- Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Scholastic (Nov 1 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0439219175
- ISBN-13: 978-0439219174
- Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 10.7 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 23 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,079,259 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Ark (Mass Market Paperback)
I thought that this book was very good and it keeps you on the edge of your seat every second! I would recommend it to people of all ages!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Surprisingly good,
By N.J. Batten (Devon, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ark (Mass Market Paperback)
I have read the U.K. version of the book - titled "His Majesty's Starship" - but the story is evidently the same.I found the plot twists very entertaining and consider the lack of some background information of little concern. I certainly wasn't worried about the author missing out any quasi-scientific explanation for currently-impossible techniques. This is something that's missing from a large proportion of S.F. stories. This book has joined the select list of those I can enjoy reading several times - despite being published in a young-adult category. By the way - I guess the author assumed the existing U.K. had finally merged with the European Union and that the Royal Family had taken their remaining supporters with them into space.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Respectable, But Not RAMA,
By "caamasiavenger" (Hudson, OH United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ark (Mass Market Paperback)
All right, I'll admit that just picking this book up off the shelf, I couldn't help but notice how closely the plot summary mirrored that of Arthur C Clarke's RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA and RAMA II, both superb science-fiction novels. However, Ben Jeapes actually proved my initial concerns to be incorrect. Jeapes set out a unique, coherent plot that managed to be suspenseful at times.I understand that this was meant to be written to a Young Adult audience (hence it being published by Scholastic), but writing to a younger age does not mean that an author can ignore the science in science-fiction. For example, it is written that aliens have devised this sort of space-stretching transportation device that allows light-years to be crossed in seconds (think of Madeliene L'Engle's A WRINKLE IN TIME and her fourth dimension theory). However, Jeapes offers no scientific theory as to how these work. Make a theory up of you have to, but you can't offer nothing! Second, Jeapes suggests that that some tragedy has befallen the United Kingdom and now all of their citizens live on a giant spaceship. No, I'm not kidding. And even worse, we never find out why they are on this spaceship (what happened to the old England?)! Rather disappointing in terms of background information. In conclusion, Jeapes has managed to start off with a novel that has a fairly decent plot, but loses its way via the above. Although Jeapes' writing doesn't have as great character writing as that in RAMA II, or the awesome space battles of Tim Zahn (HEIR TO THE EMPIRE), it will be interesting to see how Jeapes' writing matures in the future, and I look forward to reading his next, and hopefully more polished, novel.
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