Singularity: Star Carrier: Book Three [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Book Review by Felix Polz

2 March 2012

SINFULARITY

Star Carrier, Book 3

by Ian Douglas

Publisher: Harper Voyager

Price: $7.99 (paperback) $7.99 (Kindle)

SINGULARITY is the third novel of the Star Carrier Trilogy. Ian Douglas has written three previous trilogies with similar themes: The Heritage Trilogy, Legacy Trilogy and Inheritance Trilogy. Most readers give the author high marks for all twelve books, but some felt that there was too much repetition in plots and descriptive writing in the later books. For example, in this novel and in an earlier novel, a surprise attack through a star gate by the massed forces of a Terran Space Navy and Marine task force saves the Earth from destruction. Saying this is not a spoiler. Certainly, the reader knows this before buying the book. But that does not mean that the Earth escapes all damage in the alien attacks. Read all three books of Star Carrier to find out.

For me, the similarity in some plot structures is but a minor quibble. I will reveal my bias right now: I love this author and I love reading his military science fiction. I enjoyed each and every one of the twelve novels immensely. As a retired US Army officer, I did not even mind the glowing references to the futuristic version of the US Marine Corps. Saving the Earth from malevolent aliens trying to wipe out new civilizations because of a "Hunters of the Dawn" xenophobic ideology is a full-time job. May there always be a Space Navy and Marine Corps ready to defend us!

And saving the Earth from the stupidities of control-freak politicians is even more important. I have worked at the Pentagon and in the Washington, DC, area and I can bear witness to many offenses against both common sense and my sense of justice at the highest political and military levels. To those readers unfamiliar with such political foibles, please let me recommend ALL of Douglas' books as well as Keith Laumer's hilarious RETIEF stories.

From a technical point of view, the descriptions of future technologies are superbly well done. They are believable and might even work in the future when we get serious about travel into deep space. Especially convincing are Douglas' star drives and star ships: Shaped like kilometers-long mushrooms, the star carriers carry huge amounts of water (radiation shielding, reaction mass and drinking water) in the crown of the mushroom. Below, protected by the shielding of the mushroom cap, are the star drives, space fighter bays, weapons emplacements and personnel compartments. This is an elegant and practical solution to a difficult technical problem in starship design.

The star drive projects a pseudo-singularity ahead of the ship. The enormous mass of the singularity produces a variable gravitational pull which accelerates the vessel as quickly as is desired up to hundreds of g's for the starship and thousands of g's for the space fighters.

For those unfamiliar with US NAVY aircraft carrier jargon and acronyms, CAG remains Commander Air Group, CAP becomes CSP (Combat Space Patrol), PBP (Particle Beam Projector), KK (Kinetic Kill rounds for a rail gun), and CIC remains Combat Information Center.

Highly Recommended!

I bought and read this series, I have not read any other books written by this author. I found the series interesting and engaging. The story line was good and the author paid great attention to detail. The author also has a great imagination. However, I was frustrated by the amount of backstory and technical explanation that was repeated over and over and over throughout the series. It got to the point that I found myself skipping over page after page to avoid covering the same ground that I covered previously. It detracted significantly from the enjoyment of the reading experience. I understand the need to provide this backstory etc for readers who pick up the series midway through and have experienced this in other series that I have read, but found it to be especially cumbersome in this series. So cumbersome, in fact, that I feel justified in subtracting two stars for it.

I'm torn as to whether I will read anything else by this author. I enjoyed this series, but the prospect of encountering the same frustration in reading his other books discourages me from jumping right into them.

PS. I read a lot of books published electronically on Kindle and have found the editing to be anywhere from bad to horrible. It was nice to finally read a series that was not rife with spelling and grammatical errors.

William Keith has been writing novels (with various cowriters) for decades and he writes some of the best military fiction out there. The first two books in this series were fantastic, but this one was a massive let down.

First, the ending was really anti-climatic. There just wasn't the sense of overwhelming odds and pulling through to victory as in the first novels. Even though the enemy had millions of ships, there just wasn't any sense of tension.

Second, the ending was entirely predictable. As soon as one event occurred, then the entire rest of the book was just so predictable. There were even hints of the actual ending in the second book.

Third, was the page filler material. It seemed like the author repeated information that had already been gone over. I counted one general description being given no less than four times in this book. Considering that it was one of the major points in the first book, it seems excessive.

I enjoyed the beginning, but as soon as the artifact was discovered, it was a massive let down. I was actually mad when I finished the book.