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auspea's review against another edition
2.0
Loved the first 3 books in this series, editor really failed him on this installment.
pjonsson's review against another edition
4.0
This is a good book there is little question about that. It takes off quite a few years after the last book ended but it still pretty much continues the main story arc from the first three books. As before there is a fair amount of action and the action is well written taking (most) of the normal laws of nature into account making for a realistic, as far as science fiction goes, experience.
Again the Star Carrier battle group kicks some alien butt but not without getting a fair beating in return. The repair crews are kept busy indeed. Also, it appears that humanity might have found some new potential allies although that it still pretty much undecided by the end of the book.
However, there are some annoying parts of this book. For example there is a bit too much philosophizing among characters which slows things down. The main floor with this book however is one that quite a few books have. Humanity is under attack by an advanced alien race and is threatened with extinction or at least enslavement of the entire race. Yet a bunch of idiots still provokes fighting between the humans themselves. Personally I find it unbelievable and in any case, not very fun reading.
To make matters worse, the main trouble makers are an entity that have a suspicious resemblance to the European Community and which now appears to have its seat in Geneva. Now, do not get me wrong, I do not mind bashing both the EC bureaucrats/useless politicians nor the similar idiots in Geneva and yes they are useless pencil-pushers mostly being a part of the problem, not the solution. I was born in Sweden, I live in France and I work in Geneva so I have first hand experience. After almost twenty years here I have developed a deeply rooted contempt, even hate, for useless political bullshitters that put their own gain before everything else. However, my problem with this stuff in the book is that I find it rather boring, not to mention frustrating, to read.
However, after getting past those parts of the book what remains is still a good book. It ends in a cliffhanger so I assume that we will get a 5th book in the series. Hopefully this one will be more focused on fighting the real threat and less on the human civil war nonsense. Although I wouldn’t mind if a few of the European morons got a doze of their own medicine first.
Again the Star Carrier battle group kicks some alien butt but not without getting a fair beating in return. The repair crews are kept busy indeed. Also, it appears that humanity might have found some new potential allies although that it still pretty much undecided by the end of the book.
However, there are some annoying parts of this book. For example there is a bit too much philosophizing among characters which slows things down. The main floor with this book however is one that quite a few books have. Humanity is under attack by an advanced alien race and is threatened with extinction or at least enslavement of the entire race. Yet a bunch of idiots still provokes fighting between the humans themselves. Personally I find it unbelievable and in any case, not very fun reading.
To make matters worse, the main trouble makers are an entity that have a suspicious resemblance to the European Community and which now appears to have its seat in Geneva. Now, do not get me wrong, I do not mind bashing both the EC bureaucrats/useless politicians nor the similar idiots in Geneva and yes they are useless pencil-pushers mostly being a part of the problem, not the solution. I was born in Sweden, I live in France and I work in Geneva so I have first hand experience. After almost twenty years here I have developed a deeply rooted contempt, even hate, for useless political bullshitters that put their own gain before everything else. However, my problem with this stuff in the book is that I find it rather boring, not to mention frustrating, to read.
However, after getting past those parts of the book what remains is still a good book. It ends in a cliffhanger so I assume that we will get a 5th book in the series. Hopefully this one will be more focused on fighting the real threat and less on the human civil war nonsense. Although I wouldn’t mind if a few of the European morons got a doze of their own medicine first.
csroc's review against another edition
3.0
It's... ok.
This book starts to make good on the strife building at home on Earth but it's a bit clumsy. Overall it's repeating a lot of the same themes the books have already gone through and doesn't feel like it expands any long term plots enough to add as much as it could or should to the series.
Some of the actions going on around Earth come across as rather annoying to the reader. You can see some coming and have to just ask yourself "really?"
The excessive repetition of certain essential background elements that have been explained in every book in the series is really old. Who picks up a series of books at some point other than book one? Since I also reviewed the first book and mentioned the Lost Fleet family of books I'll mention that again here. They repeat a lot and it might be my failing memory, but it doesn't feel as dragged out most of the time.
Most of the background Lost Fleet repeats is done much more efficiently than in this series. It's still a process I don't agree with, but it can be done better.
This book starts to make good on the strife building at home on Earth but it's a bit clumsy. Overall it's repeating a lot of the same themes the books have already gone through and doesn't feel like it expands any long term plots enough to add as much as it could or should to the series.
Some of the actions going on around Earth come across as rather annoying to the reader. You can see some coming and have to just ask yourself "really?"
The excessive repetition of certain essential background elements that have been explained in every book in the series is really old. Who picks up a series of books at some point other than book one? Since I also reviewed the first book and mentioned the Lost Fleet family of books I'll mention that again here. They repeat a lot and it might be my failing memory, but it doesn't feel as dragged out most of the time.
Most of the background Lost Fleet repeats is done much more efficiently than in this series. It's still a process I don't agree with, but it can be done better.
jjwalter2001's review against another edition
4.0
A good story and fun read for what it is. However, the author is very repetitive....it seemed like that, the first time a piece of historical detail came up in a chapter, that he would go off on a two paragraph tangent explaining. So some things were explained dozens of times throughout the book - so often that I had to chuckle about the number of times I came across an explanation of the 'White Covenant' or the history of the alien antagonists!
Nonetheless, it was a good story (hence the 4 stars) and I'll be moving on to Dark Matter, the next book in the series.
Nonetheless, it was a good story (hence the 4 stars) and I'll be moving on to Dark Matter, the next book in the series.
tuftymctavish's review against another edition
3.0
Where book #3, Singularity, completed the first part of the story, Deep Space picks things up a little further on. This much I liked. I liked the new characters, the new encounters, the new alien races, the new problems, the gradual reveals. There's a nice level of background detail that fleshes out the story rather well.
But oh my, so much repeated text! Perhaps the author is assuming that somebody is going to pick up Book #4 as their starting off point, or that it's been a while and the reader needs a refresher and I'm thus not ideally placed to comment on this having powered through all four books in short order. However, it struck me that even within the same single book there are repetitions describing the main star-ships that give the series its name, along with events from previous books that get re-described over and over.
Other than that I fair enjoyed this episode, which feels like the start of another sequence of stories.
But oh my, so much repeated text! Perhaps the author is assuming that somebody is going to pick up Book #4 as their starting off point, or that it's been a while and the reader needs a refresher and I'm thus not ideally placed to comment on this having powered through all four books in short order. However, it struck me that even within the same single book there are repetitions describing the main star-ships that give the series its name, along with events from previous books that get re-described over and over.
Other than that I fair enjoyed this episode, which feels like the start of another sequence of stories.
rafial's review against another edition
3.0
The actual writing continues to be terrible, but the attempts at well developed truly alien cultures continues peak my interest.
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