Review: Fast Food Space Opera
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 13, 2014
Before I make any critiques I first want to say that I deeply respect Christopher Nuttall for having the guts and determination to write a book (multiple books in fact). Anyone (within reason) who writes and publishes a book has my respect. It is a ton of work and I am thoroughly grateful that these people make the effort because I absolutely love reading.That being said, I, personally, was not a big fan of Ark Royal. It had a lot of elements of sci-fi that I like. The FTL travel was an interesting take on a common idea ("tramlines" between stars). An unknown enemy with a technological edge. A non-unified earth etc.The carrier/fighter set up is a preference thing; I don't mind it but I like seeing mammoth battleships slugging it out as opposed to the capital ships hanging back while fighters doink around.Also, the technology was very lightly touched on. Again, this is a personal preference. I enjoy a more technical sci-fi usually. I love speculation on how future technology might function and concise, exciting descriptions of all the bells and whistles that make a starship AWESOME! Nuttall uses general brushstrokes where I would prefer fine detail I guess.The characters are well written. There are some honest looks at inner demons, the difficulty of long distance family relationships etc. I was not a fan of the few (mildly) softcore pornographic scenes. I think the book would have been just as a good without explicit descriptions.All that being said, Ark Royal is still a better space opera than many I have read. I can see how many people would enjoy reading it and that it is mainly a difference in preference than a problem of writing talent. I ended up choosing a two-star rating because Amazon doesn't allow a two and a half.