B. Schneider

Nine Hours of Nothing

Revisado: 10-01-24

I've really enjoyed the mellow pace of the prior books, but this was a bridge too far. Roughly nine hours of characters having the same discussions over and over. There's a lot of cut-and-paste (fun game: count how many times the phrase "three cans and a leaky head" is repeated) and almost no movement. For a book about about a training ship, you would at least expect the cadets to be introduced, but no- skips over all interview or selection in favor of multiple discussions of a menu on an astrogation chart. Even the voice acting was phoned-in on this one, with almost no variation in tone to indicate different characters as in previous books.

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Well that happened...

Revisado: 09-03-24

This was kind of a weird departure from what made the five preceding books so unique: their focus on the relatively ordinary. No "We must succeed ir the Galaxy will Die!" or "Betrayal threatens the survival of the crew!"- just relatively normal problems that must be overcome in relatively normal ways.

Here, it feels like someone (editor, publisher, whatever) insisted that something Big needed to Happen in this book. So we get a firing, a huge purchase, a Figure from the Past, an heiress, skulduggery, spying, love(?), murder, and a relative anticlimax solution to the murder.

None of it seems to Matter, though. Food is described with far more loving detail and passion than the Last Quarter Romance. Ishmael presents as almost pathologically emotionally detached unless a situation involves eggs and bacon.

Not a criticism per se- it fits perfectly with the mundane tone of prior books. But not here.

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Sometimes Less is Less

Revisado: 08-15-24

Huge fan of the series, so maybe I was too excited when this came out. These read more like a set of writing exercises than fully formed stories- someone gave a prompt of "write a high fantasy story using your existing characters" and the result is the middle story here. I was hoping for more focus on some minor characters- a day in the life of Thuggernaut, for example. Still better than 90% of the genre

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Good Book, Small Hiccups

Revisado: 10-29-22

Very good- uses a lot of individual stories to weave together the whole picture.

Narrator's voice and characterization are great, but his pronunciation of some names is jarringly strange. German names (like Heinz Guderian) end up with French pronunciations.

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Modern Noir With A Sense of Humor

Revisado: 02-20-22

This would be worth a credit even if it were only one book. Blake does a nice job tweaking the traditional Hardboiled Detective formula. RC Bray's narration brings it to life.

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Caution: Abridged

Revisado: 01-02-22

I did not realize it was the abridged edition until the closing credits. Great narrator, but EXTREMELY uneven pacing and focus. Maybe the full edition is better.

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Nice Recovery

Revisado: 01-29-21

Excellent return to form. Breaks out of the Oh No, Here's An Inescapable Situation! Monkey-Brained Idea! Escape! cycle that previous books got trapped in. Things moved forward. Fun was had by all.

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A Real Slog

Revisado: 01-21-21

i have no problem with dry histories, but this takes it too far. 70% of the book follows the same formula: Ships X, Y and Z engaged ships A and B off the Cape of Bob, with Z and B damaged and A sunk. 347 were killed. Next, ships J and K engaged etc. etc. The other 30% is discussing tonnage under the Washington Naval Treaty.

There is no real insight and relatively little analysis. He takes a few shots at specific other historians, and that is as exciting as it gets. I don't need heroic narrative, but it reads like the naval equivalent of a book report.

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A lot of fun, but scattered

Revisado: 11-24-20

I enjoyed it! There's a good sense of humor and a great narrator. However, it jumps around a lot, with important plot points sort of rushed- I kept having to rewind to hear what I had missed.

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Couldn't Finish

Revisado: 06-10-20

Congratulations, you've made interstellar military sci-fi boring. It's not just that it's openly ripping off Star Wars. It's just cliche, like a 13 year old wrote it. And then an 11 year old edited it, with notes like "Needz more explosians!" and "Yeah, officers all are dumasses!"

The narrator is really good though

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