full review can be found here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/bookreview-the-centauri-device-by-m-john...

full review can be found here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/bookreview-the-centauri-device-by-m-john...

I picked this up from the library because I'd heard it referred to as a classic of Sci-Fi. The writing is certainly a cut above, but the story, settings, language are pure 70's... and, to my taste, haven't aged well. The blurb on the front gives this much away:
"A last-chance loner from the back alleys of space hold the fate of the earth in his hands."
Well then.

I suppose... think "Escape from New York" but in space. And "Escape from New York" is a classic, too, in its way; but it is very much aged, and not entirely for the better. ( )

DNF at 25%. Sub-PKD nonsense. ( )

Purple prose and a listless, largely unsympathetic protagonist make a surprisingly action-packed political thriller cum space opera an unexpectedly difficult read. Additionally, I'm not sure what message I'm meant to take home, other than ideology and individuals in power do not serve the people at large. The final 30p or so are completely baffling. I here-by formally give up on Harrison SF novels. ( )