PG's Books

This is a good read, above average for sure, but I do have a few gripes about it. I wonder if the author is overextending himself a wee bit in trying to get out new books in the various book series he has going at a rather high pace.

This book starts yet another series in Raymond L. Weil’s universe filled with heroes, enemies, allies, space battles and so on and so forth. It is an enjoyable read. A lot of the old friends are back, there is lots of action and the story is nicely expanding on previous books.

However this is also where I have a few gripes. The story is growing into a super space opera encompassing thousands of galaxies and it is starting to feel a bit to huge for me. Sometimes I feel like the attention to detail is suffering and too much attention is on expanding. Bigger is not always better regardless of what your girlfriend tries to tell you.

Not only is the scene somewhat overwhelming but so is the pace. Our friends in the galaxy far far away (sorry I could not resist) are up against an overwhelming foe, the “Anti-Life”. On the positive side they have plenty of new Originator technology to boost their defensive and offensive capabilities but will it be enough. Well, spoiler ahead, it will not and thus we get to my biggest issue. The Humans and the Originators appears to be blurting out new and enhanced weapons, shields etc… with a snap of the fingers. New ships are built, and becoming obsolete, and upgraded and so on at a rate that is simply not realistic. After a battle our friends returns home and wham, their shields and weapons are suddenly 20% stronger. The enemy deploys a warp dampening field and, surprise surprise, someone invents a anti warp dampening field on the spot. To me this feels like a wee bit too much. I really like when the good guys comes up with new technology and surprises for the baddies but it is a bit too fast and easy in this book.

Okay that was my griping for today. What the book blurb does not mention is that, in addition, to all the intergalactic events taking place, the humans and their allies in their home galaxy have a few problems of their own. The former proxy races of the AI’s as well as the AI’s themselves are on the march. This makes for some nice space battles as well as new potential allies. I quite liked these parts of the book.

Then there is of course the search to discover if there are actually any more surviving Originators which rounds of the story nicely. On the whole this is a good book with a few faults. I am looking forward to the next one.