Police Your Planet

By: Lester del Rey

Narrated by: Peter Ganim

Bruce Gordon was an ex-fighter, ex-gambler, ex-cop, ex-reporter, and now he was an ex-patriot of Earth. Security shipped him to Mars with a knife, 100 credits, and a yellow card that meant no return.

A science-fiction novel that would appeal to Mickey Spillane fans, Police Your Planet features lots of violence, beatings, and blood. But this isn't just a crime novel put into space; this is a hard SF novel, and the terraforming of Mars is central to the story.

Public Domain (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Old style hollywood gangsters on Mars

Police Your Planet is fun. Its not really science fiction even though its set on Mars. The entire story is about an entire society being on the take. It heavily reminded me of old hollywood flicks where cities are corrupt and trying to stuff the ballot to elect a corrupt mayor. It also reminded me of Dashiel Hammets old noir novels.

Essentially, this is a story set on Mars, but its mainly just one fish out of water getting into a lot of fights and finding himself up against a political machine. It was fun... if you don't think too much about the outlandish aspects. Aspects such as a goofy plot and the few sci-fi elements involved are incredulous. There is even a romance straight out of the 1920's with women in their right place and thick headed men.

You probably won't be disappointed by this book. Its just not up to the best of Heinlein or many other sci-fi authors.

classic scifi

An excellent old story. Worth the time if you like scifi noise. Enjoy it. That's all.

A very good story!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story! Please pay no attention to that review talking about how it made them suicidal! I hate it when people give a bad review to a book in order to just be cute and make a joke at the authors expense! Is the story a little dark??? Of course! It’s a noir crime thriller on another planet! It’s supposed to be a little dark! That’s not a reason to give a book a bad review!

Gangsters on Mars

I liked it all right. The performance was excellent. The story seemed like it belonged in the early 1930's, and by changing just a few details could have been a Contimental Op novel. The sci-fi aspects seemed incidental. Overall I rate it a 3.5 out of 5.

Nja

Not the most interesting and groundbreaking scfi novel. Basically isn't really that at all, everything could probably take place in a poor African city (with a dome in not a physical way). Anyway I were kind of entertained most of the book. (If it were longer I probably would not.)

Meh

It tried to be something that it possible could be. I finished it because I needed something to fall asleep to.

Moon is a Harsh Mistress

I most dearly love RAH, but I kept thinking as I read this, that it seems Moon is a Harsh Mistress must have been a ripoff of this novel. So I checked and this one published ten years earlier. I didn’t really enjoy the story nearly as much, but if did come first, and did not use any deus ex machina devices. And I could listen to Mr. Charsick read the phone book! What an excellent voice! I should read more Lester Del Rey

fun story but dated

An interesting mix of hard bitten 20's detective story, political thriller and sf. Worth listening to, but many uncomfortable cultural assumptions show the age of the story.

Great story, but dated

This is good old school science fiction. The hero leaves things better than he found them. The characters are fairly well developed. The scope is fairly large but not galactic nor universal in scale.

Everything that made me fall in love with science fiction as a kid

Everything I loved about sci fi as a kid when the stories were kinda detective noir set in the future. Well read and fun.