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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Is there an Anti-Nebula Award?,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Debatable Space (Paperback)
I'm a fan of space opera, but the well-constructed Peter F. Hamilton or Iain M. Banks type. Debatable Space, alas, is not in their class ... far from it.
I skimmed the last 1/3 of "Debatable Space" because I couldn't stand to spend more time than necessary with it. I think the turning point was when, in a battle scene, one of the pirate fleet fired its laser weapons at the local sun, which then expanded and took a number of attacking ships with it (I'd have transcribed the exact language here, but I shipped the book off to Goodwill as fast as I could get it out of the house). There were about five things wrong with the believability of that sequence and it made we want to stop right there. But I perservered, through extended biographical detours and plot points that seemed to serve no purpose, to an ending that was anti-climatic and uninvolving. I was fooled by well-done packaging and didn't due my usual due diligence before investing my time in the book. I should have been on the alert, since that same blurbage touts Palmer's radio and tv experience. I think there's a tendency among writers from those media to treat the vast amount of space a novel provides as a dumping ground for every idea they come up with. This is a prime example. I read a lot of SF and Debatable Space is perhaps the worst thing I've read in a year.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
I don't often fail to finish a book,
By
This review is from: Debatable Space (Paperback)
But I couldn't finish this one. As a male who dabbles in mediocre story writing, I'm very afraid of writing female characters. The main female character in this book is exactly the sort of character that I'm afraid of writing.
I think the author broke just about every rule anyone has ever made for men writing believable female characters. She stays in a ridiculous abusive relationship, but she talks about how bad it is, so somehow that's supposed to make it okay. She's utterly helpless, but thinks that her "I'm just as good as a man" attitude will get her through adversity. She has odd conversations with her AI butler or whatever he is that come across as a lazy way of filling in background details. I believe this is the author's debut novel, so maybe things will be better in #2.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Debatable Novel,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Debatable Space (Paperback)
Debatable Space is a rather banal, uninteresting space opera. The plot is silly and the characters are silly - and unbelievable. The book revolves around a group of space pirates who kidnap Lena, who they hope to ransom to the ruler of most of the inhabited universe, the Cheo (or Peter). Their ultimate goal is slowly revealed, but it's more than just a king's ransom they want. And while Lena has had a very long and interesting life, it too is unbelievable and a bore to read to about.
Given the drawn out plot, uninteresting characters that lack believability, and generally boilerplate storyline, I can't recommend this novel.
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