Review: Nice "old school" space opera
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2014
There is a fair amount to like in this novel -- some genuinely neat ideas.  There are also some gaping logical holes that I could not handle.  Number one is the idea that the humans in the far, far future still speak English.  Not possible.  There are other issues like this as well.  Also, if the buried starship still works, why did the people who came to the planet Rain in it forget about it and descend into barbarism?  Makes no sense.Putting these nits aside, this is a very serviceable space opera that has some genuinely cool ideas.  The main one is that in the far future, when SETI-type radiotelescopes scour the heavens, they detect human communications -- the notion being that today we hear nothing "out there" because humans are one of the first intelligent species and have not yet settled other star systems.  Since I happen to believe this, this novel found in me a sympathetic and interested reader.Not bad at all, and a fun read for those of us who like an easy space opera novel.  RJB.