James Apps

The Reluctant Hero James Apps

The Reluctant Hero is volume one of the Zradian Chronicles in which Julian, the no-good son of Professor Arthur Renfrew, becomes embroiled in an interplanetary war. Wanted for arson, chased by a mad axeman, and "rescued" by the alien Drogl on behalf of the Zradian Rebels, Julian ends up on a violent planet in the middle of a deadly war against a despotic and possibly loopy President. The story explores Julian's relationships with others and pokes a lot of fun at our own institutions against a background of what becomes a badly managed invasion of Earth. Filled with characters whose behaviour is sometimes over the top yet are as real as any ordinary person, and others who are just plain crazy. This is a story with all the proper clichés belonging to a Sci-fi story but seen with the terrified eyes of Julian Renfrew, the optimistic Richard Byrde, the war-like Zradian Pair Glord and Drogl and a different point of view by Angela Breen, a Good Christian Girl who sets out to save Julian "for the Lord". Naturally there has to be the over-all threat of annihilation, that last deciding nuclear style deterrent which the Zradian President is all too eager to use in a fit of pique. Opposing him is the mad robot with the multiple personalities, a liking for the song "A Whiter Shade of Pale" who is looking for a safe place to nurture its adopted family of ravenous rodents.