Review: "Alien Civil War"... so bad it's almost funny.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 29, 2013
"Alien Civil War: First Human Contact" is the first book in 'The Knife Series' by author Dennis Hiatt. This e-book was re-edited and posted on March 18, 2013This Kindle e-book was a 271 Kb download (approx. 126  printed pages) and sold for $0.99 at the time of writing this review.SpoilersCaptain DuCreux of the space warship 'Detroit' comes across a huge object. He finds it is an alien spaceship, sends a boarding party only to awaken the dormant life on board... a cautious friendship ensue. However old enemies are hunting this alien ship... and our story unfolds.End SpoilersSome thoughts on "Alien Civil War'...1.) I'd read some other reviews of this work that noted the number of spelling errors, etc. Maybe some of these problems were addressed and corrected with the latest re-edit, because I did not notice many.2.) I checked the product page on amazon.com and it's listed as Sci-Fi adventure. This then was either a serious attempt to write the tale of a prolonged space encounter with an alien species OR it was a tongue in cheek, space opera spoof or parody. If the former, then it contains some of the worst writing I've ever come across... if the latter, then it still contains some awful writing BUT it may have achieved its goal, because the story, told in the manner that it was, could not have been really taken seriously.3.a) we have super computer Hal (sound kind of familiar?), the A.I. of the  space fleet's flagship, who, on several occasions, tends to laugh 'evilly'.3.b) nearly every sentient thing, be they people, aliens or computers tend to speak with 'graveled' voices. ('graveled', or a derivative, appeared 38 times... verified by the Kindle search function). Very noticeable.4.a.) excessive detail with regards to numbers. A couple examples of many... five thousand, two hundred and sixteen missiles or one thousand, seven hundred and eighty two missing starships... countless exact numbers of drones, missiles, ships, people/aliens etc. were mentioned.5.) there was almost no down time... from about 25% into this book, this tale was one long continuous space battle between the human/rebel alien fleet and the enemy alien ships. The problem was that I often had difficulty telling who was who, who was winning AND if someone won a battle then the losing side seemed to return 3 or 4 paragraphs later with new and better spaceships. It just went on and on and on.5.) and finally, inane dialogues between people/aliens/computers; beings that were part of the hierarchy and chain of command. BUT having said that, there were a couple of conversations that made me laugh out loud... not sure if they were intended to be funny, or meant to be serious, but came across as incredibly stupid.Conclusion:So how to rate this...a.) as a serious attempt to write a space novel that was terribly, terribly bad... orb.) as a farce, space opera... that when looked at in that light, had some good moments.Well, seeing no sign on the amazon product page that this was a humorous spoof, I'll opt for a poorly written Sci-Fi space novel.As it is... 2 Stars.Ray Nicholsonraynicholsonsreviews@hotmail.com