Starship: Mutiny (Starship, Book 1) (Bk. 1) (Hardcover)

~ Mike Resnick (Author)
Key Phrases: gunnery section, pulse cannons, white shift, Wilson Cole, Teroni Federation, Theodore Roosevelt (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"a fast-moving, absorbing story that's peopled with interesting characters. I read this in two sittings and ate it up like candy." -- SF Signal, January 13, 2009

Product Description

The date is 1966 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now, and the Republic, created by the human race but not yet dominated by it, finds itself in an all-out war against the Teroni Federation, an alliance of races that resent Man’s growing military and economic power. The main battles are taking place in the Spiral Arm and toward the Core, but far out on the Rim, the Theodore Roosevelt is one of three ships charged with protecting the Phoenix Cluster, a group of seventy-three inhabited worlds. Old, battered, some of its weapon systems outmoded, the Teddy R. is a ship that would have been decommissioned years ago if a war wasn’t raging. Its crew is composed of retreads, discipline cases, and a few raw recruits. But a new officer has been transferred to the Teddy R. His name is Wilson Cole, and he comes with a reputation for heroics and disobedience. Twice he has ignored or exceeded his orders—both times he has presented the Republic with unexpected triumphs, and both times he has had his ship and crew shot out from under him. Now, he’s been banished to the Teddy R., where he will be a mere second officer, behind Captain Makeo Fujiama and Executive Officer Podok, a fierce Polonoi female.

Tensions rise on the Teddy R., discipline is lax, and Wilson Cole is not a man to sit idly by as a war rages elsewhere. But the Phoenix Cluster is the last place in the galaxy that the enemy would think of attacking. Or is it? With Starship: Mutiny, five-time Hugo winner Mike Resnick brings his prodigious imagination to bear on his very first military SF. Will the galaxy ever be the same?

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Pyr; First Edition edition (December 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591023378
• ISBN-13: 978-1591023371
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #105,375 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Punishemnt of Competence, August 7, 2006

By	John A Lee III "jal3" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In this easy reading story, the protagonist is an extremely competent naval officer with a record of success in the long war that forms the background of the story. The problem is that the success has come at the price of embarrassing senior officers who are less than competent. So while his success protects him, it also sends him into exile where it is hope he will not further embarrass his seniors. He is demoted and sent as second officer to a ship crewed by misfits in a sector without any possibility of seeing action. The plan does not work as predicted.

The plan does not work because the officer IS competent. He sees signs of enemy activity and acts on them. He does so with brilliance and success...and further embarrassment to his seniors. The reward for his excellence is punishment. The steps he takes to protect himself are dire.

The book is well written and light. It is enjoyable without requiring overmuch in the way of thinking. It is mild amusement and I will gladly read any sequels.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thinking Man's Soldier, June 5, 2006

By	Adrienne L. Gormley "skiffygrrl" (Silicon Valley USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The story here is the story of a non-conformist who uses his intellect to achieve his ends despite the closed-mindedness of his superiors; the setting simply happens to be a spaceship on the fringes of a war. It is not, nor has it ever been, military science fiction, despite the setting.

Space opera, yes, as it's an adventure tale set in the far future.

Military SF, no, because although it does use the backdrop of a war and the events of the war to move the story forward, the story is NOT about the war itself, but about one man's disenchantment with his military superiors, his government, and his 'trial by media'.

Granted, it's rather different from Resnick's other works, but this only tells me that the author is willing to try new things and write in new areas. I personally do not like writers who get stuck in a rut and write the same story over and over and over and over and over again ad nauseum until boredom do us part, and Resnick is an author who is willing to make the leap.

Starship: Mutiny is the first in a projected five-book series. I fully expect to see changes in the crew of the Teddy Roosevelt, and in their mission and status over the run of the five books.

And since Mutiny is the first in a five-book series, how can one know how the story is going to turn out in the end? There are still four volumes to go.

And I am looking forward to all of them.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Myth Meets Media, December 12, 2005

By	Herb Kauderer (Lancaster, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Mike Resnick is an author who often writes against the grain. In 'Starship: Mutiny' he goes against the grain of military SF by choosing the classic rag-tag spacship full of misfits, and refusing to make them self-sacrificing heroes in the mold of 'The Dirty Dozen.' Instead he attempts to treat them in the logical fashion that an interstellar military bureaucracy would require for its continued existence.

At the same time, Resnick bridges his realistic fiction with his myth-making. Wilson Cole starts out as an overly practical officer trying to navigate a literal military machine. His practical use and abuse of the news-media naturally leads to his achieving mythic proportions.

While the story arrives at the expected conclusion foreshadowed by its title, there are surprises along the way. The last 50 pages were impossible to put down, and the ending makes me look forward to the next 4 books in the series.

For readers who follow the 'Birthright Universe' the stories promise to bridge the eras between The Republic and The Democracy. In this sense the series is meta-fiction, not about a spaceship and its crew, but about the weight of government and the cost of freedom. What could be more important?