Stith, John E. Books

Deep Quarry

John E. Stith

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Editorial Review:

DEEP QUARRY, by John E. Stith Trade paperback, 156 pages, $15.99 ISBN: 1-58715-707-1 In Deep Quarry, Stith once again successfully combines mystery with hard science fiction. Ben Takent is a private eye on a hot, dusty world at the edge of the civilized galaxy. When he's asked to find out who is stealing artifacts from a 10,000-year old archaeological dig in the desert, he reluctantly takes the case. After it becomes clear that the artifacts are pointing to an ancient alien spacecraft, the stakes in the case go up -- way up. Winner of the Colorado Authors' League Top Hand Award.

Memory Blank

John E. Stith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Explores memory, mind, and self in action format 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I believe that this is Stith's best (haven't read 'Reckoning Infinity' or 'Scapescope'). Protagonist is an individual living in an O'Neil type habitat who has undergone a procedure that rmoves memories of personal past for the previous several years. The rest of the book is the story of regaining his memory with the help of a cleverly written AI, and, of course, foiling a plot to end civilization as we know it. I really like Stith's writing; his characters are not necessarily the deepest, most convoluted personalities you could concoct, but they are very engaging. His writing, combined with an inventive plot, and the exploration of what memory is and how it relates to ego make this a very enjoyable novel. The worst thing about it is that it is out of print.

Editorial Review:

Imagine what it must be like to be Cal Donley. He regained consciousness on the orbital colony Daedalus. It's a beautiful place, home for more than a million people, but Cal doesn't remember leaving Earth. In fact, he can't remember his name or most of the past dozen years.


What disaster has stripped away so much of his memory? Why? And what about the dried blood on his hands?


"In the realm of novels, John E. Stith's Memory Blank...is a good solid mystery, a good adventure, and even a good science-fiction novel--all between one set of covers."-- STARLOG

Reckoning Infinity

John E. Stith

List Price: $23.95 By: Tor Books Amazon Marketplace: 57 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

More fun than pulling teeth... almost 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

While the book presents a couple of interesting ideas, it is, overall slow and very drawn-out. The plot goes nowhere, with the characters (most of which you won't be able to stand) literally going around in circles time after time after boring time. Perhaps the most dissappointig part, though, is that after you've read through all the drudgery, you expect the ending to resolve some of the things that happened and questions that came up along the way. Does it? No..... It just kind of .... stops. If you're looking for a boring, go-nowhere attempt at sci-fi, then this is the book for you.

Editorial Review:

Alis Mary Nussem had a promising career aboard space station Tokyan. But when a shuttle accidentally rammed the station, it damaged much of her body and took away any chance she had at a normal life. Now as much machine as woman, Alis has sought isolation from humanity by taking remote assignments on the fringes of the solar system. Her strategy backfires when a new assignment brings her aboard the Ranger, a ship whose crew includes the Tokyan shuttle pilot. But personal conflicts fall by the wayside as the Ranger discovers what appears to be an alien ship.

All for Naught

John E. Stith

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Editorial Review:

ALL FOR NAUGHT collects a novella and a novelette: "Naught for Hire" and "Naught Again," both orginally published in ANALOG. "Naught for Hire" is a quirky, action-packed, comedy set just a few years from now. Nick Naught, private eye, walks down some strange mean streets as he tries to stay ahead of the killers on his tail and tries to cope in a world where all the irritations we have with technology are magnified. Gadgets act up in big ways, including voice-operated machines that talk back to people. Dilbert could relate.

Manhattan Transfer

John E. Stith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

In My Top 10 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This original and facinating story ranks in my top ten favorite sci-fi novels. I rate it with some of Asimov's masterpieces. I've read it three times.

9/11 is bubkes compared to this\ New Yorkers in space 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Forget the World Trade Center. What if the entire Manahatten island was suddenly gone, kidnapped by aliens and taken into outer space by a giant UFO? Sure New Yorkers can deal with a lot,but how much? Yes everyone knows NYrs are tough,this book shows you just how tough.
This book shows you how all of New York(Manhatten)not only deals with the unthinkable but the unimaginable.Interesting premise,very interesting and original story. would probably make a great movie too. Recommended for fans of good old school sci fi with lots of aliens, battles and explosions. Good old John Stith has done it again. Thank you Mr Stith! =)

Not worth your time 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Manhattan Transfer is a poor mix of some reasonably good hard scifi ideas with nearly trivialized surroundings. I often thought of the movie Armageddon (which I did not like) while reading this book. Stith doesn't have the tear-jerking moments so prominent in Armageddon, but he certainly manages the Hollywood-style stereotyped characters, and the lack of depth with his science fiction.

