Forge of the Elders - L. Neil Smith Book Review

Enter a review
of your own!

Other books by
author L. Neil Smith

"Forge of the Elders"
Message Board

L. Neil Smith Resident Scholar Profiles

TOP SCHOLAR: Christie Robnett

SCHOLARS:

Would you like to be a scholar and make five dollars per review? Click here to submit a review!

Review Summaries

"In the near future, American politicians sell out and go Communist. A century later, in a desperate effort to save the ASSR from total economic collapse, the commissars send two ancient space shuttles to a promising asteroid. The American Soviets aren't the first to get there: the place is already home to many races of aliens, all of whom are capitalist anarchs. Each American must, in his or her turn, decide to be free or choose to remain a slave of the world communist state."
Brian R. Hughes, Resident L. Neil Smith Scholar

Click above for the new Obama Girl Parody video!

Overall Review

Our unique search engine breaks down books and movies into dozens of literary elements, all of which are searchable.

Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 10%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30%

Tone of book - very upbeat
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story Yes
Plotlets: - generally friendly contact with alien(s)
Political power play Yes
Political plotlets - preventing/managing clash/war between govts/kingdoms
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Cultural problems, alien culture Yes
Culture clash- - one culture tries to impose its culture on another group

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - champion of justice
Age: - long lived adults
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - very athletic

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 60's-90's
Profession/status: - mastermind
Eccentric: Yes - obsessed - mentally ill - emotionally unstable - wild
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an average amount
How sensitive is this character? - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - very athletic

Setting
Terrain - Forests - Space, need spacesuit - Asteroid
Spaceship setting: - primative (present, near future) human spaceship - alien spaceship
A substantial portion of this book takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - inhabited by friendly aliens - very controlled society
Planet outside solar system? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - very explicit references to deaths and torture
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a moderate amount of scientific explanation
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - descript of kissing - descript of touching personal anatomy - licking - use of artificial tools - actual description of sex - description of breasts - descript. of private male anat. - descript. of non-breast female anat. - rape/molest (yeech!)
How much dialogue? - significantly more descript than dialog

Most similar books by Gordonator ranking
Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
Empire Of Bones by Liz Williams
Defender - Foreigner 5 by C.J. Cherryh
The Burning Heart of Night by Ivan Cat
The Shrouded Planet by Robert Randall

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

Try our new Star Wars & Star Trek puzzle pictures! Click here

Advertise with us
Feedback
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith plot spoilers
Hobbits
The politics game
The lawyer game

3 Book search options!
1) Simple lookup
(title or author)

or
2) Detailed book search
(click here) or

3) One-click plot searches! Simply click on a plot below!

Animal Story

Clones

Coming of age

Cultural problems, alien culture

Explore/1st contact/ enviro story

Family relations

GIANT monster(s)

Horror story?

Inner Struggle

Lifeform altered?

Mental/magical powers focus

Parody

Political power play

Religious overtones?

Repressive society story

Robots, Computers, VR

Romance

Spying & Investigations

Tech./$$$/Info hunt

Time Travel story?

Training/Apprent.

War or Invasion

Games:
Trivia Masters!

Rescue your favorite
scifi characters from
slavery!

Talk to your favorite
scifi characters!

Eating New Yorkers
Computer Game

Pomeranians

Most recent TV & Movie discussions:

Charmed: Is Piper really a Halliwell? 11/13/2009 11:30:45 AM

Lord of the Rings: Why would Aragorn choose pig lips Arwen Evenstar over Eowyn? 11/12/2009 6:40:39 PM

Xena: 37 reasons why Xena and Gabrielle are... you know.... 11/12/2009 7:23:13 AM

A Boy and His Dog: A Boy and His Dog 11/11/2009 11:48:16 PM

Battlestar Galactica: Was Battlestar Galactica politically conservative? 11/1/2009 9:51:45 AM

Battlestar Galactica: Why were the Cylons so slow and thinking impaired? 10/31/2009 8:36:52 PM

Blade Runner: Blade Runner 10/22/2009 2:43:11 AM

Star Trek Enterprise: Jolene Blalock on T'Pol and Star Trek Enterprise 10/19/2009 2:48:46 PM

Charmed: If Piper Halliwell gets pregnant, can Leo give her an abortion? 10/3/2009 12:29:33 PM

Star Wars: Why did stormtroopers wear armor that didn't work against blasters? 9/30/2009 9:48:47 PM

Newest slaves:
Jennifer Aniston (Friends) 5:31:13 AM
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) 5:20:58 AM
Jaime Sommers 5:18:31 AM
Steve Austin 5:17:55 AM
Kai 5:12:03 AM
Wonder Woman 5:11:45 AM
Mrs. Robinson Mark II 5:11:25 AM
Professor Robinson 5:07:22 AM
Slutty Sword Girl 5:00:31 AM
Octopussy 4:59:29 AM
All slaves
(click here)

Celebrity interviews:
President George W. Bush 6:32:00 PM
Jan-Michael Vincent 2:16:51 PM
Captain Kathryn Janeway 3:47:46 PM
Jack ONeill (Richard Dean Anderson) 1:39:22 PM
Jennifer Aniston (Friends) 5:01:07 PM
All celebrities
(click here)