Destroyer by Brian G. Turner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Destroyer by Brian G. Turner Is a bit different from his first novel of the Chronicles of Empire Series. However it is not quite what I expected and definitely doesn’t quite match what the title Destroyer might conjure.

Destroyer is the first of three novels about space travel—the migration of man from his home into the unknown of a new planet. At first I expected a generation ship and though it might be loosely defined that way it really isn’t. However I’m not real clear on what the mission called for in respect to the crew operating the ship. There may have been plans for some rotation. Otherwise the settlers were all frozen, waiting for arrival and landfall.

The whole of the Chronicles of Empire has a similarity to Gene Wolfs New Sun-Short Sun-and Long Sun novels; the sheer suggestion of something in a magnitude of Epic. Though in style and setting the first Novel of Chronicles did bear some similarities to the New Sun portion of Gene Wolfs work, this the generation ship was less so in comparison to the Long Sun. Having recently finished the New Sun and the Long sun books I would be more inclined to compare this set of books to another generation ship set of book I recently read by Beth Revis; her Across the Universe trilogy of books. Even so, there are elements of style and theme that make Destroyer and her sister books something more of Brian G. Turner than anything else.

I might confess of looking at the cover and thinking that this could contain some space battles, what with the massive design of the ship portrayed and the title Destroyer. That’s not the case, and for me it wasn’t a make or break situation. In fact, the author quickly makes it clear that this story is about something else. And as I suggested I was originally thinking of Generation Ship and Colonization of new worlds. To some small extent this is a novel of colonization. Once again, though, the author makes it clear that this is going to be a novel of survival.

Still; none of those adequately describe what this novel is all about. This is a novel about a disparate group of people who have just met under dire circumstance who have to learn to work together to survive. They have to learn to trust each other and or to put aside differences long enough to find a solution to their situation. But more surprisingly this book and the series of three are more about relationships and particularly the relationship of two of these people. Jaigar, we learn early on, is a possible saboteur, though it is unclear what his agenda is. Vannick is a political officer of the government that is funding this program. If Vannick even suspected Jaigar he has the means and duty to squeeze it out of Jaigar. This becomes just the tip of the iceberg of distrust that threatens to end the group before it gets started.

Aboard a ghost ship, the crew have all mysteriously died, this group is, for unknown reasons, brought out of cryo and left to deal with an uncertain crisis where the ship might be dying and taking them and all the other frozen settlers with it. If they can’t work together they are surely doomed and even if they manage to muddle through, there are no guarantees they can solve the problems.

If you enjoy a good mystery and have enjoyed other Generation novels, this should please you, and I think anyone who loves Science Fiction should enjoy this set of books

J.L.D 2021




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