Customer Reviews

The Ship Avenged (Brainship)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed "The City Who Fought", especially the character of Joat, so I was thrilled when I finally found out there was a sequel. Well...it was all right. Not bad, not great, certainly not what it could have been. All the right moves were made in the beginning to set up a truly fascinating read, but it just never came together. The end of the book is riddled with plotholes and dangling plot lines that the author tried to tie up neatly at the end, but just...didn't. It wasn't just that the romance felt horribly contrived, but ALL the character relationships towards the end started feeling like actors reading lines that didn't quite add up. And unfortunately, some of the most important action of all was glossed over by an "overview" last chapter that left me screaming. The book would've benefitted from an extra fifty pages or so to tie up all the complications that were brought in at the last minute.

You gotta read the brainship series. They are all entertaining. Stirling tones down the evil mutants and shows the potential for some reconciliation. Still some nasty folks to contend with but off set by a new alien and a likable AI. Joat could be a good focus point for some entertaining tales digressing from the brainships. Her confrontation with her personal devil is skewed enough to be reasonable. No skull sweat but recreational reading doesn't have to be demanding, read it if you read the rest, you'll be sorry if you miss it.

This book just isn't up to the standard of the other episodes in the BrainShip series. The plot and the characters show promise, but the polish and fun of the other books is missing. The main villian is absolutely flat and serves mainly as a blatent plot device. The various logic inconsistancies pile up until the plot collapses totally about 75% of the way into the story. I also noticed a large number of editing errors. "ass" instead of "ask", "hum" instead of "him", and so forth. Not recommended for anybody but a die-hard fan.

In this authorized sequel to McCaffrey & Stirling's "The City Who Fought," it's 10 years since the barbarian spacegoing raiders the Kolnari captured Space Station SSS-900-C and were sent scurrying with tails between legs by Simeon, the Brain that runs it, and Joat, the 11-year-old technodemon who lurked in its conduits. In gratitude, Simeon and his Brawn, Stationmaster Channa Hap, adopted Joat and saw that she received an education. Now Joat is out on her own, a dropout from Brawn school with a small ship called "WYAL" (for While You Ain't Lookin') and her very own AI, Rand, who, while not a Brain, functions almost as well as one.

Unfortunately the Kolnari have neither forgotten nor forgiven their defeat, and their warlord, Belazir t'Marid, has succeeded in acquiring a virus that attacks the cognitive centers of the brain and, in effect, brings on a kind of artificial Alzheimer's Disease. To spread it, he must create a human carrier, then return that carrier to his own planet and wait for the virus to do its work. The carrier he selects is Amos bin Sierra Nueva, Prophet and leader of the religiously-oriented colony world of Bethel, which played a major role in the Kolnari defeat a decade before. So that Amos can't warn his people of his state, Belazir injects him with a paralyzing agent and advertises, through his underground contacts, for a free ship to carry his "package" home. The "WYAL"--which, unknown to Belazir, has been hired by Central Worlds master spy Bros Sperin to look into the man Belazir uses as a contact and fence--responds, and in short order the fate of Bethel, Station Simeon, and much of the civilized Galaxy hangs on Joat, Rand, Sperin, a Sondee scientist named Seg !T'sel, Joat's one crewmember Alvec, and Amos's close friend and head of security, Joseph.

Anyone who liked Han Solo should be pleased to make the acquaintance of the adult Joat, who is just as shifty and morally ambiguous as the world's most famous Corellian and even better with techie toys. And the Kolnari, like the Imperials who were Solo's bugaboo, are a race of villains you love to hate--utterly evil, yet in a way comprehensible. Seg the Sondee--a romantic with James-Bondworthy dreams of the glamor of espionage, "working on an opera in his spare time" (as practically every Sondee is), and a highly skilled medic and computerman--is another great original character. Though the romantic attraction between Bros and Joat seems rather forced, the story itself is convoluted and fast-moving, with lots of military throwaway such as might be expected from Stirling. A good entry into the Brain & Brawn series.

This is NOT a brain ship story.

If you like McCaffrey, you'll read and like it well enough. However, when I first read it, I thought it was a CHEAT.

