8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unbelievable, July 1 2010
By Don E. Wheeler, MD - Published on Amazon.com
If you were to read books of the "Starship" series one-after-the-other, you would find a tremendous about of repeated material -- themes, expressions, situations, even paragraphs lifted from one book and pasted into a later one. Indeed, if I had a nickel for every time the captain wished he had 50 'Vals' so that he could conquer the Republic . . . Well, you get my drift.
The last book, "Flagship" is so unbelievable it's pitiful. A Republic with 60,000 inhabited planets has a central administrative world that can be take by surprise by not just one, but two different small military forces is a nonsense.
I really am sorry I bought the last two books, especially for the price they are offered as kindle books. I would recommend other readers find other examples of space opera to follow, and abandon this one.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Shame on me, May 23 2010
By Gary Gibson "gibsong" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Starship Flagship Book Five Of The Starship Series (Hardcover)
Deus ex machina
Latin for "god from the machine"; is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new character, ability, or object.
Never mind the plot inconsistencies and the poor character development, the real kicker in this book was the incredibly contrived plot device to wrap up the series. The coincidental timing of the attack by the previously unknown aliens was just dreadful.
Now, I admit it. I read the whole series, mainly because they were light and fluffy, very easy to pick up and very easy to put down. White bread books really. I should have stopped after the first book, but I like to give an author more than one book, plus, the good reviews fooled me and led me on. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice (or five times), shame on me. Never again shall I read one of your books Mr. Resnick.
Try reading the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell instead.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nicely done sci-fi fiction, Jan 2 2010
By W. Free - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Starship Flagship Book Five Of The Starship Series (Hardcover)
First off - I have never read any of Mike Resnick's works, whether a part of the Starship series or anything else. And it appears I have jumped into the series after 4 other books with this cast of characters have been written. That's what you get for grabbing something on a whim from the county library.
With that said, I found this to be an enjoyable read. It wasn't too heavy, and even the backstory on the relationships between the characters was easy to pick up on. There was just enough there (in case you hadn't read the preceding books), but it certainly didn't dwell on establishing the backstory. But this wasn't some lightweight collection of prose that the author dashed out. It is well-thought out and, to my mind at least, logical.
The story moved at a decent pace, and I really do not recall any sections that seemed to stall out. The overall storyline flowed pretty smoothly and transitioned between sections well. It's clear that Mr. Resnick has experience writing (and probably a good editor to team with) to make this book accessible to someone like me (who hasn't read anything else) and still satisfy those who follow his work (like the other 2 reviews so far).
I'd recommend this book to any fan of science fiction, particularly if you like the military sci-fi side of things. I will probably go back and try to read the preceding books in this series.