By: Tim Eldred Publisher: Tor Books Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: Tor Books Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 352 Publication Date: May 30, 2006 Release Date: May 30, 2006
Caught in the crossfire of an interstellar war, our Earth was bombed to flinders--and then repaired. The mysterious alien Benefactors who healed the planet also offered “uplift” to our dolphins and gorillas. The dolphins turned them down. The gorillas said yes. As a result, we’re now sharing our world with language-using, tool-making simians. Tensions are inevitable, in both directions, but it’s gradually working out.
Decades later, teenage cadet Robin Plotnik has been assigned to Fist of Earth, a defense station high above Earth, keeping watch against further attacks by the interstellar Horde. Robin’s a spacecraft mechanic-in-training, apprenticed to Chief “Mac” Gimbensky, a cranky but basically benign gorilla with issues of his own.
Fist of Earth is a challenging place to grow up. Robin and Mac maintain fighter craft for the all-woman “Barbarian Squadron”, which constantly competes for prestige with the other squadrons based on Fist of Earth. Robin’s trying to romance a young librarian, and he’s far from sure he knows what he’s doing. Most of all, he’s constantly struggling to figure out his moody, mercurial boss.
Then he and his best friend become entangled in a burgeoning scandal over betting on the squadrons’ standings. And just when things look like they’ve hit rock bottom, the worst thing imaginable arrives at Fist of Earth: an efficiency expert from Earth, determined to reorganize Robin’s hard-won life, and the whole squadron system, out of existence.
Fresh and engaging, crammed with likeable characters and science-fictional inventiveness, Grease Monkey is like a classic “Heinlein juvenile” in sequential-art mode.
Fun science fiction for novel fans and TV fans alike In brief: those who are used to reading old-fashioned text-novel science fiction will find that this has enough plot, character development, and dialog to satisfy, and those who watch sci-fi on TV will find that this is more fun than BSG - imagine a season of BSG, only without the excessive angst and religion.
The plot starts with a written introduction - aliens attack Earth for no good reason (and there are lots of novels, from the grand masters and classics to today, where we never find out the reason, either, so it's not a weakness here); other, more helpful, aliens try to fix things up for us and enlist us in their interstellar wars. Part of the fixing up includes bringing gorillas to full sentience and equal-to-human intelligence. And, as it seems to be, equal to human in sense of humor, especially practical jokes. The old banana peels take on a whole new meaning...
Although many of our characters, including our human protagonist, are teenagers, this is not just for young adults to read. I, as someone who grew up reading Asimov and Heinlein in the 60's, enjoyed every page of this. The drawing style is accessible even to those who don't normally read graphic novels - it's pretty linear; no manga panels scattered haphazardly, no dark and scratchy hard-to-decipher noir images.
I would have trouble listing my favorite parts, because they are all good. I think I liked Beer Night (Apes Only) the best - but certainly Mac's mother's visit is a hoot, any scene where Admiral Stettler appears is great, and I enjoyed the brief appearances of Reg's pet hamster, Dewey.
And for the librarians among you, wondering whether to add this to your collection - if you don't normally read SF or graphic novels yourself, you might still want to read this one, along with acquiring it - because Robin's attempts to sneak books INTO the library are a pivotal point. The view of librarianship as a career is a bit cynical (the head librarian is Ms. Ann Thrope), but Eldred makes sure we all know that libraries, and books in general, are important.
Family reading alert: safe for all ages - only veiled hints at sexuality, no excessive bad language - the only reason the younger teenagers might not enjoy it as much is that possibly they won't get the political allusions or nods to history, not to mention nods to older SF themes. Best for people old enough to at least have heard of Dian Fossey.
In short: a humorous coming-of-age tale enjoyable by anyone who likes SF.
A surprise classic From out of the blue --or the black -- an independent artist creates a clever and engrossing story for teens (and older, truly). We can only hope our introduction to the galaxy will not be this traumatic. But I hope we would respond the same way.
