Scan barcode
pjonsson's review
2.0
This book was a tad disappointing actually. The author has written several books in the Battlegroup Z series that I quite liked but in some books in that series he tended to go way too heavily towards political bullshit and machinations. Unfortunately this first book in the Echoes of War series also does just that.
The writing is on par with the other book,s from this author, that I have read which means it is quite good. The science fiction, the military aspect, strategy and so on and so forth is also very good. There are indeed some action in this book that I quite liked.
What I didn’t like is, unfortunately, pretty much all the rest.
The book starts off with a bunch of whining and psychobabble that I found at best boring and at worst really annoying and frustrating.
One of the good things about this book is that the main protagonist actually gets to command a brand new big and seriously kick ass battleship. One of the bad things about this book is that the author really ruins the enjoyment of this by kind of diminishing the ship by presenting it as not really ready and also that it really had to be built by hiding the construction, and especially the costs, from the dumbass politicians.
Of course when our hero saves the day with his new toy said dumbass politicians and career “officers” actually try to screw everything by attempting to court-martial him for not adhering to their dumbass political agenda. What the f…?
On top of all of this there’s really way too much talk about God and religion. I have to say that the author is doing it very well in being fairly neutral between the various religions and avoids trying to preach before the readers but it still just add to the bits and pieces that I find either boring or frustrating with this book.
It’s the first book in the series and I know the author can write books that I really like so I’m pretty sure that I will check out the second book as well but… I hope that one will be an improvement over this one.
The writing is on par with the other book,s from this author, that I have read which means it is quite good. The science fiction, the military aspect, strategy and so on and so forth is also very good. There are indeed some action in this book that I quite liked.
What I didn’t like is, unfortunately, pretty much all the rest.
The book starts off with a bunch of whining and psychobabble that I found at best boring and at worst really annoying and frustrating.
One of the good things about this book is that the main protagonist actually gets to command a brand new big and seriously kick ass battleship. One of the bad things about this book is that the author really ruins the enjoyment of this by kind of diminishing the ship by presenting it as not really ready and also that it really had to be built by hiding the construction, and especially the costs, from the dumbass politicians.
Of course when our hero saves the day with his new toy said dumbass politicians and career “officers” actually try to screw everything by attempting to court-martial him for not adhering to their dumbass political agenda. What the f…?
On top of all of this there’s really way too much talk about God and religion. I have to say that the author is doing it very well in being fairly neutral between the various religions and avoids trying to preach before the readers but it still just add to the bits and pieces that I find either boring or frustrating with this book.
It’s the first book in the series and I know the author can write books that I really like so I’m pretty sure that I will check out the second book as well but… I hope that one will be an improvement over this one.
oilbleak78's review
2.0
I feel like this book was written by someone who watches Fox News all day and complains about the “war on Christmas”. The bad guys are atheist communists (though at times the author seems to confuse communists with fascists) and the good guys are all devoutly religious - except for course for the one scientist that’s an atheist and goes out of his way to be an a**hole to everyone around him. The space/naval battles are decently done, but few and far between. The plot is extremely predictable, the dialogue straight from a low budget movie, and the plot holes are annoying (like the “we can’t locate the saboteur on sensors because she’s in a shielded room but our radio transmissions don’t seem to have any problems getting out of that same room.”)
More...