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A review by snowcrash
The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren
2.0
I had put this book on my list, as it seemed to combine spies and space opera. Plus it was a new author, to me, so something to try out. A friend of mine had read it and gave me the book. I wanted to like it, but could never really get into it.
The plot is basic and is told without serious twists. Two political entities at war, a special ops team, and a lost pilot that could save the galaxy. A super weapon that will change the tide of the war.
Here, the characters are flat. No one is really interesting. The spy is able to figure out everything. The bad guy is simply angry and driven. Page may be the only interesting person, though he is a super hacker that can crack anything. The environment the author has placed the characters into has no sense that it is in a technic civilization. Maybe the trains. Sure there are spaceships, but very little actually happens in space or on a ship.
If you took away some of the surface tweaks, this could be a story about the IRA and the British occupiers. Right down to the gaelic and names. The spy then becomes an American interloper who needs a local to help get to places his accent won't admit him to. There is even a point in the book as the characters are walking through a part of the city where they comment that the place looks like a theme park version of where the colonists came from. Eh? There is very little speculation on society, as it is essentially 20th Century Ireland with smartphones.
There are plot holes and gaffs in explanation, too that really detracted from the story. If the planet where the wayward pilot was living cut off from the galaxy for five years, how did the Commonwealth know he was alive and to look for him? Right in the beginning, right from the blurb on the back, it didn't make sense. Or when faced with an unfamiliar ship, our team of heros is able to fly it (there is a bunch of handwaving around all Imperial ships are the same...). Or why put the super duper weapon on/near a planet that has a reputation for armed rebellion? At one point, the pilot says they are 25k km from a point in space & traveling at 5k km/hr. The very next line the super spy says they have 5 minutes. That is not how math works. But saying they have 5 hours wouldn't help the plot along.
In the end, the book was simply dull. Characters that have no life, a plot that keeps it on a planet for more than 2/3's of the pages, and numerous goofs that had me retracing pages to make sure I hadn't missed anything.
The plot is basic and is told without serious twists. Two political entities at war, a special ops team, and a lost pilot that could save the galaxy. A super weapon that will change the tide of the war.
Here, the characters are flat. No one is really interesting. The spy is able to figure out everything. The bad guy is simply angry and driven. Page may be the only interesting person, though he is a super hacker that can crack anything. The environment the author has placed the characters into has no sense that it is in a technic civilization. Maybe the trains. Sure there are spaceships, but very little actually happens in space or on a ship.
If you took away some of the surface tweaks, this could be a story about the IRA and the British occupiers. Right down to the gaelic and names. The spy then becomes an American interloper who needs a local to help get to places his accent won't admit him to. There is even a point in the book as the characters are walking through a part of the city where they comment that the place looks like a theme park version of where the colonists came from. Eh? There is very little speculation on society, as it is essentially 20th Century Ireland with smartphones.
There are plot holes and gaffs in explanation, too that really detracted from the story. If the planet where the wayward pilot was living cut off from the galaxy for five years, how did the Commonwealth know he was alive and to look for him? Right in the beginning, right from the blurb on the back, it didn't make sense. Or when faced with an unfamiliar ship, our team of heros is able to fly it (there is a bunch of handwaving around all Imperial ships are the same...). Or why put the super duper weapon on/near a planet that has a reputation for armed rebellion? At one point, the pilot says they are 25k km from a point in space & traveling at 5k km/hr. The very next line the super spy says they have 5 minutes. That is not how math works. But saying they have 5 hours wouldn't help the plot along.
In the end, the book was simply dull. Characters that have no life, a plot that keeps it on a planet for more than 2/3's of the pages, and numerous goofs that had me retracing pages to make sure I hadn't missed anything.