Many of the problems with the book are obvious early on; after terrible happenings on the island of Manhattan, Stith describes many scenes where inhabitants look about them, and somehow see clearly what is happening on the city's horizons (and, no, the city is not leveled; all the buildings are still in place). Can you imagine, in Manhattan, of all places? The city's residents are amazingly controlled during this terror, another piece of simplification that just doesn't work. The book is full of such trivializations. Even when it looks as if it will go somewhere interesting, Stith always manages to reduce the story to something oversimplified and therefore dull and uninteresting.

Unless you like fast reads without much content (so why bother), for hugely better hard scifi, having some similarities to Manhattan Transfer (at least with the aliens), try Vernor Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky". One of the other many better scifi writers to go to is Jack McDevitt.

Editorial Review:

Science-fiction novel about the kidnapping of Manhattan by aliens. A Hugo Award Honorable Mention.

Reunion On Neverend

John E. Stith

List Price: $4.99 By: Tor Science Fiction Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $0.01

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

all the usual Stithisms but not one of his best 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Reunion on Neverend is readable, but no more. Stith's continuing interest in nice-guy masculinity and female neurosis produces one of his less successful romances, while the science fiction seems incidental, the action is average, and the humor is more juvenile than clever. Stith is a decent writer: for more interesting plot and more involving characters, try Memory Blank or Death Tolls.

Editorial Review:

In Neverend's underground colony, a technological laboratory on the edge of the universe, science and courage are used to unlock the secrets of the cosmos, while one man journeys to his homeland to take up a long-forgotten battle. Reprint.

Scapescope

John E. Stith

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Death Tolls

John E. Stith

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Editorial Review:

Ex-investigative reporter Dan Kettering watches the Martian telecast showing the aircraft crash that killed someone close to him: his brother. The police convince Dan to get back in the news business, but not as a reporter. This time around he's got a new face, a new name, and he's a driver. Dan resisted the police at first, but one factor changes his mind. The crash that killed his brother wasn't necessarily an accident. His undercover assignment puts him close to Janet Vincent, one of the reporters on the team that uncannily seems to reach almost every disaster scene before their competition.

Redshift Rendezvous

John E. Stith

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Real Sci-Fi 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Many of today's so called Sci-Fi authors don't really write Sci-Fi, they write Fantasy. When you go to your book store's Science Fiction section you see a lot of Unicorns and Barbarians, but few hard science fiction works. For those of you who grew up on 50's classics, and Analog magazine in the sixties and seventies, John Stith delivers the right stuff. And ex NORAD scientist, his works feature a solid but speculative physics. The emphasis is in reality, not the melodrama of the predominant Sci-Fi you find. And Stith is a funny guy, if his characters aren't having hilarious exchanges with intelligent appliances or aliens, there is a dry humor at work in the events.

REDSHIFT RENSEZVOUS is an intense story with wondrous technology and it's implications. I've read another review here saying that this book is similar to Alistair MacLeans "Golden Rendezvous." This is like saying that because two works share genre conventions, that it is the same. All fiction uses elements from other works, it is the execution of those conventions and devices that make the work new.

Final word: IF YOU LIKE GOOD'OL SCIENCE FICTION, TIGHT PLOTS, INTERESTING PREMISES, BUY JOHN STITH. Another of his books MANHATTAN TRANSFER is soon to be made into a blockbuster movie.

Editorial Review:

A Nebula-Award finalist, showcasing suspense and danger in a slow-light environment. From the author of MANHATTAN TRANSFER and others. Aboard the hyperspace liner Redshift, the first sign of trouble is the apparent suicide of a passenger. When first officer Jason Kraft discovers that she was murdered, Kraft wants to know why. Before long, a desperate group of people tries to use the hyperspace craft for their evil purposes, and Kraft is the only person in their way.

From the PASSENGER GUIDE. WARNING: Read This Guide Before Boarding the Redshift.

The environment aboard a hyperspace craft is quite safe as long as you are careful. The management reminds you that the speed of light on board this craft is ten meters per second, or about 30 million times slower than what you are used to. This means you will frequently encounter relativistic effects and optical illusions...