I enjoy good space opera. Starfire is a series of eight books, of which this is the sixth book. However, the fourth book was written before the first three. For me, the first four books were page turners. And I was disappointed when the series ended. So I was excited years later when I discovered there were four more books in the series This was because there were several years between books #4 and #5.
But book #5 was a giant bomb. This was because David Weber, a very respected sci-fi author was the co-author of the first four books. But they got a different co-author for #5, Exodus. That co-author apparently forgot this was a space opera series, and got overly involved in an alien culture and its philosophy. I gave that book a very negative review. Others must have agreed with me as she was dropped as co-author and someone else helped write the last three books in the series. While the alien culture still had a prominent place in this book, it was many levels better than the previous book, as there was more space opera.
Still this book has problems. I dislike it when a sci-fi author stages huge space battles and has scores, if not hundreds, of ships destroyed in each one, along with all their crews. And that often happens in this book when a fusion missile explodes 50,000 kilometers from the ships. This cheapens the book. Hey, even in "Star Trek" the only ones to die were those stupid enough to put on red-shirts before beaming down to a planet with only a phaser. While the rest of the Enterprise crew only had to experience being tossed around the bridge and getting excited when their shields starting losing power. I know this is fiction, but it helps if an author sticks to some degree of reality. In this book, hundreds of ships are destroyed in each battle, but in the next battle the two sides have just as many as before, if not more. Makes you wonder where they were coming from, as ships take time to build. Is Amazon still there in the far future? Do Star Fleet commanders have Prime? Do they just order more ships from Amazon with next day delivery?
As for the trained crews, where are they coming from? I was just a ground Marine, but I had almost a year of training before the Fleet Marine Force let me command a platoon.
I have the last two books in this series, but I don't plan on reading them any time soon. There are too many other good books awaiting my time.
But book #5 was a giant bomb. This was because David Weber, a very respected sci-fi author was the co-author of the first four books. But they got a different co-author for #5, Exodus. That co-author apparently forgot this was a space opera series, and got overly involved in an alien culture and its philosophy. I gave that book a very negative review. Others must have agreed with me as she was dropped as co-author and someone else helped write the last three books in the series. While the alien culture still had a prominent place in this book, it was many levels better than the previous book, as there was more space opera.
Still this book has problems. I dislike it when a sci-fi author stages huge space battles and has scores, if not hundreds, of ships destroyed in each one, along with all their crews. And that often happens in this book when a fusion missile explodes 50,000 kilometers from the ships. This cheapens the book. Hey, even in "Star Trek" the only ones to die were those stupid enough to put on red-shirts before beaming down to a planet with only a phaser. While the rest of the Enterprise crew only had to experience being tossed around the bridge and getting excited when their shields starting losing power. I know this is fiction, but it helps if an author sticks to some degree of reality. In this book, hundreds of ships are destroyed in each battle, but in the next battle the two sides have just as many as before, if not more. Makes you wonder where they were coming from, as ships take time to build. Is Amazon still there in the far future? Do Star Fleet commanders have Prime? Do they just order more ships from Amazon with next day delivery?
As for the trained crews, where are they coming from? I was just a ground Marine, but I had almost a year of training before the Fleet Marine Force let me command a platoon.
I have the last two books in this series, but I don't plan on reading them any time soon. There are too many other good books awaiting my time.
