Review: Not bad, but not good either.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 10, 2013
You're about to step into a 7 book series investment of your time. Things to know:First - Don't read this series. The books do a pretty good job of building up suspense, but the "release" is consistently weak. It's not that any book is particularly bad, but none of the books really rise above mediocre. Of the last 10 or 15 similar stories I've read this is the weakest, and there isn't a single really memorable moment in them that you'll recall a month after reading. The bad thing is that Firestar is probably the best in the series so the hook gets set for a slow slide into disappointment.Second, beyond books 1-3 the author stops tracking which one comes next in the series. For those of you who ignore my first suggestion, let me still help you by listing each per publish date:1) Firestar (1/4/2012) - Nice start/potential2) Morosini's Children (5/8/2012)3) On Foreign Shores (6/23/2012)4) Setosha (9/29/2012) - Major turning point, didn't really like the end5) Boabdil (12/31/2012) - Set in same universe/timeline, but different characters and very little happens in space. Some really good points and some really bad points.6) Slack Water (6/15/2013) - This book really should have been published last, timeline overlaps7) Operation Georgia (7/15/2013) - Again a different suite of characters, timeline overlapLastly, some parting thoughts after just wrapping up these books:1) A main hook is the primary culture, consisting of 99% women (could have been explored a LOT better than it was... very little page time)2) It is a nobody-turned-hero story in space (repeated with new nobodys periodically)3) Characters are a bit folksy / lack complexity4) Male-Female relationships are COMPLETELY unrealistic5) Author is male but writes about things asserted to be uniquely female (e.g. must be a mother before can be captain of a warship because apparently having children automatically transforms you into someone who would deploy weapons in a more considerate manner) - let's just say this attempt falls short of believability6) Nice job of evolving tech/tactics/challenges/politics as the series progresses7) The books could have been "tightened up" by about 30% of page count on average with a good editor.8) The timeline overlaps are done very poorly. Boabdil and Operation Georgia are pretty much spinoffs that could have been woven in as arcs.