Starliner, David Drake

I've been on a sci-fi jag lately. Hopefully I will find a fantasy book that rings my bells soon--but I can't seem to find any good fantasy that I haven't read already.  Show me some fantasy with an original plot and a great cast of characters, a book that's not full of cute, romantic fluff, thank you. I want to promote indies, but come on authors--you have to work with me! Write me something original or I'll go mad. I hate to be just killing time with my reading, and I refuse to blog about books that bore me. 

So I was cruising the cheap fiction in the Kindle store--and this one was free!

Starliner, by David Drake is another hard science-fiction tale. The ebook was first published In 2013, but it was first published in june of 1992 by Baen. Somehow I never saw this book, so it's new to me.


The BLURB:


The Empress of Earth

Finest passenger liner in the galaxy —
Brightest link in the chain that binds the starflung civilization of the 23rd century—
Six thousand lives in a single hull, trembling through multiple universes to land on raw, often violent worlds, each with its own history and wonder —


The Empress of Earth

Neutral pawn in an interstellar war!

When hostile necessity knows no law, Ran Colville and the rest of the complement of the Empress of Earth must bring home their ship and the passengers entrusted to them. From the Captain on his bridge to the Cold Crewmen who work in conditions that differ from Hell only by name, they'll have their work cut out for them this voyage!


My REVIEW:

Now this was an intriguing tale, an action adventure, written in a leisurely style. Politics, racism, and the privilege of class and wealth dominate this tale of a cruise gone bad. There is the sort of attention to detail that one might find in an Agatha Christie novel, if she had decided to write political thrillers set in interstellar space. It is a period piece.

The main character, Ran Colville is a poor-boy made good, a man who saw an opportunity to change his future and who seized it, though it is a secret that could destroy his career.  He is efficient, and determined to be as cold and heartless as the world he came from, but he has this annoying ability to care what happens to the people around him, though he refuses to admit it.

The crew is an interesting mix, and consists of people who would be found working on any high-end cruise ship. They are good at what they do, and serve with varying degrees of love for their ship and the passengers they carry, ranging from mild lip service to fanatic devotion.  

The passengers are drawn like caricatures, which in a book with as many walk-on parts as this, is the only way to describe them in the paragraph they are given, but they serve to illustrate the atmosphere aboard the starliner, Empress of Earth.

There is violence, and there is a military precision to the recounting of the action scenes. Juxtaposed against the backdrop of the wealthy  and the not so wealthy, it is a compelling drama that unfolds slowly, but eventually takes off with a vengeance.

If you want your books filled with action happening at all times, with no 'info dumps' this book is not for you. David Drake breaks all the rules of modern genre writing: There are many long passages of background information that is slipped into the middle of conversations--again, rather like an old-fashioned novel. It could be jarring to some readers, and while I normally don't approve of large injections of heavy background,  I felt it added to the atmosphere in this tale.

Starliner is most definitely not a one night read, as it takes a while to work your way through it. I did enjoy it, and all in all, I give this book 4 stars. 

72 - hours to Crack the Universe’s Code, Mark O'Brien

72 - hours to Crack the Universe’s Code by indie author Mark O'Brien is a novel of political intrigue, mathematics, passion and underlying it all, an imperative directive to humanity with dire galactic overtones. I first reviewed this book for a blog which deals with novels more in the area of political intrigue, thrillers and mysteries, but I always planned to review it here.

Somewhat like the Illuminati, the Mathematika is a mysterious Greek society founded long before Christianity. The reason for its existence is to bring mankind ‘that which they know but cannot understand’ and was created to ‘safeguard the truths until mankind was ready to understand them’.

Now the time has come, and the Mathematika is now ruled by the dark fanatic, Alexander Kepler – who believes ethical lines were drawn so you would know where to cross them. Yet, although he is extremely violent, murderous and obsessive, Kepler is a family man, and his relationship with his wife is one of the lighter parts of the tale. This most violent and evil of men is also a romantic, tender lover. However, the time has come for the world to know some basic truths about the Universe, and it is Kepler’s task to insure they are made public.

To this end, he kidnaps a renowned Muslim leader, Ibn Qurra. His henchmen also kidnap the renowned Rabbi Jacobi, and Father George Pappus, president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation - all three at 10:45 am on the same day.

Not all of Kepler’s heavies are 100% behind him, one is a traitor, and another considers him to be insane. All the heavies are individuals, which makes reading them enjoyable.

Ransoms are sent: a series of 3 mathematical equations which all must be solved one per day within 72 hours. If one equation is wrong, all three of the kidnapped men will die.

The protégé of George Pappus, Clancy Sylvester, astrophysicist and mathematician, is determined to get his mentor back. The author has researched all three of the religions represented by the three kidnapped leaders, and also the cultures they represent. The author also appears to have a firm grasp of mathematics, as I do NOT; but on the positive side he did not make me have to do the thinking so the math was fine. Clancy’s friend, Jules Hadamard (female, despite the name) who is a math genius explains it all. All of the characters are distinctly individual, and if some are over the top, well that is part of the fun.

While O'Brien goes a little heavy on the descriptions at times, over all this is a compelling read. There are moments of humor and also of pathos, and the action is non-stop. All in all, I found this to quite entertaining, and well written. This is a good read, and I do not hesitate to recommend it!