"How did you get to be the dominant species?" The set-up for this episodic graphic novel is that, a very few years from now, a horde of alien spaceships will sweep into our solar system, bent on Earth's destruction. We're never told what their motivation is for the attack, but only forty percent of the population survives, vast amounts of the world's infrastructure is destroyed, and it's a near thing whether the species can survive. Then the other aliens -- the Benefactors -- stroll in and offer to help the earth restore itself by enhancing the intelligence and general intellect of other of the planet's species to replace the dead human population. (No, this really isn't like David Brin's "uplift" process.) The dolphins turn down the deal, but the gorillas are more than ready. Cut to another few decades in the future. A humongous space station-slash-battleship orbits Earth as a sentinel and first defense against the possible return of the alien invaders. It's inhabited by a number of fighter squadrons and all the associated bureaucracy and support personnel, and to keep everyone sharp (and to develop new dogfight tactics) each squadron is regularly pitted against the others. Barbara Brand's Barbarians have been on top in the scores almost forever, and what keeps them there is Mac Gimbensky, gorilla and ace fighter mechanic. (As his tee-shirt attests, he don't take no crap.) Robin Plotnik, a young cadet sent to the battleship for a one-year tour, ends up as Mac's assistant and displays considerable mechanical talent himself. The chapters follow Mac and Robin through their interactions with other squadrons, friction with the gamblers who want inside info on the dogfight competitions, visits by their parents, struggles with the bureaucracy, and the love lives of both of them. Robin learns something about how humans and gorilla live together and gradually transforms into something approaching adulthood. The stories are pretty good (except for being way too cute), but the artwork is surprising bland and generic. Also, since the destruction on Earth was pretty generally distributed, why are all the inhabitants of the battleship apparently English-speaking Americans? And I kept waiting for the return of the invaders, when all the drills either pay off or not -- but it never happens. At the end of the book, the external situation is exactly what it was in the beginning. Either Eldred missed a bet here, of he's keeping it back until the sequel comes out. But since this book first began to appear as a series of comics in 1992, it make take awhile.
Very, very good. Tim Eldred, Grease Monkey (Tor, 2006)
After fourteen years and a number of deals that fell through, Tor has finally brought the first collection of Tim Eldred's legendary underground comic Grease Monkey to light, and we at Goat Central are pleased indeed. For those of you unaware of it, this is a sci-fi comic about a big space station. 60% of Earth's population was destroyed during an alien invasion; a more benevolent alien race came afterwards to help humanity out of the mess it had been thrown into, and part of that was imparting gorillas with human intelligence. So now gorillas and humans live and work alongside one another. The series focuses on the relationship between Robin Plotnik, a mechanic second class, and his boss, Mac Gimbensky (human and gorilla, respectively), the mechanics for the Barbarian Squadron, one of Earth's first lines of defense if the aggressive aliens come back. As is to be expected with a comic written over a fourteen-year period, yeah, it's episodic, but that doesn't make it any less fun to read. Eldred's got some interesting ideas, but he lets them flow through the story instead of sitting us down and telling us about them. (At times, in fact, he slips some in while having characters trying to sit each other down and say the exact opposite, which is great.) Eldred never lets any social consciousness (and it is writ large in the liner notes if you don't pick up on it) get in the way of telling a good story, and that, ultimately, is what any piece of writing should do. Recommended. ****
An engrossing surprise One would expect a story set in space to be about Humans verses aliens with epic battles and personal loss. Grease Monkey delivers all of that and more, but not in the way one would expect.
There is, of course, the alien threat, but in stead of it being in your face, it is a constant, set in the background leaving one to wonder what would happen should the big battle occur. Imagination for the reader at it's finest. The epic battles are man's classic struggles; man vs authority, finding one's place in the universe, understanding one's self. Themes subconsciously ingrained in all of us, brought to life in what starts innocently, but culminating into moving, emotional events that everyone, of all ages, can relate to. No one dies a heroic or violent death in this collection, but people move on, whether being forcibly removed or leaving to find a better life, each person and their absence affecting us as if our best friend has moved across the country. We know life will never be the same and we can see this effect on the main characters.
The stories are not entirely devoid of cool action and fights though. Well designed Space Fighters engage in trilling dogfights and the occasional punch is thrown because we are dealing with complex, goal driven characters after all. The artwork is top notch, bring us a full spectrum of emotions and swear words are thankfully absent making this a perfect story for everyone.
Grease Monkey is certainly not what you would expect it to be, it's even better.
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