PG's Books

The core story of this book is quite decent. However the implementation is a bit on the weak side. The inclusion of the (small spoiler ahead) Neanderthals in the story was interesting. So was the whole idea of making parallels between the invention of the ironclad warships and the first space ships with shields.

I quite liked the main characters and how they got together to first try to win the war game and then to win a real war. Both the preparation parts, overcoming the bureaucracy, the political scheming of the career focused navy officers and the actual combat action was generally enjoyable to read.

As I wrote however, the implementation is a bit on the week side. It felt a bit like a young adult novel, written by a somewhat inexperienced author, that tried to be a bit more. Some of the ways they just threw together things were a bit … simple. The social interactions, romance bits if you want to call it that, was sometimes feeling a bit like teenage wet dreams.

I cannot give more than a three out of five stars rating but it was still an enjoyable read and I would really like to see a second instalment.