I was really going to hit this book up hard for its almost exact story-line to a movie I once saw named “The Last Starfighter”. That movie came out in 1984 and was pretty good and advanced for its time. I enjoyed it then but I don’t think I’ve seen it since my last viewing. That movie and this book start out almost the same. A young man just trying to figure out what to do in his life does something that changes everything.
In the movie, it was an arcade machine. The main character played this arcade game all the time at this trailer park hamburger joint. He played so much that he eventually beat the game which apparently wasn’t done by very many people. Not long after he gets a visit from a mysterious, strange guy, that says he’s ready to take him to HQ for his pilot training.
In this book, our main character, Mark Allen, is again a young man just about to go off to college, he thinks. He’s working for his Uncle Mike in a dingy diner called the Starbrite. It’s not a money making establishment, far from it, but Mark just enjoys waiting tables and doing what he can to help his Uncle. The diner also has a small selection of arcade machines and they work most of the time because Mark puts his off-time into making sure they work. He also plays them a lot more than he should.
But, tonight, Mark happens to be cleaning up the diner when he see a comic book lying on his Uncles office desk. He picks it up and starts leafing through it. It’s a space story with a squadron of starfighters going after the bad guys. One of the guys in the comic is named Samuel and he seems to be a pretty good starfighter. Mark casually goes through the comic and finds the story very interesting for a comic book. Then at the back he see an ad that says, “Become a Hero. Join the Nova Slingers Corps! You too can save the universe! Call now to qualify.” And there’s a phone number listed right there for Mark to call.
But he’s not that gullible to think that phone number is still in working order. No this is a forty-year old comic book and that number must have been disconnected a long time ago. So Mark puts the comic book down and finishes up what he was supposed to be doing and that was cleaning up the diner. He goes back and plays a few more games on the arcade machines and then gets ready to go home. It’s late and his Mom is probably home by now. But, once again, he sees the comic on his Uncles desk where he left it so he grabs it and starts thinking.
What would it hurt to just give that number a try. There’s a phone on the front counter so Mark walks over and starts dialing the number. He expects some recording to tell him “The number you have dialed is not in working order. Please check the number and try again!” or something like that. But to his surprise, someone answers the phone!
Ok, so now is when Mark’s adventure starts. Yes, he’ll get a visit by a strange guy who also happens to be from Earth but he’s driving, of all things, a DeLorean car. Mark had to answer some questions on the phone, a series of involved physiological questions which he believes he answered correctly. Still, the voice on the phone didn’t say one way or another. This strange man comes up to the diner and asks if he’s Mark Allen. Mark says he is and then the guy says, “You did call about joining the *Nova Slinger Corps*, right! And you did answer some questions over the phone, right also?” Which Mark has to answer, “Yes, yes, I did!”.
Well, Mark doesn’t know if this guy is some actor put up to pull some kind of gag, but he’ll go along with it for a while. The guy then tells Mark that he’s here to take him to the recruitment center and they need to leave soon before the Tannhauser Gate closes. So, does Mark go with this stranger? You bet he does. He figures he’ll play this out until they finally tell him it’s all a joke or gag and he can tell them he knew it all along. But, Mark is in for the shock of his life and it starts as soon as he gets into the DeLorean and they actually rocket off into space!
I found this story very interesting. Mark will go through a lot more than what a movie could show. He’ll be meeting some strange and not so strange aliens and he’ll be getting some training. Everything is kind of rushed though. The Federation isn’t actually winning the war with the Ascendancy so they need more ~*Nova Slinger*~ pilots. I hope Mark can pass the training.
While this book could be the end of the story, happily it’s not. There’s more to come in book 2, “The Last Emperor”, not available on Amazon. I’m adding it to my long reading list now!
==[Note 1 (12/23/2025): I’m no longer associated with Amazon and will no longer provide any links to books from that website. You can usually find books that you like at your usual source.]==
==[Note 2: As of 12/03/2023, this will not be posted on Amazon since I have been banned from posting reviews for some unknown reason. ]==