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Another two part story - one good, one bad

Revisado: 01-28-20

This story reminds me of another of Neil Stevenson's recent novels, Seveneves. Both are a two-part story. Both start as compelling and thought provoking near-future hard science fiction, exploring some significant and relevant social and moral topics with a good pace and relatable characters. Both stories, however, then pivot rather abruptly into a whimsical (but not fun) fantasy trope, complete with flying people and demons and opaque religious themes.

The introductory elements in this story are fascinating and the exploration of several concepts (information overload, mind uploading, etc) are interesting, but characters, ideas and narratives are abandoned and left to die very quickly to move into the second act of the book.

Thin that second act, the story tried (ham-fistedly) to align a fantasy narrative with common western religious themes (Adam and Eve, the exodus, the messiah), which instead of being interesting or fresh, make it feel a contrived and plodding. A lot of elements of the latter half of the story are unsatisfying and feel arbitrary.

Much life Seveneves, if I could extract the first half of the story, wrap it up a little more neatly and read only that, it might have been a great book, but 31 hours is a long time for the payoff.

Overall, I found myself wishing for it to end before I was nearly finished. That's usually not a sign of a book I'll think of tackling again.

At least the narration was high quality.

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Time travel gets tiring

Revisado: 01-28-20

When time travel is limited, it's an interesting twist on a story. The first few books in this series explored that well. But when time travel gains power or becomes nearly unlimited, it becomes a weak, tired trope that destroys a story and makes it unbelievable unless you expend effort to "suspend disbelief". Only the most cursory of thinking about a scenario allows you to realize that you can can plant a nearly infinite number of traps for an opponent or his ancestors, given the ability to constantly flit back in time without limits.

That said, this series does have a lot of compelling story elements and good characters and narrative.

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Ok Story, weak dialogue and poor use of science

Revisado: 11-05-19

It’s an entertaining story, but it’s shallow, the dialogue is pretty weak and the actual science is pretty weak.

Debating if the next story in the series is worth it.

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Weak dialogue, weak science, weak story

Revisado: 05-31-19

This is a "space opera" story, but set in a hyper-cliche and difficult to believe universe, with cliche aliens and cliche dialogue. "Give them time, Kladomaor, they are but a young species, yet, they show great potential"

Normally, I'm a fan of shallow, but fun space opera, but I felt like the universe was large, yet the character set was tiny and stilted.

Two Boxans, presumably not of any position in the government constantly make universe-altering decisions and speak for an entire species. In fact, the whole concept of the common use of the phrase "This species is...." is a bit silly. Assuming all members of a species are defined by a small and very limited (and often a bit silly) set of characteristics is outlandish and shallow.

The science portions of the story, such as the Athena being described as the humans first spacecraft to venture far from Earth... it's extremely outlandish that it would have fuel, supplies and other consumables to do much other than its intended mission. To divert the mission and then have occupants for (apparently) several years is silly. For humans to live in (apparently) zero gravity for months/years without anything other than a passing reference to it... and for there to be little to no recognition of the scale of planetary spaces and distances... stretches the bounds of credibility and makes the story break immersion too much. I mean, at least he TRIED to give a nod to a spacecraft needing fuel, but it's just so "magical" how that issue is resolved in this series.

This is a story about aliens where entire species are essentially the same personality, where the actions of 4 or 5 people on the fringes of society somehow dictate the direction of entire multi-solar system governments and where science and technology are tossed out the window in favor of having silly "hand to hand combat" trials and other tropes.

It's another science fiction story where "humans are extra special above all other species of aliens" is a main theme and main crutch and human technology is FAR more durable and flexible than it should be given the apparent level of science at the beginning of the story.

Not my cup of tea. Check out the "Star Carrier" series by Ian Douglas for a really solid Space Opera (if you can stomach a little time travel), or the "Castle Federation" series by Glynn Stewart if you prefer one that's a little more grounded and has some neat takes on starship technology (by has a slightly moralistic tone), or the "Lost Fleet" series by Jack Campbell if you like space battles and a high pace with consistent use of technology and even real concepts like "fuel" and minimal "deus ex machina" to rescue the hopelessly outmatched humans (like this series). Or the "Dutchy of Terra" series if you want a real "rah rah Humans really are crafty" story without quite as much stilted dialogue and cheesy "all species are defined by one individual".

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Immersive and well written

Revisado: 03-14-19

Really immersive story and very well written.

I’m a stickler for sci-fi that breaks immersion with too much deus ex machina, and I found the use of magic in this story to tie that line, by remain comfortably behind it.

The universe is compelling and the characters are decent as far as military sci-fi goes. Narration is strong and the voices are really well done. Dialogue is decent (for the genre) and the plot moves at a nice pace without feeling “crammed” or “in a rush to resolve things” like so much contemporary sci-fi.

Well done.

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Decent story, if a bit shallow

Revisado: 09-26-18

For those who like military scifi, it's an OK story. It goes off the rails with political caricatures expressed as an in-your-face lecturing about political opinions. Whether your agree with the politics or not, it's so opaque, it may as well be hammering you in the face with an anvil.

As a result of this (or as a cause of this), characters tend to also be a shell of an individual, solely and wholly informed by their stance in the particular political universe, with little other depth or other character motivations.

The bad guys is, stereotypically, a slithering, hissing megalomaniacal god-like sociopath who murders his generals on a whim and has no real motivation other than just "being evil". The story narrator goes on a long politically-tinged rant about how "evil is real" based on this shallow, hollow character.

The writing beyond that is actually well paced and fluid. Just a little complexity to the characters and their interactions and this would be a 5-star in my book, but the character issues are distracting to a fault, unfortunately.

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Liked the Series - This book was slow

Revisado: 05-06-18

This book was by far the slowest and most plodding of the stories. The author has an annoying habit of CONSTANTLY repeating concepts, explaining technologies. It’s almost like every chapter was written with a full summary of every concept, long asides explaining trivial, inconsequential technologies, and repetitive explanations of the various social implications of technologies that were profoundly obvious, and therefore come across as condescending, repetitive and slow down the story. I found myself wishing to skip a half chapter at least 6 times in this book.

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Well done sci-fi, getting better as it goes

Revisado: 09-07-17

This series is improving as the story gets more mature and some of the details and characters gain more substance. The plot flows well and characters have substance. Even bit characters have good introductions and are well developed and consistently motivated.

A criticism I had of the first of the series, now in the third book, the details of the universe are increasingly well put together and cohesive and the concepts seem to flow together and don't leave glaring gaps in plausibility and back story.

I'm looking forward to the next one eagerly.

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Fun sci-fi story, feels a little immature

Revisado: 09-07-17

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

For a fun, light-hearted story without too much gravitas its a decent listen.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The story and universe has a nice flair. Dialogue was a bit stilted and characters were sometimes unbelievable.

What aspect of Mikael Naramore’s performance would you have changed?

The performance grew on me, but was a bit juvenile to start.

Could you see Rookie Privateer being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

It could be a great adaptation. The universe is well done and the plot itself is interesting and plausible, even if character motivations don't seem well addressed.

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