A review by tome15
The Myriad by R.M. Meluch
3.0
Meluch, R. M. Myriad. Tour of the Merrimack No. 1. Daw, 2006.
I picked this up again because I had forgotten I read it four years ago. Moral: don’t get old. But my one incomplete sentence review (Old school swash and buckle space opera) was accurate, it was less informative than it might have been. So. There are Americans and Romans and a hive mind fighting an intergalactic war. The characters, with perhaps one exception, are straight out of central casting, and the spacecraft and weaponry we have all seen before. Why Romans—well, the old empire went underground and then moved to terraformed planets when the technology became available. How did the Americans last so long? No clue. Ender would recognize the hive mind. The clichés are shameless and often politically incorrect. So why did I reread it again? The action was good and there was an interesting twist or two at the end. I was left thinking, “Would it not have been fun if E. E. “Doc” Smith had had black holes to fool with?” I will read the rest of the series the next time I feel like a popcorn read.
I picked this up again because I had forgotten I read it four years ago. Moral: don’t get old. But my one incomplete sentence review (Old school swash and buckle space opera) was accurate, it was less informative than it might have been. So. There are Americans and Romans and a hive mind fighting an intergalactic war. The characters, with perhaps one exception, are straight out of central casting, and the spacecraft and weaponry we have all seen before. Why Romans—well, the old empire went underground and then moved to terraformed planets when the technology became available. How did the Americans last so long? No clue. Ender would recognize the hive mind. The clichés are shameless and often politically incorrect. So why did I reread it again? The action was good and there was an interesting twist or two at the end. I was left thinking, “Would it not have been fun if E. E. “Doc” Smith had had black holes to fool with?” I will read the rest of the series the next time I feel like a popcorn read.