Scavenger Hunt

by Stephen Goldin

This Laser Books edition was originally published in 1976 and is only the first half of the complete story. (The second half was published later that same year as "Finish Line.") Years later, the two halves were published in single-volume form under the comprehensive title SCAVENGER HUNT; the paperback edition was published by CreateSpace for Parsina Press, and the ebook edition was published by E-Reads. For a more satisfactory experience, read the later, complete edition.

Scavenger Hunt is a romantic, sexy space adventure about a race across the galaxy. Life itself is on the line as the crew of the Honey B, the galaxy's most hedonistic space yacht, travel from planet to planet searching for exotic treasures and trying to beat their competitors to the finish line.

Cover art by Kelly Freas

Genres: Science Fiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Born in Philadelphia in 1947, Stephen Goldin has lived in California since 1960. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Astronomy from UCLA and worked as a civilian space scientist for the U.S. Navy for a few years after leaving college, but has made his living as a writer/editor most of his life.

His first wife was fellow author Kathleen Sky, with whom he co-wrote the first edition of the highly acclaimed nonfiction book The Business of Being a Writer . His current wife is fellow author Mary Mason. So far they have co-authored two books in the Rehumanization of Jade Darcy series.

He served the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as editor of the SFWA Bulletin and as the organization’s Western Regional Director.

He has lived with cats all his adult life. Artistically, he enjoys Broadway musicals and surrealist art. Philosophically, he is an atheist.

Learn more about him at his Web site. . Many of his books can be bought through his online bookstore, Parsina Press.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very well written and well-paced lighthearted space opera adventure about privileged people involved in a cosmic space race, the titular scavenger hunt. It's also a kind of sexy romp, which was rare for anything that involved Elwood, and I wonder if that aspect might've been toned down some by editorial decree. (There used to be whole panels at sf conventions called "Elwood, in his infinite wisdom..." at which authors who felt that their prose had been ill-treated would vent about their manuscripts being revised, truncated, or changed drastically without permission.) There are some somewhat misogynistic attitudes and conceits in the book, as was common in the field in that bicentennial year. On the other hand, the Kelly Freas cover is one of the first (if not -the- first, I'm not sure) genre paperback cover to feature a Black woman. The ending is a little unsatisfying, but I later learned that the original manuscript was very long and that Goldin cut it in half at the request of editor Roger Elwood and the second half of the story was published by Laser under the title of Finish Line in October of 1976. One of these days I really must get a copy of that, but in the meantime, I remember this one fondly.

[Lizzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fun read. Spoiled rich girl in a male dominated society where the rich and famous don't have much to do and compete for social status and bragging rights with a famed scavenger hunt.

The pluses for me were: the characters, which were varied while fulfilling our expectations - the good brother, the asshole rich boy win at all costs, the Android who wants to prove himself so his race will be accepted; the varied planets and lifeforms that our contestants go to; the ship; the scenes with the stereotypical socialites competing to be queen bee.

The negatives: 1) Too predictable. After the astrogator tells her story, I knew what they would find on a certain planet. After rich boy behaves a certain way towards the android, I knew how the parents had died; and 2) the good big brother having a completely female crew with much of the ship engineered for fun sex. It was written in the 70s so not that much of a surprise, but if it had been less emphasized and just intimated, then this book would have been appropriate for young teens.

While I dislike personally the women as 2nd class citizens theme, I don't ding the author on it as much of our history and many cultures treat women that way.

It was a fun romp but not something I would read more of if these characters were an ongoing series.

[DannyKidd · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was very fun to read but truthfully there's not much here ! a nice breezy breather of a book

[GREGG CORDELL · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good read, a little different than what I read but when I got my head in the game and read to enjoy , this book took off and was very pleasant and fun to read with some twist and turns that you do not see coming along with all the different aliens , it was a good book.