Review: Too long, badly edited, no characters
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 5, 2013
I have learned not to expect too much from self published books but this was a disappointment. The premise is an old one but a good one.  Essentially, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court for the classicist and Jack Campbell's The Lost Fleet series for those too young to have read Mark Twain:-)  The first chapter is really good but it goes down hill quickly. The premise is pretty much exactly the same as Campbell's except is as if Captain "Black Jack" Geary is picked up by the floundering Ship of Bimbos.  No, really, the heroic Admiral and leading character is put in an escape pod, just like Black Jack, and picked up 700 years later (just before the pod is about to go bad - just like Black Jack), not by the fighting fleet but rather by a derelict Fleet Tender crewed by 500 mostly teenage girls who can't read and wear sexy clothing because the traded for a shipment of clothes intended for a whorehouse (really, its in the book!).  This is YA stuff so that's as sexy as it gets.  The Admiral is a 102 year old (not counting time in the capsule)god like uber engineer who saves the day by repairing everything in the ship and who has way less romance than even "Black Jack".  The second most important character is also that same Admiral in the form of his AI named Sprite (a female personality) who is the world's greatest hacker.  The dialogue between the Admiral and his alter ego is the best in the book. Conversations between actual people generally consist of "we will fix them one at a time" and "hand me that wrench".The best thing about the book is the introduction of nano technology and the really cool hyperspace drive that has more gears than a racing bike but that can't make up for the lack of character development.  It seems that the author is afraid of character development as the only one who shows any sign of it is quickly killed off in the only "action" in this very long book.  The book also suffers from a complete lack of editing with the usual hilarious results like the "moral" officer (meant to be the morale officer). I did finish the book.  If it were half as long and had characters you could care about (as well as an editor) I would read the next one.  But it doesn't and I won't.