Jon Lusty
Humorous, interesting and decent. Murder!
I'm still relatively new to the Cozy Mystery scene - this was my 2nd read in the genre. Good cast of characters, liked the occasional humor and the fact that our detectives took a time-out with God on a daily basis. People forget to do that these days, yet it remains as important as ever. I very much appreciated how the author tied everything together for us at the end. Lt. Cy Dekker is one smart detective.
This the 17th and final book, in a series which should have been five books frankly, doesn't satisfy. The writing is terrible, constant use of phrases like “then for the first time in his life...” and overuse of the word shriek to the point where it's distracting. There's a lot of story told in this series but it's all repetitive, no feeling of epic grandeur or that all of these stories are leading to a single climax. Could have been so much better.
This book is so chock-full of SciFi concepts - each one alone would be another author's seed idea to make into a novel. Here Bester, writing in the 50s mind you, introduces us to dozens perhaps hundreds of sci-fi tropes, many of which could be explored easily in a series of books based on this work. Amazing!
Decent hard scifi adventure with plenty of characters, plot twists and political machinations. Well written as well though the setting is unlike anything many readers will have encountered before. I think a bit more exposition like that in Ringworld, an exhaustive description of the environment, would enhance this story greatly.
Not a very interesting story, focused on two specific characters and their getting to know each other during their escapades. No sense of scope of the land, not very convincing description of the plight of the people, why these two guys should be considered heroes. Unfortunately I found it kind of boring, quite frankly.
A bit long with plenty of exposition but all-in-all a worthy installment to the Seafort Saga. This poor kid, he's had so much put on his shoulders, so many huge decisions to make with very little to draw on while thinking God has turned his back on him. I'm not sure what keeps him going at times but go on he does. On to book four!
Heart-wrenching tale of deep space, abandonment, loss, betrayal and the human spirit. Excellent story. Nick Seafort is our inscrutable protagonist, one who's moods can swing faster than a misaligned N wave. He fails to recognize who his friends are, even though his command would be strengthened by building upon relationships. Instead he's a hard disciplinarian, resorting to torture and cruelty for even the most minor infractions of protocol. Really hoping he gets a clue into how human relationships work, even with those under his command. He's got a lot of potential but little life experience. At the beginning of book one he was just a 17 yo midi. At the end of book two he's a 23 yo Captain, and has had to command his crews in isolation all that time. He needs an extended break to learn how to be a human being, and I hope his opportunity comes in subsequent books.
So, onward to book 3 of this 7 book series. Unfortunately I learned while reading book two that the author passed away some time ago, so 7 volumes is it.
