Customer Reviews

Rebel (Starship, Book 4)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is a wonderful thing to be able to sit down to a book written by an author who loves his characters and has a story to tell. This is the fourth book in the Starship series and is the best one so far. If you are reading this review then you have read the previous novels, so I won't spoil the pleasure of reading this one by discussing the plot. Let just say that Mr. Resnick has a story arc that is logical and is exciting. The characters are well drawn and memorable. The author has even created some new ones that are a welcome addition to the series. The last part of the book contains a battle that literally had me cheering as I read it. It was vivid and exciting as any battle scenes from any action movie. I look forward to the next and I suspect final entry of this series. Again thank you Mr. Resnick for a very very good time.

I don't know why I decided to read Book 1 of Resnicks series.After finishing book 4,I still don't know why.The only thing that I can say is that I really enjoyed all 4 and can't wait for the fifth installment.The caste of characters are unusual and somewhat comic-bookish (nothing wrong with that at all),but they are very entertaining.I strongly recommend these books and might figure out why after Book 10.

Rebel is a great book, easy to read, hard to put down. Witty, love Mikes writing style. would recommend the series to any reader who would like to just enjoy a good read.

The story is moving along pretty nicely. The characters a still slightly flat in terms of development (I'm joking here...they are about as deep as a puddle).

It's a great read simply because it's a fun distraction and it moves along with great pacing. There is action followed by down time followed by action all leading up to a climax.

A fun little distraction that I highly recommend.

This is the first book by Mr. Resnick that I've read and it left me wanting to read the three books before it in the series. Instead of blast and bombast a la John Ringo and friends, Resnick offers a saga of a good man fighting against odds but NOT fighting impossible odds and NOT engaging in wondrous but farfetched deeds of derring-do to win though to success.

Three books back, Captain Wilson Cole rebelled against the giant and bellicose Empire when as captain of an Imperial vessel he was ordered to massacre defenseless civilians in order to terrorize them into submission. By book four (this one), he is a successful mercenary with a fleet of approximately fifty ships: his is one of the two largest military forces along the untamed Inner Frontier. When an Imperial captain captures, tortures and murders his closets friend, a three-legged alien named Forrice, and Imperial ships wipe out a planet and two million people because they don't divulge Cole's whereabouts, Wilson goes on a rampage. He knows it is only a matter of time before the Imperials bomb other planets and space stations in an effort to find out where Cole's fleet is so he moves to preemption. What follows is straight old-fashioned space opera, but tempered by a healthy dose of realism. Cole is an appealing (and humane) hero, his colleagues are well-limned, and the action escalates steadily.

I came across E. E. Smith's Lensman series when I was thirteen --sixty years ago. I devoured them --I loved the action and the scope and the bold heroism displayed in the books. But I was turned off by the sophomoric way in which everyone talked in those books and the technical parts seemed jerryrigged, even to someone as young and True a Believer as I was then. I moved away from science fiction (a) when I discovered girls and (b) as my reading tastes matured. I've come back (part way) in recent years because there is some truly excellent writing going on in science fiction and fantasy now, and I enjoy escapist fiction just as much as I did as a young man. I intend to read the first three books in this series and I suspect I will get as much pleasure from them as I have from this one. Resnick deserves to stand up with the more mature writers of space opera today. Though I don't find him quite as good a writer as Peter Hamilton, Richard K. Morgan, Alistair Reynolds, or (the most sophisticated writer of the lot) Iain Banks, he's well worth reading.

This is mindless fun like most Resnick works. The characters aren't too deep, the plot is pretty simple and the action easy to follow. That said, this is what real military science fiction should be like.

This isn't miliporn. That's important. The dialog is snappy and the character interaction interesting. While the military are integral to the plot and aciton, there is more to the work then that. This is about a step below the Sten Series, but two flights above Drake and his drones.

After disobeying a direct order that would have killed millions (see STARSHIP: MERCENARY), the Federation throws Captain Wilson Cole of the starship Theodore Roosevelt into the brig awaiting court martial. Knowing he will be found guilty, his loyal crew rescues him and flees to the Inner Frontier where they become pirates then mercenaries.. Cole now commands fifty ships with the home base being Singapore Station

A close friend, the alien Commander Forrice, is tortured and killed because he refused to tell where the Teddy R is docked. Cole blasts the vessel where his friend was executed. Federation ships retaliate by destroying an entire populated planet. Furious, Cole intends to attack the Federation to keep them out of the Inner Frontier where they impress civilians into their navy and do whatever abuse they want on independent worlds. Joining Cole on his quest is warlord Octopus who has hundreds of ships, and Lafferty who foments rebellion inside the Federation. The enemy sends the biggest armada with the greatest weaponry ever known to take out Teddy R and the Singapore Station.

The fourth Starship saga is as fast-paced and action-paked as its predecessors. Though a bit over Mount Olympus with a thin plot, this is fun military space opera as Mike Resnick paints a vivid galactic future that in many ways mirrors present earth with conflicts everywhere. Fans of the series will be in shock with the direction Cole takes us as he decides who the true enemy is.

Harriet Klausner

This book in the series is going down the more serious road of Empire Building (in this case destruction). I would have preferred some more time in the "making a living day to day" for this series but I guess it's time to grow up.

Now I went through and read four of the five books in this series hoping that they'd eventually get better, but was sorely disappointed. The author has obviously never written a military fiction before and squanders battle scenes with detailing then in one or two paragraphs. The author also seems to just lift entire descriptions and paragraphs from previous books and copy and pastes them into the others. The story is alright, nothing new or unique. The main character can do no wrong and is just flat.

I would not recommend this book. Its a pain to read and provides little in the way of enjoyment.

This book purchased via Whispernet for my Kindle and it is a very good sci-fi book as part of this series. It to is well written an excellent story line and fun to read. Thanks!!!!!