Survey Ship (Ace Science Fiction)

By Marion Zimmer Bradley

Book Overview

How do you make a spaceman?You start the same way that you start to make a chess master, a ballet dancer, a trapeze performer, or any other difficult and complex task demanding highly trained and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0441791107
• Release Date: October 1980
• Publisher: Ace
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Best Underrated Book

This is one of Marion Zimmer Bradley's most obscure books, I managed to borrow a copy and read it. I thought it was excellent book. This is not really a science fiction book, it's more about the relationships between characters and their development as people. It starts out in the future in a time when Earth (Terra) is even more overpopulated and so every year they pick six of the brightest students from a class of 40, who are the best and have trained for many years, to go on a survey ship to find a new planet. We have six distinct people: easygoing Teague, free spirited Moira, the roboticaly perfect Ching, sensitive Peak, the quick Fontana and the spiritual Ravi. This book is how these people survive together in a confined space and working together in spite of their differences. In a way this book is a prequel to Darkover Landfall because they appear to take place in the same universe but Darkover is still very far into the future. In all a good read especially if you like the way Marion can turn science fiction into a rich story where the focus is on people, not the fact that it is in the future.

Death where is thy sting?

Excellent character study of three gals and three guys (covering the gamut of sexual orientation) locked aboard space ship headed for nowhere. Death is certain--but when? The head game going on was why any of the six were picked from a class of forty. Group psychology and future sociology study of humans cut off from mankind. Only the outer space setting qualifies story to be labeled sci-fi. Good read.