Customer Reviews

Mutineer's Moon

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mutineers' Moon was my first exposure to David Weber. Oh sure, I had half a dozen Honor Harrington novels on my shelf along with one of his collaborations with Steve White. But these novels sat unread. They didn't feel right. The novels sounded good but I couldn't get past the covers. I know it sounds silly but the book covers always looked very cheesy to me. Just a personal taste issue you understand.

Anyway back to the point, the book. The book begins with a mutiny and ends fifty one thousand years later. Not a complete enough summary for you? Well maybe this will help more. The backdrop of the story is nothing less then the Galaxy in its entirety. Mankind, and many other species, have been chased and exterminated by a ruthless race called Achuultani. Now, the Achuultani do not play an active part in this book but they do provide the motive for many of the actions and reactions played out in the book. This is only logical as any race, which nearly exterminates your race several times, is bound to have an impact.

The story we are told in 315 pages (Baen paperback edition) takes place on Earth in the near future. (About thirty years best as I can tell.) Two factions of long-lived humans fight a clandestine war to determine the future of Earth. All the action takes place unknown to the great majority of humanity. Two characters prove to be the main characters throughout this novel and the next two books so far. These two characters are Colin MacIntyre, Lt. Commander US and an ancient spaceship named Dahak.

If you have read the book you will realize that I have left a great deal out and if you haven't read the book I am sorry. If I were to tell too much more I would ruin much of the fun from reading this book.

In closing, I enjoyed this book a great deal. The writing was good and the plot moved along at a consistent and clean clip. The characters were believable if a bit predictable. I enjoyed Mr. Weber's writing enough that I purchased and read everything of his that I could find and feel confident in saying that this is a rather good representation of his Science Fiction writing thus far. (He has also written at least two Fantasy novels.)

One final note. I do recommend this book with little to no reservation but new readers of David Weber should be aware of something. Mr. Weber is very good at attempting to explain the technical aspects of the toys he writes into his story. Many readers enjoy this; I could care less most of the time. The explanations are consistent but lengthy. If this type of thing annoys you please just ignore it and skim through it. Ignoring the tech spiel won't ruin the story, at least I don't think so, and it would be a shame to cast aside this yarn over such a minor qualm. I hope this helps. Happy reading.

3.5 stars rounded to 4.

I greatly enjoyed the first 6 of David Weber's Honor Harrington series so I thought I'd check out this series of books by him.

I must admit I was a little disappointed by this piece. There are some good ideas in it however Weber is still learning his craft here and the presentation comes off as immature. Not immature attitude wise, but he has not yet mastered his craft.

The idea of long-lived aliens fighting a war on earth while their descendants, humanity, are unaware of it is intriguing enough. The enhanced soldier idea is old, but Weber handles it well enough so it doesn't appear terribly old and re-used. His battles as always are superb.

However, there are somethings that are too predictable. Such as the fiery young woman who initially takes a dislike to our hero. We all know what will happen in that relationship. Cleverly though, he has her speak in Shakespearian English, the tongue she grew up in. Which is a nice touch giving us a reinforced reminder of her age and avoiding having all the long-lived ones come off as being able to easily master the language and societal changes that happen around them, particularly as many of them are sequestered.

The plot is not perfectly smooth, it stutters and stops and starts which is a shame because a bit more polished presentation would have made this a much better book.

Though I have been a bit negative up above, it is actually fairly decent. The battles of course are superb. The intrigue of the power-seeking villains looking out for themselves against one another is done well and though still an early effort he makes sure to have enough of his characters flesh out to be more than one dimensional. Perhaps not three dimensional, but not cardboard cutouts.

As a story it is interesting enough. It is also a nice view into the early talent of one of the top selling authors of today.

The story opens in the midst of a mutiny. Things are not going well for the imperial loyalists so the captain of the Imperial ship of the line "Dahak" takes drastic action ensuring that even if he dies, the mutineers will not succeed. The problem is that the mutineers are led by the chief engineer who has some technical savvy of his own. The destruct sequence is begun and all of the rats abandon ship and head for shelter on the nearest planet. That would be earth. The mutineers' plans to reclaim the ship, however, are thwarted and the mutineers are stranded.

All of this took place over 50,000 years ago. Since then, the mutineers have subtly controlled the progress of the earth by means of such events as the Hundred Years War, the World Wars, Pol Pot and other such unsavory characters (they are BAD). A desperate group sucked into the mutiny fights a rearguard action for all these millennia. Meanwhile, the ship of the line, devoid of any crew, carries out repairs and hides itself as the moon. All of this is just prolog for the real story.

The ship Dahak cannot fulfill its final commands without a crew. It manages to kidnap an earthman, train him as captain and swear him in as an Imperial officer. It is then up to him to resolve the mutiny and, not incidentally, prepare for invading aliens. To do this, our gallant hero is going to have to wipe out political terrorists and quash corrupt politicians. The result is a wild but fun romp filled with action and intrigue.

This is a book where it is hard to "suspend the disbelief" but managing to do so is worthwhile for its entertainment value. This is a quick and frivolous read but it is fun.

Mutineers' Moon (1991) is the first novel in the Dahak series. During the Fourth Imperium, 51 millenia ago, mutineers have almost taken the Imperial battleship Dahak and the captain has issued orders to evacuate the ship, to flush the internal spaces with chemical and radioactives, and to only re-admit the mutineers after all surviving crew have returned aboard. Fleet Captain (E) Anu, leader of the mutineers, had then sabotaged the power rooms and fled the ship in sublight parasite warships to the nearby planet. The loyalist crew have also evacuated in lifeboats to the same planet, Terra, where they have become the "indigenous" population.

