Recall Not Earth

The Earth and its space force has been destroyed by an alien empire. Only a few space crew are left, scattered into neighbouring star systems. John is a washed up commander living in a back alley and addicted to the local narcotic. Suddenly a car pulls up, the door swings upwards, and some guy says, "Get in the car, Marty. We're going on an adventure." OK, kidding. An old police car pulls up and a guy in dark glasses says, "We're putting the band back together." OK, then, not that either.

An old crew member pulls John out of the alley and cleans him up, then they round up the old crew. Somebody wants a bunch of mercenaries for quick hits against the empire. And the draw card? There's a bunch of woman who escaped Earth and need rescuing. "I'll tell you where they are when you've done some damage to the empire."

After too long spent telling us about anti-gravity drives and null-space drives and the body conformation of aliens etc the book develops into a shoot-em-up rampage reminiscent of an old cowboy movie on Saturday afternoon. The final quarter of the book has some really imaginative tech wizardry that makes the slow first half bearable.

Oh yeah, the author is irritatingly keen on the word 'whatnot'. Obviously not one of those corner shelf stands for aspidistras.