Reviews

It felt somewhat like a book written by a man for men. Also usual self published probs with editing and also layout for a physical book (Amazon must charge per page). Not awful though, just noticeable.

That said there were some good points that I enjoyed, and I'll at least give book two a read.

suba's review

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adventurous dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

tomgunner27's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

birdloveranne's review

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5.0

Yes, Skippy was the best character!

dengelke's review against another edition

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slow-paced

l3mon_fr3sh's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

atagarev's review

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2.0

This book was just too all-American for me and not at all in a good way. In theory the cast of supporting characters represents a variety of nations, ethnicities and backgrounds but they are all paper thin cutouts. The only two perspectives that are really developed with any depth are our protagonist and Skippy who acts as almost a mirror image of the protagonist in terms of personality. I just don't get it; if you are only comfortable writing from the perspective of a modern US grunt then do that, great, do that, but if you are going to put in a supporting cast that would theoretically have a broad variety of perspectives then at least try to present their perspectives in some way.

Furthermore, the story constantly reinforcing the character's perspective really rubbed me the wrong way. Getting the perspective of a not-particularly-intelligent grunt thrown into a wider galaxy beyond his understanding? Sounds great. Having his disdain for science and education repeatedly supported by all relatable side characters? Eh, not so great. Having a god-like AI straight up tell him that humans are incapable of understanding the Universe or even the most basic technology of more advanced species? Hold on, why is this book even pretending to be science fiction if all technology is going to explicitly be magic beyond the comprehension of mere humans?

The whole story just ends up with humans being essentially pets adopted by a trickster god who found our character funny. Actually, written out like that this could have worked if it was going for the absurdist tone of Hitchhiker's Guide but the first half of the novel is a humdrum military fiction and it never actually commits to switching genres.

Also Skippy is just annoying and not at all charming like we are so obviously supposed to find him.

Spoiler

Honestly, having your millions of years old artificial superintelligence act like a dumb horny frat kid is a surprisingly common idea but it just didn't work in this book at all. Some of his assholish behavior was friendly ribbing but a lot of it was actual "punching down" at characters we were supposed to dislike and that sit well with me, especially since we are supposed to hate them because they are a "snooty scientist", a "boring adult" or a "foreigner" rather than them being actual bad guys.

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