Product Description: The serial space-ranger Buck Rogers tells his own story for the first time, from his awakening in a strange future to his immortal exploits in the domed city of the Mongols, the Martian camps of the tigermen, and elsewhere.
It Helps to Know the Context The original Buck Rogers wasn't "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" and wasn't written in the 1930s. It was "Armageddon 2419 A.D." and was written in 1919. It _WAS_ a profoundly racist and anti-Asian book by modern standards. With that in mind, Caidin's tale is actually rather well done. He kept much of the flavor of a dated book, while bringing it closer to the present day reader.
If there's any blame here, it's on the publisher for trying to drag what should remain a period piece in literature into the contemporary. I assume, since TSR-now-WotC was the publisher, that it ties into a game somewhere.
As a writer myself it always makes my teeth itch when reviewers, who should know better, attempt to drape the author in his characters. A good writer's characters may resemble himself in any detail or none. This is clearly the latter.
Abysmally, unbelievably bad This is probably one of the most abysmally bad science fiction books I've ever read in my life.
I can't figure out if Caidin was trying to be nostalgic and write in a 1930's pulp-fiction style, or if he thought he was trying to update '30's style writing to the present day, but in either case, the book is an astonishing failure, like trying to build a nuclear reactor out of styrofoam, wood chips and Elmer's glue.
The book is quite frankly racist, to begin with. It's embarrassingly racist. No racial stereotype is left unmolested. You would think that someone at the publishing house would have spotted this gigantic faux pas, but apparently they were blithely blind to it. Secondly, the author is frighteningly enamoured of technology in general, and rhapsodizes for literally paragraph upon paragraph about things like polished mirrors, laser beams, and obscure parts and pieces of World War II aircraft. His techno-fetishism finally becomes hilarious. "Oh look, a bolt! Wonder how many pages he could write about it?"
Third, the plot is a huge mess with no point. Fourth, the characters have about as much depth as your average business card. Fifth, the book is sexist as well as racist.
But let me be positive. What good things can I find to say about this book?
Well, it's easy to read, except for the parts where Caidin starts going on and on about technical details of Messerschmitt ME 109 aircraft. And, um...it's funny, although inadvertently so. And the hardback copy I found, had a copy of Phil Nowlan's original 1933 "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" novelette bound in the back.
The sad thing was that Nowlan's novelette, which was originally offered as a prize for mailing in your cereal boxtops, was far more interesting at 31 pages than Caidin's entire novel. And since Nowlan's "Buck Rogers" is being sold here at Amazon without the dead weight of Caidin's book attached to it, you now have no reason to buy Martin Caidin's "Buck Rogers: A Life In The Future."
Thank whatever gods you believe in that this enormous mess of a book is out of print. And if you see it in a used book sale at a library, like I did, LEAVE IT THERE! I wish I had...
Buck Rogers - a tale of racism I am not sure of the caliber of Mr. Caidin's (the author) other works, but this one was a definite let down. He has taken one of the best loved space opera sagas and turned it into hectically paced, disjointed work with carbon copy characters and a theme that degrades all the principles that Buck Rogers stands for.
The story is based on the classic 1930s Space Opera about a man from the 20th century who pulls a Rip Van Winkle and winds up in the 25th century in the midst of a war between the East and the West. Mr. Caidin tries to put an updated spin on the story by creating a fantastic autobiographical representation of himself as the hero Anthony "Buck" Rogers. Buck exists as the epitome of all pilots, with training in every aircraft and a history with both the military and a civilian pilot. He is a veteran flyer working as an airline pilot who moonlights as an air show performer. He gets injured in 1996 and to save his life, scientists put him into stasis for 400 years. ..Unfortunately Buck seems to have as yet unseen abilities added to his resume as the book progresses but in such a way as to make them seem as afterthoughts. I have seen "made for TV" movie scripts that have more well defined plot and characters.
I am not being overly critical either. The book is a collection of disjointed scenes, with poorly devised transitions and weak, trite dialog. The pace of the "action" is so thinly described that it is not believable or even understood how the hero Buck, goes from a relative stranger in America of the 25th century, to a Brigadier in the military in a matter of months. The author "forgets" about character development as he proceeds through the novel and leaves many of the primary characters sitting at the roadside with little discussion as the book leaps and skips forward. Even more unbelievable is that Mr. Caidin has the motivations of the nations of Earth in the 25th century revolve around activities that took place in the 20th century and earlier. He includes no social development for the past 400 years from the time that Buck was born and lived to the time when he joins the remains of the American state in the 25th century. The appearance of alien life influencing earth is more believable than the actions of the countries involved in this future space war.
It would be acceptable if the book had a "campy" nostalgic feeling like the Dick Tracey or the Rocketeer movies. Unfortunately it tries to take its self too seriously and it comes off very heavy with a depressing message of hate and distrust.
The "Social Racism" wound into the plot about distrust of foreign powers based on activities from centuries ago make the book a target for ridicule and unless it is a vehicle for the authors plot development, .... It is this kind or continuation of hate that causes children today to be brought up to think of Blacks, Asians or even Women as second class citizens, or the Jews or Moslems as being universally evil.
The author details how the Chinese and Mongols returned to their Horde roots and conquered the world in the beginning of the 21st century and that the US and its allies have been fighting them ever since. It likens the modern Asian races as a bunch of saber rattling warlords that are less than a stones throw away from their horse riding ancestors.
Caidin labels the Japanese as a sneaky race that is willing to do anything to become a dominant force on Earth is underscored in the closing chapter of the book when Buck rationalizes his distrust of a Japanese ally by bringing up the Pearl Harbor attack as an example of the deviousness of the Japanese, 400 years after the event!! I would be like the English labeling the United States as terrorists because of the Boston Tea Party.
All in all, I think that Mr. Caidin took a good foundation and a creatively original plot and ruined it by his mishandled treatment of the material and his desire to make a racism fueled society of tomorrow. He had the chance to make a wonderful story and he failed at his attempt. I would not recommend this book to anyone with out the caveat that is might have been an exceptional book with a bit more effort.
A fun read When I first saw the title of this book, I thought 'No way! Someone has tried to recapture the Buck Roger's space opera epic.' then I saw the author and took interest. Mr. Caidin has done a great job at updating this tale. Agreed, it is not a major work in terms of the brilliant work he's done in the past, but it is still a wonderful read. If you are a techie that enjoys a formula space opera, then this is a good, and fun read. Nicely done.
Almost-decent escapism, but FAR below Mr. Caidin's usual. As a long-time fan of Mr. Caidin's, who literally grew to love reading as a child b/c of "Thunderbolt!", "Flying Forts", and "P-38: The Fork-Tailed Devil", I was ecstatic when I saw this book in the bargain bin. Unfortunatey, this book seems to have been written in about 2 hours; the parts with the most potential are over before you know it, and the "suspensions of disbelief" that are required are inconsistent and way too extreme. This book might be enjoyable for someone who is easily entertained and very uncritical (is that a word?), but it will harshly disappoint anyone who expects Mr. Caidin's usual brilliance.
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