Rebecca A. (qitten) reviewed on 1/16/2008 + 7 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 6

For those who need the heads-up, this is very hard science fiction. So hard that the frequent and lengthy science, technology, and weapon-related asides made my eyes glaze over a bit. Necessarily as the first novel in a fairly long series, this does provide a lot of background, fundamental universe structure, and a firm grounding in How Things Work here, and this Weber managed commendably well.

The story itself is a gradual, somewhat grinding buildup to the final ship battle (which, oh man, it's *epic* and well worth the wait), and it almost always feels slightly disconnected from what's going down "on the ground." While at times frustrating, this *works* for the story, as it's told from command central.

I thought, at first, that it lacked much of the interpersonal relations that make characters interesting (apart from a secondary character's ongoing inner conflict) until I caught myself going "duh". The military demands professionalism, not tete-a-tetes, and so much of the character interaction remains very true to what one should expect in that atmosphere. Honor is an undeniably strong and driven female lead, something relatively unusual in hard science fiction, though I admit that I'm still waiting for actual flaws to balance out the character.

If this first novel is anything to go by, the series looks as if it should be quite promising.

Back to all reviews by this member
Back to all reviews of this book
Back to Book Reviews
Back to Book Details