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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Futuristic space navy novel akin to Hornblower stories,
By A Customer
This review is from: Baptism of Fire (Paperback)
This novel is set in a time when women participate not only in combat command but also actively as grunts, Marines, gunners and sailors. Gender has no bearing. Lt. Maggie Steele is the newly assigned line officer to the HMS Lafayette, a dreadnought with a crew of 5000, led by six line officers and two med/life support officers. The crew, some veteran, some pressed into service are of two species: those from Earth and the "Colonials," hominid aliens that differ in two respects from Earthlings. They have no voice boxes and cannot speak, but they can communicate telepathically. De Pauw describes life aboard the futuristic ship (punishments, regulations, food, religion, quarantine, navigation, inoculations, discipline, liberty and the presence of Marines) with an eye for nautical detail and an ear for dialog that is neither sexist nor obscene but conveys the passion of military personnel. Due to a horrific mistake by the young officer on duty on Christmas Eve, the bridge is invaded by pirates. Dr. Parker, one of the med/life support officers , is a Colonial and telepathically she finds out from the captain's steward about the carnage occuring above decks. Lt. Steele had just left the officers' party to come down to the dispensary and hears the graphic story from the doctor. Steele devises a plan of action to retake the ship. Then, as the only line officer aboard, must perform the duties of captain, navigator, engine room officer, hold a trial and execute the pirates, make plans to refuel the ship, calculate the Lafayette's position, plot a course to the nearest base (over a year's travel away), command the crew, hold inspections, supervise drills, and make decisions. Baptism of Fire holds your attention with its descriptive scenarios and futuristic idealism. It is a book for anyone who likes a good adventure
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer
This review is from: Baptism of Fire (Paperback)
Only on the surface is this "futuristic idealism". Linda Grant De Pauw tells us about a society that is inhuman and racist to the core. This space opera is way above average, expertly written, with surprises on every single page, great characters and filled with suspense. Excellent! I'm waiting for the sequel.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Conflicted. Has good and bad points.,
By
This review is from: Baptism of Fire (Paperback)
This novel is well written from a certain point of view. It is a nominally interesting read, certainly. Its purpose appears to be the illustration of a future society, the details of which I needn't get into. Suffice it to say, however, that despite the book's viewpoint of this society as positive, this particular society is wholly loathsome--racist, theocratic, and brutal.
Which is fine, I suppose. An unreliable narrator is a useful device. But it is rather jarring to be told constantly how wonderful the meritocrats are when they exhibit precisely the opposite traits from those they are claiming. But the primary problem with this novel is that it tells you very little about anything else. This novel was written to be an 18th century sea saga and then translated into a space setting. No attempt is made to give any sort of technological explanation as to why the technology they use is so limited (Example: The ship has no power generation capability, only batteries, so brutal energy discipline must be in effect. But why? We can build a submarine with a nuclear pile; why can't they put one in this ship? Only reasonable explanation: there wasn't one in an 18th century sailing ship.)That kind of ignored technical aspect in a space novel is almost unforgiveable. Give us a black box or a physical law or...something. Don't make the reader work it out. Also, there is a great deal of talking about the difficulties of navigation, but those difficulties are thing like weather and currents. Weather? In one sequence, offhand mention is made of avoiding reefs when entering orbit. Reefs? They travel using sails, but without further explanation. And that is odd because this novel talks a great deal considering that nothing much happens. A number of characters are introduced, although only the officers (Really? One officer to every thousand crew?) are at all fleshed out. Virtually all of them are disposed of abruptly in the latter part of the novel. Those that remain had but little effect on the plot. No one has any effect on the plot but the main character and she does very little indeed. Most of the character development is people being tired and being ordered to bed. Forget action, by the way. It isn't here. One tense and heavily built up sequence is resolved with a single paragraph and promptly forgotten. I don't know what was being attempted in this novel beyond writing a sea saga that stars a young woman without being obviously ahistorical. If there's one thing it does accomplish, it's the writing of a novel that makes you want to spit in the face of every character in it. It would be interesting to see where it goes from here and I will probably spring for the sequel. But I'm rooting for the bad guys to win.
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