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A review by yevolem
Spaceside by Michael Mammay
3.0
Roughly two years after the events of the first book, ex-Colonel Carl Butler has settled into a comfy corporate executive job nominally overseeing their security. He does very little and is paid very well. All's well in its boring and predictable way. That is until the CEO tasks him with a security issue regarding a competitor that's better suited for an intelligence operative. Nonetheless, he accepts and begins investigating the matter. Things go badly quickly and it seems like it may be a repeat of what came before. Even when there's a chance to back out, once he's started something it has to be seen through to its conclusion, no matter the consequences.
Once again it's mostly investigation, though not nearly as interesting, exciting, or dramatic this time. Mostly it's wandering around town and events out of Butler's control happen and he can't do much about it. There's a real lack of agency throughout the book, which tends to annoy me, even when it's trying to make a point about how common that is. The military aspect is mostly gone, though there's still some combat, arguably anyway. Butler's PTSD has greatly worsened and there's a lot of emotional wallowing in ways I prefer not to read. Aside from all that though it does well enough in presenting a logical sequence of events that I don't have any problems with. The twists provide some interesting conversations that can only happen in very specifically crafted situations. In terms of characters, the highlight for me was easily the return of Ganos from the first book. There was a lack of supporting characters when it really needed it. Butler just isn't able to carry the book on his own, especially not with his behavior in this one.
This one never really came together for me. It's at least somewhat the case that Mammay doesn't quite seem to know what he was going for either. Unfortunately it also seems to be pursuing the one narrative path that I didn't want it to follow. That really hurts its in my estimation, which isn't its fault, but also doesn't change how I feel about it at all. I didn't want to write about it like this, but that's how it is. I'm disappointed, but it isn't a bad book. It's decent in every way except for the theme that it's going for, which would spoiler both the previous book and this one to say. I'll still be reading the next book to see how it goes, though I don't expect much. As was noted by VANGLUSS in his comment on the first book, I overrated the first book. You were right in criticism and I was wrong and overly defensive. That's mostly because the first book I read from Mammay I gave five stars so I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt for this series, which it seems may have been unwarranted. Hopefully the remaining books prove me wrong again, because I'd much rather enjoy myself than be right.
Rating: 2.5/5
Once again it's mostly investigation, though not nearly as interesting, exciting, or dramatic this time. Mostly it's wandering around town and events out of Butler's control happen and he can't do much about it. There's a real lack of agency throughout the book, which tends to annoy me, even when it's trying to make a point about how common that is. The military aspect is mostly gone, though there's still some combat, arguably anyway. Butler's PTSD has greatly worsened and there's a lot of emotional wallowing in ways I prefer not to read. Aside from all that though it does well enough in presenting a logical sequence of events that I don't have any problems with. The twists provide some interesting conversations that can only happen in very specifically crafted situations. In terms of characters, the highlight for me was easily the return of Ganos from the first book. There was a lack of supporting characters when it really needed it. Butler just isn't able to carry the book on his own, especially not with his behavior in this one.
This one never really came together for me. It's at least somewhat the case that Mammay doesn't quite seem to know what he was going for either. Unfortunately it also seems to be pursuing the one narrative path that I didn't want it to follow. That really hurts its in my estimation, which isn't its fault, but also doesn't change how I feel about it at all. I didn't want to write about it like this, but that's how it is. I'm disappointed, but it isn't a bad book. It's decent in every way except for the theme that it's going for, which would spoiler both the previous book and this one to say. I'll still be reading the next book to see how it goes, though I don't expect much. As was noted by VANGLUSS in his comment on the first book, I overrated the first book. You were right in criticism and I was wrong and overly defensive. That's mostly because the first book I read from Mammay I gave five stars so I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt for this series, which it seems may have been unwarranted. Hopefully the remaining books prove me wrong again, because I'd much rather enjoy myself than be right.
Rating: 2.5/5