Eclipse

by K.A. Bedford

EDGE Sci-fi and Fantasy publishing $14.95, 309 pg.

James Dunne is a new graduate of the Royal Interstellar service Academy off to his first ship, HMS Eclipse. Having always dreamer of being a spacer he is eager to be off. Unfortunately all is not well in the world.

Mr. Bedford has created a world of real people and disposable people with out really explaining which is which, and it appears that a person can switch from one to the other with frightening speed and fatal results. His military is the worst horrors of the British boarding school system run amuck. Midnight beatings and rapes are normal forms of punishment for pissing off a superior. And all of his characters find this normal and accept it with resignation as "just the way the universe is."

This is Australian Sci-fi at it's worst. This book bills itself as "a taut Psychological thriller set in the claustrophobic confines of a starship." I found the story dull and uninteresting. After 105 pages I simply could not muster enough interest to finish the book. I do not recommend this book.. - William B. Whitmore