Review and Commentary On The Free Old School Science Fiction - Earthbound By Milton Lesser

Grab It Right Over
HERE

This is another Winston collection of Juvenile science fiction put out by the Winston publishing company in 1952. This novel is rather well done and its perfect as fodder for your old school science fiction games like Xplorer. This one also works for Stars Without Number as well for a retro future campaign.
The plot according to wiki :
 Cadet Peter Hodges is washed out of space academy due to an old collar bone injury. From the thin thread of this disappointment and its aftermath in his irritability, and a dishonorable discharge for picking a fight he didn't pick, he falls into a den of thieves who blackmail him into helping them spike the rockets. Before he gets his just desserts-there are sundry events like the Interplanetary Fair, the acquisition of a space suit in the nick of time. 
From the space pirates working behind the scenes to the Interplanetary fair this novel is full of ideas, events, and little bits  that can easily be lifted to provide your campaign with lots of minor background events that can easily give the PC's hours of enjoyments. The idea of 'spiking' the rockets in this novel is a novel idea and given the 1952 ideas of science this is certainly a possibility.  
Given the space and rocket action in this one. There's lots of little ideas here and there incorporating some interesting space ship background ideas as well. There's lots of potential here to expand upon several bits space action to build up a campaign. The novel is perfect as fodder for X plorers but many of the ideas about the space pirates operating on system and interplanetary scale is an interesting one. I was not impressed with the main character who still seemed to need a bit more seasoning. His whining throughout the first half of the book made want to shake the character. He needed a lot more grooming to his position with the whole of the book making want to slap him sensible. 

Many of the ideas in this book can be incorporated into existing campaign sets and could give hours of play. The book is not well known and the players are unlikely to know the points of adventure  and possibly one of the better books that is out there. A simple and rather elegant book that has a myriad of uses for an old school game. Not bad for free.