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A review by dawn_marie
Croma Venture by Joel Shepherd
3.0
I enjoyed the fifth volume, Croma Venture of Joel Shepherd's entertaining Spiral Wars; it offered many of the same elements that I enjoyed in previous volumes - high stakes, interesting alien worlds, political intrigue, and Phoenix crew kicking butt and taking names.
As was true in the other volumes, I had some minor nits to pick . . . the most notable that this volume read like two different novels smushed together: the first dealing with all things Defiance and then that plot being dropped for the second which dealt with croma space - almost as if Mr. Shepherd did not have enough "story" to write a full novel for each plot line, so he stuck them together in one novel. Each half of the novel was different in tone - while both were mostly enjoyable, that tone shift was jarring, disconnecting me from the story for a bit.
Mr. Shephard's universe continues to expand as we are introduced to worlds and aliens. I wish the reader was afforded more time with the croma, they appeared interesting. This volume had fewer of the long, long technical-babble expositions dumps that littered the previous offerings making for a quicker, more pleasant read.
Captain Erik Debogande and Major Trace Thakur continue to be the most developed (and evolving) and interesting characters in the series. Everything Lispeth continues to annoy; she is such a Mary Sue of a character, always having everything go her way - while I understand the need to view the parren world, why must it be through her? I wish the page time devoted to her was spent on some of the more interesting supporting characters (Hiro, Dale, Stan, Pram).
Even with the annoyance of Lispeth (can she just go away?) and a cliff hanging ending (why?) I enjoyed the novel and look forward to the next.
As was true in the other volumes, I had some minor nits to pick . . . the most notable that this volume read like two different novels smushed together: the first dealing with all things Defiance and then that plot being dropped for the second which dealt with croma space - almost as if Mr. Shepherd did not have enough "story" to write a full novel for each plot line, so he stuck them together in one novel. Each half of the novel was different in tone - while both were mostly enjoyable, that tone shift was jarring, disconnecting me from the story for a bit.
Mr. Shephard's universe continues to expand as we are introduced to worlds and aliens. I wish the reader was afforded more time with the croma, they appeared interesting. This volume had fewer of the long, long technical-babble expositions dumps that littered the previous offerings making for a quicker, more pleasant read.
Captain Erik Debogande and Major Trace Thakur continue to be the most developed (and evolving) and interesting characters in the series. Everything Lispeth continues to annoy; she is such a Mary Sue of a character, always having everything go her way - while I understand the need to view the parren world, why must it be through her? I wish the page time devoted to her was spent on some of the more interesting supporting characters (Hiro, Dale, Stan, Pram).
Even with the annoyance of Lispeth (can she just go away?) and a cliff hanging ending (why?) I enjoyed the novel and look forward to the next.