Reviews

Able One by Ben Bova

cjhubbs's review against another edition

2.0

I've been a big fan of Bova's scifi, so I went ahead and picked this one up when I saw it on the library shelf. This is Bova's foray into the military thriller genre, and, after reading it, my conclusion is that he should leave that genre to Larry Bond, Dale Brown, et al, and stick to writing sci-fi.

The plot was thin, the characters flat, the story just interesting enough to keep reading without actually being fascinating enough to be engaging. Not particularly recommended.

elden's review against another edition

3.0

After reading some other reviews for this book I have to agree with them about the characters. It seems that the characters were just pasted on so he could tell a story about lasers. All the characters were very one dimensional and all I can really say about the main character is that he worked alot and has back pains. The science behind the laser was interesting though and how he used it was interesting. Overall I wouldn't really recommend this book to others unless they liked the science aspect of the book.

arielkirst's review against another edition

3.0

It was a nice book about military technology, and the tension behind it.
I wasn't sure what i was expecting when I started listening to it. This was my first audio book in a long time, and the narrator did a great job.

macbikegeek's review against another edition

4.0

Contemporary thriller with science content. Fast paced, well-written with food for thought about current military balance of power and potential rogue weapons use. Not for those looking for deep character development. More of an high science content political thriller than science fiction.

meagankc21's review against another edition

2.0

The plot itself is intriguing, and I really enjoyed the military strategy elements, but overall, this book was lackluster. There were too many characters to develop properly, leaving room for only surface development. Some story lines didn't even feel necessary to the plot as a whole that it left me wondering what they were doing there. The women characters especially were heinously underdeveloped, but that was a big problem I had with the book. It was clearly written by a cishet white dude, as all characters that would be considered Other were treated so atrociously. There was clear prejudice across the board for any character that wasn't a white man that it made it hard to enjoy the story itself. I feel like this was a book I could have enjoyed more had I read it when I was younger and much less aware of these kinds of problems in media, but not anymore.

katpyro's review

2.0

Ugh. Interesting premise, but the characters are all racist, idiots, or can't keep their pants zipped.