Planetfall

Infocom #1

by Arthur Byron Cover

Assigned to an important diplomatic conference, Homer, a young member of the Stellar Patrol, and his robot, Oliver, are accidentally lost overboard in a survival pod

Genres: Science Fiction, Humor, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fantasy

304 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1988

Reviews

[Mike Cooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

Saw this at the used bookstore along with its sequel Stationfall and thought they'd be interesting. Hey, the computer games were good, right?

This book, not so much. I got about 1/3 of the way in and after a couple of "ha" moments where some other sci-fi author or concept was referenced or parodied, I found that I just didn't care for Homer B. Hunter or the situation he was in, so I stopped reading and switched to Terry Pratchett. I'd suggest you do the same.

[Bee Ostrowsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

A burlesque adventure parody with all the gravitas of MAD Magazine, but unburdened by its standards of taste or family-friendliness.

Content warnings include repeated use of a racist term for an Indigenous woman, and nonconsensual voyeurism during consensual kinky sex.

[Kirk Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing. The writing has not aged well - misogynistic and racist, and (worst of all) very unrelated to the original game.

[Dave Peticolas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not certain, but I think this book probably came *after* the Infocom text-based computer game of the same name. This book was actually published by Infocom. Anyway, I don't remember if this was even any good, but man Infocom made some cool games. Zork Rules!