Review: Sparse science and tactics.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 3, 2014
I found the novel to be frustrating.  There were pages and pages of internal musings in the midst of conversations. Perhaps in an Edinburgh pub there might be minutes between "ask and answer" but within the context of a novel, it's unnecessary. The readers are normally smart enough to figure things out and build their own model of the character if the dialogue is crisp and on point. After the first two such interchanges, I knew to skip to the next set of quotation marks to keep the novel flowing.While the Puller Drive was a good technical concept, the sparse description of the spacecraft certainly didn't fit with the cover design. Very little attention was paid to the engineering/technical aspects of craft, the fighters or the other ships of the armada.  Space battles included only token acknowledgement of the outlying craft in the formation.  No coordinated action noted. The Captain's tactics and orders were parsimonious and didn't seem to encompass his armada. In the end, I felt I knew more about the state of the Captain's liver than I did the universe in which he lived and the spacecraft that he used.The ending felt like the restaurant scene at the end of The Sopranos.  That's it?  That's all there is?  I have to buy another book to PERHAPS find out more about the aliens?The grammar, syntax and proofing were all good to very good, which kept me from downgrading this rating to 2 star.  However, I don't think I'll buy the follow-on novel.