Sometime in the near future, circa 2040, Lieutenant Commander Colin MacIntyre, USN, is on a routine survey flight of the Moon as training for the first interstellar flight, but his survey systems are showing anomalous readings: the data indicate that the Moon is hollow! Then a bogey appears out of nowhere, pulls a 90 degree turn, overtakes his spacecraft, and grabs it with a tractor beam. When Colin hails the bogey, he gets no response, so he fires three missles at the other ship, but they all just vanish in thin space. Then the bogey stops dead, with no signs of exhaust, and zips back toward the moon with Colin's craft in tow. They enter a minor crater, through a suddenly revealed hole in the surface, into large tunnel, through dozens of huge hatches, and into a very large hangar.

There the ship's artificial intelligence introduces itself, in English, as the Dahak, a 52 thousand year old warship disguised as Luna, the Earth's moon. It tells him that he cannot leave, briefs him on the mutiny and its aftermath, and informs him that he is now in command of the vessel. After hours of arguing with the computer -- a useless task at best and you might make it angry -- Colin gives in, undergoes a regime of "biotechnic enhancment", and, after the truamatic results of that, an extended training period in his new capabilities. However, time is at a premium, for the Achuultani, an alien species, are coming again for their periodic destructive visit, as they have been doing for 70 million years.

Colin must help the Dahak to overcome the mutineers, who have spent the millenia in stasis, before they escape in Terran built starships. The Dahak has speculated that the mutineers have some sort of link with NASA, so Colin returns to Earth to find the contact.

This novel has a lot in common with older SF tales, such as the stranded spacemen in Wilson's The Time Masters and the buried starship in Norton's Galactic Derelict. Moreover, the lost empire plot is similar to that of Van Vogt's Null-A series. The use of technological details is very similar to, but more up to date than, E.E. Smith's Skylark and Lensman series. Nevertheless, Weber's use of these familiar SF elements results in something very exciting to read.

Recommended for Weber fans and anyone who enjoys technologically rationalized space opera.

OK, the plot is downright silly. The prose is functional, at best, and verbose at worst. The interpersonal relationships are completely stylized, and the attempts at Elizabethan English are laughable.

So why do I enjoy it so much? Because it's good clean fun, good guys and bad guys and clever computers and awesome futuristic technology and myths that turn out to be factual... and an honest appreciation of the heroic and the noble. Classic space-opera, as immersive as you'll let it be. You'll feel like you're reading under the covers by flashlight again.

(And the prose is a bit better in the sequels...)

Being involved in law enforcement and having been in the military it is a pleasure to be able to escape with someone who knows what they are writing about, humans performing at their best under stress. The ideas in this series are fun but the individual characters and their loyalties are even better. Thanks.

Mutineer's Moon and the entire Dahak series is an excellent bit of si-fi writing. In my opinion, it's even better than his much more acclaimed Honor Harrington series. The action is intense and the characters well developed. Some of the best strategy around.

I've actually read this book at least twice, and the story remains a favorite.

To summarize quickly, what would it be like if our moon, that nearest companion in space, was "no moon - that's a space station..."

Captain Colin Macintire is captured by a huge alien spacecraft disguised as our moon and forced to become its captain, both to resolve an ancient muntity and then to prepare the earth for a real alien invasion. This is the first of three books involving Dahak (the moon), and Colin, the un-willing commander.

Before you roll your eyes, think about what you like in space opera. You want giant spaceships (check). You want action, adventure, and suspense (check). You want a spunky heroine (check). And you want big battles. Come on, this is David Weber, the king of space battles. I cheered at the ending and actually laughed out loud.

My only complaint about this book is it seems too short. Far too much action is crammed into too small a space - this wants to be a much bigger book. There are so many ideas and so many characters, plots, and concepts running round that they need a bit more space.

Still, this would make a great James Cameron movie, don't you think?

This is the first book in the immensely entertaining if preposterous "Dahak" space opera trilogy, which consists of

Mutineer's Moon
The Armageddon Inheritance
Heirs of Empire

The whole trilogy has also been published in one volume as "Empire from the Ashes"

Astronaut Colin Mackintyre is flying a mission on the far side of the moon when something very strange happens ...

I really enjoyed this trilogy. The plots are rather fetched (though very clever) but the fast and furious action, with cleverly drawn and mostly sympathetic characters, enabled me to suspend disbelief.

A little hard to reconcile the fossil evidence for the origins of our species and the physical evidence for the origins of our planet with the idea that earth's moon is a gigantic battleship, in disguise, which has been sitting in a parking orbit for thousands of years following a mutiny, and that the human race on earth are the descendants of its crew, stranded here by the same mutiny. But Weber does a sterling job. And ironically, the mind of the moon's central computer, Dahak, is one of the more memorable characters of recent science fiction.

An interesting comparison showing how Weber's writing has developed, is to look at how some of the ideas of this trilogy have been re-used in the massive "Nimue Alban" series which Weber is currently writing. That series currently consists of

1) Off Armageddon Reef
2) By Schisms rent asunder
3) By Heresies Distressed (due Summer 2009)

I love this book. Of my 5,000+ SciFi books, it is my favorite. True, it is a little bit raw. But, it tells a SOLID story and leaves you wanting more more more at the end. That is the sign of a great book. A sentient ship the size of the moon and the unique story of the "space aliens" makes for a totally cool story. BTW, I am reading it for the 5th or 6th time (who keeps count ?). Weber owes a couple of authors for his story: Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistriss and the Perry Rhodan series. There are two sequels to this book, also 5 stars. I am valiantly waiting for the fourth ...