Review: Barely earned a second star
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 26, 2014
I give the book two stars.  One star means "I hate it" according to Amazon.  Nuttall is too good a creator of premises for stories for me to say that.  I like his writing, generally, and own many of his space opera books.  The writing is probably worth 3 stars, not the 5 I've given other books.  Why 3?  Too many clichéd characters and situations.What do you think is going to happen in a book called "The Trojan Horse?"  Compare this to one of his earlier books, The Arc Royal.  Knowing the name doesn't tell you what is going to happen.  Does he refer to the most recent British aircraft carrier, unfortunately decommissioned during budget cutbacks?  The one lost to a U-Boat?  The flagship of the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada?What follows is my vent about some of the political ideas expressed in the book, for which I wanted to give it a single dim dwarf star.Where I dropped out of enjoying the book was my discovery that 'me-first' survivalism was trumpted as a good idea.  Then Mr. Nuttall praised Reagan along with Lincoln and Washington.Before reaching for American presidents to praise, let us remember what Reagan thought of hard science.  Here is a quote from the Library of Congress' Congressional Quarterly, which most people consider non-partisan:"Congress on Nov. 20 [1984] overrode President Reagan's veto of a bill (HR 2409) reauthorizing selected research activities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and creating a new institute for research on arthritis.The House acted first, on Nov. 12 voting 380–32 to override. The bill became law  when the Senate also voted to override, 89–7."Those are huge, bipartisan, majorities.  Not just liberals or Democrats, my friends.Nuttall has an excellent point at the beginning of the novel.  He says (correctly I believe) that most first contact books feature evil aliens.  Thus, he says, it is not surprising that people panic when 17 space ships arrive.  Why not, Mr. Nuttall, write something different, one of those rare books where the Aliens aren't (intentionally, anyway) the bad guys?  Call the book, say, "The Statute of Liberty" after another famous gift.