Mind”. John also helped develop an animated sf horror series, called Prime Squad for MUV Technologies in India. His romantic comedy, Skin Deep about an ordinary guy who can’t believe the hottest girl on campus is actually in love with him has won a couple of writing awards. John has also written for Ebru tv.
John use to be a database programmer / web guru / science writer for NYSAES.
When he's not writing or studying John likes to play softball, watch TV and hang out with his wife and son. He use to do judo and karate, but those have been replaced by tai chi and archery.
John Zakour is a humor/sf/fantasy writer with a Master's degree in Human Behavior and slowly plugging away at his Ph.D. He has written zillions (well, thousands) of gags for syndicated comics and comedians (including: Rugrats, Grimmy, Bound and Gagged, Dennis the Menace and Joan River's old TV show.) John also writes his own syndicated comic, Working Daze for United Media. John has been the regular cartoonist for Geek.com and has sold cartoons or gags to hundreds of journals and magazines. John is also a contributor to Nickelodeon magazine writing Fairly Odd Parents and Jimmy Neutron comic books. Recently he has started writing Simpsons comics for Bongo.
John’s first humorous SF mystery book, The Plutonium Blonde (DAW 2001, co-written with Larry Ganem and started of as an interactive web story for the Sci Fi channel) was named one of the top 30 SF books of 2001 by The Chronicle of Science Fiction who called it, “the funniest SF book of 2001”. His second novel, The Doomsday Brunette (DAW Feb 2004) has made the Locus best sellers list. The third book in the series, The RadioActive Redhead, also made the SF best seller list.
Besides his novels John has sold numerous short stories to anthologies and magazines. John has written the dialog and song lyrics for Frogwares Software computer game Around the World in 80 days. For something a bit different John writes skits for the Harlem Rockets basketball team.
In the past, John has written and helped develop the first year and season of the comic book and animated series: Caramel Crew, for Mobtoons. John also has written for the independent SF TV show, “Realm of the Mind”. John also helped develop an animated sf horror series, called Prime Squad for MUV Technologies in India. His romantic comedy, Skin Deep about an ordinary guy who can’t believe the hottest girl on campus is actually in love with him has won a couple of writing awards. John has also written for Ebru tv.
John use to be a database programmer / web guru / science writer for NYSAES.
When he's not writing or studying John likes to play softball, watch TV and hang out with his wife and son. He use to do judo and karate, but those have been replaced by tai chi and archery.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 30, 2018
Zakour, John. Baxter Moon: Galactic Scout. Brown Barn, 2008.
A book like this harkens back to the space cadet and boy scout novels of Robert Heinlein. By comparison, this novel is decidedly routine. The characters are not bad, but I do wish that children’s book authors who venture into science fiction would know something about science before they start.
A book like this harkens back to the space cadet and boy scout novels of Robert Heinlein. By comparison, this novel is decidedly routine. The characters are not bad, but I do wish that children’s book authors who venture into science fiction would know something about science before they start.
November 7, 2019
It is good
April 29, 2008
Reviewed by Allison Fraclose for TeensReadToo.com
After winning grand prize in a video game contest, Earthling Baxter Moon found himself entering (with full scholarship) the Galactic Academy of Scouts, training to be a pilot. Now in his second year, he and his crew--a slow but strong-as-an-ox girl, her super-smart but klutzy twin brother, and a genetically improved simian, or GiS for short--have been given the overwhelming task of trying to avert a war between two planets!
Trade negotiations between the people of Earth and the blue-skinned folk of planet Aqua had been going promisingly until both planets lost contact with their ships. Both sides of ambassadors are now missing, and each planet is quick to blame the other. With the situation so tense, Earth Force is reluctant to send their soldiers into questionable territory.
The commander of the Galactic Academy has chosen Baxter's team and a rival squad for the mission of retrieving the missing council members. If they succeed, they'll have stopped an intergalactic war. Could it be the TVtrons, TV shaped bots who scour the universe in search of people to watch their programs? The computer systems and robots of the Station have been acting awfully strange lately...
I was not surprised to find that the author of this book has written material for Nickelodeon comics. This book reads like a one-hour TV program for children, with a shallow main character who, of course, is good at everything except for following orders. Baxter Moon may not be the most sympathetic, three-dimensional hero ever, but his exploits do lead to a humorous story, which will draw in the reluctant preteen who doesn't want to invest too much time or effort into reading.
After winning grand prize in a video game contest, Earthling Baxter Moon found himself entering (with full scholarship) the Galactic Academy of Scouts, training to be a pilot. Now in his second year, he and his crew--a slow but strong-as-an-ox girl, her super-smart but klutzy twin brother, and a genetically improved simian, or GiS for short--have been given the overwhelming task of trying to avert a war between two planets!
Trade negotiations between the people of Earth and the blue-skinned folk of planet Aqua had been going promisingly until both planets lost contact with their ships. Both sides of ambassadors are now missing, and each planet is quick to blame the other. With the situation so tense, Earth Force is reluctant to send their soldiers into questionable territory.
The commander of the Galactic Academy has chosen Baxter's team and a rival squad for the mission of retrieving the missing council members. If they succeed, they'll have stopped an intergalactic war. Could it be the TVtrons, TV shaped bots who scour the universe in search of people to watch their programs? The computer systems and robots of the Station have been acting awfully strange lately...
I was not surprised to find that the author of this book has written material for Nickelodeon comics. This book reads like a one-hour TV program for children, with a shallow main character who, of course, is good at everything except for following orders. Baxter Moon may not be the most sympathetic, three-dimensional hero ever, but his exploits do lead to a humorous story, which will draw in the reluctant preteen who doesn't want to invest too much time or effort into reading.
February 13, 2017
Overall I thought that this book was o.k. I was not very interested in Science Fiction in the first place. All the planets and stuff just seems repetitive and very unrealistic. He ends up going on a journey to save a princess that is a different race. He goes through some challenges along the way with his crew of an ape with brain implants and a very strong girl. They cracked some immature jokes that I did not find funny overall taking away from the experience.
October 6, 2010
This is a very funny sci-fi about a kid who is given a mission to find a missing space ship that's been taken by aliens who plan to take over Earth. It would be great for almost any 10- to 13-year old I know.
I loved it when I read it and still do, and certainly still recommend it to kids, especially boys.
I loved it when I read it and still do, and certainly still recommend it to kids, especially boys.
February 11, 2009
A curious book, smart though. Interesting to have a sci-fi book that presents a somewhat anti-technology point of view.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews