Joshua Dalzelle

There's nothing horrendous about this story, but neither is there anything particularly good. If you're looking for some plot-focused space opera, quasi-military scifi that will occupy a few hours, then okay. If you're looking for something that will have you actively hunting for the next in the series, this isn't it.

Everything is kind of flat. There isn't a single character in the novel that has any depth. So, you don't bond with any of them.

The world-building is sketchy; we are teased with descriptions of interesting planets and stations, but that "interesting" never solidifies into an actual part of the story. Each event is "in" followed by "out" with no interaction with the environment. Conflict scenes are over before they begin.

There are some clumsy contrivances. Feeling bad about the unprovoked murder of a crew so you can steal their ship? No problem, just find a secret log in the captain's cabin where he documents all his and the crew's heinous crimes. Need to buy off a crime lord? No problem, just find another secret compartment where someone has written detailed plans for a coup against that crime lord ... because, of course, bad guys write everything down.

And there was a noticeable need for editing: typos, homonym mistakes (e.g., "kill on site"), and grammar flubs. Those kinds of things tend to nettle me because they don't ask for greater ability or more imagination. They simply ask for the effort to have someone proofread instead of rushing to print.

It was a Kindle Unlimited book, so the author got paid for my reading, and I didn't regret having spent extra money on it. I guess that's win-win. I won't be continuing with this series.

Somewhere between 1.5 and 2 stars: I didn't actually skim any of it, but I'll forget about it far faster than a year.… (más)