Review: Fun read....but
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 9, 2013
Mr Hoffman has developed an entertaining story arc and the novel (Parker's Folly) is at times very entertaining. Yes, it does remind you of some old Space Opera's such as the works of  E.E. Smith's.No spoilers belowThe premise - Explorer discovers some advanced alien technology and profits from it, much adventure comes from this discovery along with fascinating insights about the human (and other) racesI enjoyed this book and have already started reading the sequel, Peggy Sue.Wait, Mike, you enjoyed the book and bought the sequel so only 3 stars and the ominous "but" in your review?Well the book, while entertaining is a political screed and much of what he writes adds zero to the story. Take the reference above to E.E. Smith, a very conservative author. Smith was obviously conservative yet he didn't beat you about the head and ears with his view, His characters lived up to very high standards and you got the message that way. Mr Hoffman's characters are preaching all the time so instead walking the talk, they talk (and talk and talk) the walk. Too bad.I don't think Mr Hoffman has been in the military so he writes about it intellectually. The characters (in particular the commanding officer) have a cavalier approach to many situations in combat.There are many grammatical errors in the book, but I find it easy to read past them (some are jarring but it isn't too bad). I don't obsess on this like others reviewers do, they are there of course but hey you can live with it.The characters are not very well developed yet. pretty wooden and superficial but this isn't Shakespeare.If you can get past the preaching it is a fun read with great potential for a good series