Rocket Science

by Jay Lake

In ROCKET SCIENCE, Jay Lake's first novel, Vernon Dunham's friend Floyd Bellamy has returned to Augusta, Kansas after serving in World War II, but he hasn't come back empty-handed: he's stolen a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974657360
• ISBN13: 9780974657363
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Fairwood Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.58 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

A time trip to the golden age of Science Fiction.

Vernon Dunham likes airplanes but he never imagined one would like him back. He thought he had learned everything about airplanes working as a parts buyer for B29 production in Wichita, but when Vernon's best friend Floyd Bellamy comes home from WWII Europe, the learning is just beginning. Hey mom, look what followed me home! Can I keep it? A dog, maybe, but a talking alien spacecraft dug out from under the arctic ice by Nazis, certainly not! The arrival of Floyd and his airplane turns Vernon's world upside down and inside out. A secret like Pegasus is hard to keep and close on Floyd's heels are the Nazis, the Army CID, the County Sheriff, and the local cops; not necessarily in that order. Vernon is in over his head very quickly as all these elements conspire to capture Pegasus while they tear his world apart; taking from him trust in everything and everyone he has ever known, including his best friend. Finally he realizes that he can only trust himself and his new friend, the alien flying machine. This is truly a classic Science Fiction story. This book has a great retro feel to it and Jay Lake takes you back to a simpler more innocent America. I spent some time growing up in Oklahoma near the Kansas border and Jay has really captured that part of rural America. (Nazi sleeper cells, the Italian mafia, moonshine runners, and communists not withstanding.) The only thing Jay left out of the political soup he concocted were Civil War Confederate holdovers and the KKK. All of the organizations scrambling to get their hands on Pegasus are eventually thwarted by two young men from small town America. Jay unfolds a plot designed to make the average reader feel smarter than the hero. Another retro facet of this book is that it is a male story. This book is a great read for any young man. In the current era of female dominated editorial staffs and agencies this book is a breath of fresh air for the male reader. How will this translate to sales? We'll have to watch. Women need their literature too but let's hope that Jay continues to supply material for this increasingly neglected market. There are a couple of logistical hiccups that I scratched my head over but the plot moved fast enough that I shrugged them off. (Such as, if you can't feel accelerations while riding in the alien ship, why did it have such an elaborate seat belt system? Hmmm?) If you're looking for a fun read without having to do a lot of thinking, I'm happy to recommend Rocket Science. Reviewed by Hugh Mannfield at stormbold.com

Imagination overdrive!

Jay's everything-but-the-kitchen sink post-WW II story of an alien spacecraft stolen by a small town war hero and brought back to plague the life of his served-on-the-home-front civilian buddy Vernon Dunham, is just flat-out great fun. You got yer Nazis, yer talking alien spaceship, yer nerdy yet loveable hero, his questionable war hero best friend, and best of all a fully-realized and completely immersible recreation of what those years looked, felt, tasted, smelled and sounded like. Jay does such a good job of seamlessly painting the backdrop that you provide your own gray snap-brim fedoras, pleated trousers and red suspenders, the billowy hairdo's on the women and the running boards on the rounded black sedans. Even if you don't care for aliens, if you love 1940s black & white movies on the TCM channel, you'll love this book! And if you DO love aliens - Jay's got the story for you.

An amusing pulp-revival story, and a good first novel

____________________________________________ This is an amusing pulp-revival story, set just after WW2. A returning American soldier steals a Nazi superplane that turns out to be a damaged alien spacecraft. Hijinks ensue. A pretty good first novel, but slight: "B", for me anyway. Others have liked it more: http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue433/books.html [Lake has captured] "the thrill-a-minute plotting of the pulps, and a Heinleinian transparency of prose. These attributes conduce to a book that rockets along as fast as its UFO "protagonist." -- Paul di Filippo, who gives it an "A". Happy reading-- Peter D. Tillman "The pilot fired a bright beam from the shuttle's laser. The appalling flare of light and energy snatched the words from his mouth." (Brian Herbert & Kevin J.Anderson, Legends of Dune: The Butlerian Jihad, 2002)

An engaging alternate-history science fiction story

Rocket Science is an engaging alternate-history science fiction story. When a seemingly ordinary man returns to Kansas after serving in World War II, he carries with him a secret aircraft stolen out from under the noses of the Germans - but it isn't just any aircraft. It has been buried under Arctic ice for hundreds of years, and it can talk. It is not a ship from anywhere on Earth! Unfortunately, a great many interested parties know about the ship, including the Nazis and the U.S. Army, and they will stop at nothing to get it. If the ship falls in the wrong hands, humanity's fate is sure to be in deep trouble! An enthralling story of fallible humans struggling to cope with inexplicable technology before time runs out, Rocket Science is a fast-paced novel that leaves the reader guessing right up to the end.

Literary Pulp Sci-fi

As a first novel for Jay Lake, "Rocket Science" is amazing. Fairly short, a quick read, I could not put it down, nor wait to finish it. Keeps the pace to the very last page - didn't want it to end, actually. Lake's style is clean and flows at times like poetry, as in: "Floyd's Nazi bayonet instantly won the loyalty of every boy in town, while his casual good looks won the heart of every girl" (p. 11). Reminiscent of the pulp sci-fi of the 1940-50s, "Rocket Science," borders on the literary without the tedium. The hero Vernon Dunham is a completely engaging young man, and his friend Floyd Bellamy is as inexplicable as he is sympathetic. While clearly a creation of the 21st century, there are certain values Lake is not afraid to allow his characters to voice, e.g., respect for one's parents, honoring one's father. "Rocket Science" does a delightful job of exploring that odd, sometimes haunting connection between historical fiction and science fiction (and not as in the specific subgenre of "alternative histories"). After all, is not science fiction historical fiction forward, and historical fiction, at least sometimes, science fiction back? Lake has been writing short stories, reviews, and editing anthologies for a number of years, so his voice is well established and clear. After enjoying "Rocket Science," I will be looking forward to his next full-length novel.