Well it had to happen I guess … I mean I’d had a pretty good run of well written and edited books with a decent story, plotline and characters, I guess you couldn’t expect it to last forever! Discovery of the Saiph was really enjoyable and Steel Breach was excellent – both books and authors that I’d highly recommend for the future and ones that I know I will be following closely.
Unfortunately this one … not so much. There wasn’t really anything original to the story at all except perhaps the enemy and their patterns of behaviour.
The whole concept of the broken down and beaten ship and crew on their last voyage to the breakers coming back from the brink of defeat to win their final victory has been done so many times now and in significantly better style. The sad fact is that this book at times seemed to be a riff on Battle Star Galactica but it just didn’t make sense? In fact thinking about it even further, its not so much a riff on BSG or even Star Trek – it’s more a copy of the typical archetypes from all of the popular SciFi that we’ve all grown up with.
- Captain Granger is your typical old man in space kind of character. He’s old and grizzled, and he has a crew to complement his sour demeanor.
- The doctor is ethical beyond belief threatening to take the captain off the bridge if his medical condition worsens,
- the chief engineer is in love with her engines and weeps when they’re set to explode,
- the marine captain aboard is as hard as nails, and
- the second in command in gruff alcoholic.
By itself it (perhaps) wouldn’t be bad to have one or even two of these archetypes in place, but here its just getting silly really.
Some of the fight sequences are enjoyable however, but unfortunately here the writing errors tend to disrupt the flow which just serves as a distraction which is a pity. On a positive note I probably have to complement Mr Webb on his science. Aside from the magical QJump that the ships do, all the other weapons and even the maneuvering that the Constitution has to do are understandable and believable. This technical detail of course could in its own way serve as a distraction but I didn’t mind it at all.
I might read the 2nd one in this series if I’m still with Kindle Unlimited at the time, but otherwise I cannot unfortunately recommend this book.