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jmoses's review
4.0
This was surprisingly good for a short novella by an apparent no-name author. I was very pleased. I'm also annoyed it was so short.
pjonsson's review
3.0
I do have quite some difficulty rating this book. For starters it's really short. At only 80 pages I almost hesitate calling it a book. Also it's quite weird. Not the story itself . It's a good story, although clearly intended for the younger audiences, but what makes it so weird is that the main character is a genetically altered rabbit! That's really a weird choice and one that doesn't really sit too well with me. Some alien or even a genetically modified monkey would have been fine but a rabbit. That's just too weird and illogical.
If you can get over the choice of species for the main character it is a good classical story of a young kid who, due to unforeseen events, blasts off into the galaxy on a journey of adventure. His benefactor and protector ending up being nothing less than the royalty of the kingdom in which he lives.
To add to the weirdness of being a genetically modified rabbit he is, or rather was, also a slave as most of these rabbits apparently are. This, of course, gives the author an excellent opportunity to add some obstacles based on prejudice for our young hero as well as the opportunity to weave in some moral finger pointing into the story. In the short book that I've read and the first few pages of the next one the author manages to do this rather well without it becoming too intrusive.
The science in the book is more on the fictional side than on the science one but given the rabbit stuff that's rather expected I would say. It's still fairly okay and the book does not go too much into details about how things work which is probably a wise move in this case.
If it wouldn't have been for this rabbit business I would have rated this book higher but I have a hard time getting over that bit when reading it. Otherwise it is a good story, although clearly intended for the younger audience as I mentioned above, and I quite wanted to see where the story went so I have already started to read the next one in the series. It's not exactly a big commitment since, as I said, they are quite short. Even though the next one is twice as long it's still not more than 179 pages.
If you can get over the choice of species for the main character it is a good classical story of a young kid who, due to unforeseen events, blasts off into the galaxy on a journey of adventure. His benefactor and protector ending up being nothing less than the royalty of the kingdom in which he lives.
To add to the weirdness of being a genetically modified rabbit he is, or rather was, also a slave as most of these rabbits apparently are. This, of course, gives the author an excellent opportunity to add some obstacles based on prejudice for our young hero as well as the opportunity to weave in some moral finger pointing into the story. In the short book that I've read and the first few pages of the next one the author manages to do this rather well without it becoming too intrusive.
The science in the book is more on the fictional side than on the science one but given the rabbit stuff that's rather expected I would say. It's still fairly okay and the book does not go too much into details about how things work which is probably a wise move in this case.
If it wouldn't have been for this rabbit business I would have rated this book higher but I have a hard time getting over that bit when reading it. Otherwise it is a good story, although clearly intended for the younger audience as I mentioned above, and I quite wanted to see where the story went so I have already started to read the next one in the series. It's not exactly a big commitment since, as I said, they are quite short. Even though the next one is twice as long it's still not more than 179 pages.
jrbournville's review against another edition
3.0
Not a bad opening, but I felt the book itself was rather short. I would've liked to see a lot more about the young Rabbit, David. I really liked the concept of humanoid rabbits, and the set-up for what would hopefully turn out to be an interesting story following this freed slave-bunny as he makes his way through life.
gelsey's review against another edition
4.0
I have to say, this first book is not the best written of the series, but it caught hold of me hard enough to make me purchase the next book in the series. The story reminds me in many ways of a combination of Nathan Lowell's Age of the Golden Clipper stories and David Weber's Honor Harrington books, somehow.
David Birkenhead is a plucky sort of hero, young and still learning, and I found myself quickly rooting for him despite the almost impossible odds he faces.
I had several issues with the book, of course, and a few with the series--mostly such questions of world building, some of which are answered down the road and some of which I think the author should have been prompted to expound upon. In fact, I would have loved to have gotten my hands on this before it was published, just because these questions take hold of me; it's not in a bad way, though, for it drove me to read more, explore more, and enjoy the series as a whole.
I would recommend this book with some reservations to almost all sci-fi fans, with the caveat of remember this is a new writer (at least, I think so). But truly, I really, really liked this book, and I enjoyed it very much, for whatever that is worth.
David Birkenhead is a plucky sort of hero, young and still learning, and I found myself quickly rooting for him despite the almost impossible odds he faces.
I had several issues with the book, of course, and a few with the series--mostly such questions of world building, some of which are answered down the road and some of which I think the author should have been prompted to expound upon. In fact, I would have loved to have gotten my hands on this before it was published, just because these questions take hold of me; it's not in a bad way, though, for it drove me to read more, explore more, and enjoy the series as a whole.
I would recommend this book with some reservations to almost all sci-fi fans, with the caveat of remember this is a new writer (at least, I think so). But truly, I really, really liked this book, and I enjoyed it very much, for whatever that is worth.
derryderrydown's review
3.0
I should have looked closer. I thought this was standard space opera, and was slightly boggled to discover the main character was a 'slave-bunny'. Not a porn-type slave-bunny, though, which was a relief.
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