Lifeburst – Jack Williamson

Title: Lifeburst Author: Jack Williamson Genre: Science Fiction

I don’t think I had read anything by Jack Williamson before picking this novel up. I grabbed it at a library sale 1) because it was one of the true science fiction novels left and 2) it looked like it might be half-decent and I knew my collection of unread sci-fi novels was becoming discouragingly low.

So I finally snagged it off my shelf and started reading. And I must admit, curiosity kept me going more than anything else. Williamson has come up with an entirely intriguing storyline here – not completely unheard off or new, but a definitely different approach to the “alien invasion” sort of novels that are out there. Sometimes I did almost get lost in the various story lines running in the book, but I managed to not lose track of the many characters too much and enjoyed seeing them grow, change, develop and adapt to the different situations they were thrown into.

This isn’t science fiction on the scale of Webber’s Harrington series or Asimov’s Foundation series, but if you lower your expectations to that of a writer of lower caliber, you can enjoy this book quite a bit.

In the end, I barely recommend it. Mainly because it’s just neat reading about the different aliens and things he’s put in here. The future society he’s created is solid, but not too diferent from many others, just a little tweak here and there that make it intriguing. But if you find this book on sale somewhere, don’t be afraid to grab yourself a copy.

Worldview: atheistic

Recommended age: at least early to mid-teens; though there isn’t too much sexual stuff going on, there is a little, and there is a decent amount of violence, though it’s not too explicit.