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A review by dawn_marie
Backyard Starship by J.N. Chaney, Terry Maggert
1.0
DNF – I gave up reading after 150 or so pages. In theory, Backyard Starship by J.N. Chaney should have been something that I enjoyed; in actuality it was extremely disappointing.
The story’s premise was intriguing: a young man (Van Tudor) inherits his grandfather’s farm, learning of the starship hidden in the barn and his grandfather’s membership in a galactic police force/bounty hunter, and that part of his inheritance is to take up his grandfather’s mantle as a member of the galactic police force with the help of a sentient starship (Nelly) and a snarky battle AI bird (Perry). As promising as the story’s premise is, it could not overcome the ponderance of flat, boring, juvenile, and sometimes stupid characters and complete lack of world-building. The story felt less like a novel and more like a video game where the “hero” (Van) goes on a quest, powers up, goes on another quest, powers up, goes on another quest . . . . . and you get the idea.
A wonderful idea for a novel that failed in execution.
The story’s premise was intriguing: a young man (Van Tudor) inherits his grandfather’s farm, learning of the starship hidden in the barn and his grandfather’s membership in a galactic police force/bounty hunter, and that part of his inheritance is to take up his grandfather’s mantle as a member of the galactic police force with the help of a sentient starship (Nelly) and a snarky battle AI bird (Perry). As promising as the story’s premise is, it could not overcome the ponderance of flat, boring, juvenile, and sometimes stupid characters and complete lack of world-building. The story felt less like a novel and more like a video game where the “hero” (Van) goes on a quest, powers up, goes on another quest, powers up, goes on another quest . . . . . and you get the idea.
A wonderful idea for a novel that failed in execution.