All the previous brainships were human minds and the stories related to the ship as protagonist. This ship is simply an artificial intelligence used to fake a brain brawn story with Joat, a character introduced in an earlier book.

Joat is the main character and the story is ok, but I'd have liked it better if this had been about some way of getting Joat into a real brain/brawn relationship in spite of impossible odds.

I am a diehard Stirling fan, and this is the weakest of his books. "The City who Fought" was wonderful, and this is just uninspired. I conjecture that working out of his own universe took its toll. Go back and read any of his other books, and give this one a miss. Even Joat is toned down. When she confronts her Uncle, all she does is punch him in the nose!!. Not the old rip their eyes out Joat we knew and loved in "City who Fought"

I really liked 'The City who fought', so I was thrilled to find this sequel. However, despite meeting the likeable characters from the first book again, this one was a disappointment. It started well enough, but the end fell through completely. I felt cheated and even went back to see if I'd got a faulty copy with pages missing!

The tension builds up, the characters are all in trouble, separated and discovered by the enemy and the next thing is that the heroine wakes up and all the action is OVER! A few loose ends are wrapped up (including the less than believable romance), but a lot more are left dangling. Maybe the author is planning a third book to the series, but I for sure won't pick that up.

of the Brainship series but definitely don't start here.

The action picks up about ten years after THE CITY WHO FOUGHT and features Joat Simeon-Happ and a few other characters from that book. Joat now has her own ship and crew and is approached by Central Worlds Security to locate the Kolnari space raiders - also involved in THE CITY WHO FOUGHT. Joat and crew soon find themselves in far over their heads as they attempt to rescue a kidnapped planetary leader and prophet (who also happens to have ties to Joat and her crew). As always in this series the good guys triumph but only after many horrific adventures.

This, like the rest of the Brainship series, is listed as a 'Young Adult' book but in my opinion it is for the more mature end of that audience due to the implied sexual situations, strong scenes of violence and gruesome situations. This is definitely the weakest book in the series that I have read so far. Unless you are a fan of THE CITY WHO FOUGHT skip this one.

Twenty years old Joat Simeon-Hap is a commercial ship owner, noted for taking on strange tasks. Her latest client, Central Worlds Security, allows Joat the opportunity to enact revenge on two individuals from her past. The techno demon initially goes after the War lord of Kolnar. She needs to get even with the villain who viciously tried to destroy her home station and who has captured her adopted parent's lover. The second vengeful quest is even more personal in nature. During a card game, her uncle used her as part of his ante. When he lost, she was part of the pot that some of the playing perverts were able to claim. What Joat is unaware of is that the Kolnari have selected her as the carrier of their bio-chemical weapon that will change one-hundred trillion (much greater than the national debt) individuals from sentient beings into zombies. THE SHIP AVENGED is a very good science fiction novel that diehard fans of the Anne McCaffrey "Ship" series will enjoy. For everyone else, the novel falls short because the reader does not feel any empathy towards the lead players (strange as that seems because readers do feel an attachment to them in previous novels). Apart from the diehards, everyone else who has read the "Ship" books should pass this book in favor of returning to the earlier McCaffrey "Ship" books. However, readers unfamiliar with a "Ship" novel should try it because they will not have any preconceived expectations. Not everyone is McCaffrey and this is a good book written by a gifted writer. Harriet Klausner ------

Set in McCaffrey's "Brainship Universe" the book starts off well, bringing onstage the now 23 year old, smart and pretty, blonde JOAT with her ship WYAL (not a brainship but with a likable AI). The first three quarters of the book move right along, not too many characters, neatly divided between the good and the bad, and a clear if somewhat simple plot. Then, when the story is set for a nice (if perhaps unimaginative) finish, suddenly a lot of complications are thrown in as if the writer forgot his 101 writing class (open story: main character suddenly in trouble and has to do something to get out of trouble, take it from there till main character is out of trouble). From then on there is to much trouble for JOAT to do anything about it, nothing makes sense, everybody does just the opposite of what they promised to do and JOAT is thrown back and forth like a rag dol, boom, fortunately she lands in the black, somehow (how?). End of book.