Re-reading a good book is always fun after a decent interval, just as it was when first read it, it was an enjoyable re-reading The antares series is one of the best of Mccollums works ( )

just finished number [Antares Dawn]. It reads like a first novel. The plot focused on the wrong things and rambled on in some parts that should have been trimmed down or cut. The dialogue was clipped. It didn't reveal anything about the characters; there was no subtext. It wasn't bad for a first novel. It has a good idea; and a lot was invested in it. And he really did research it, try to make it hard sf. but i didn't enjoy it. I probably won't read another Michael McCollum novel, unless I have nothing else to read. and it won't be the sequel, [Antares Passage]. It just seemed so lazy; anyone who knows me that i like sf, even bad sf. what i can't stand is lazy sf. or lazy anything.

Antares Dawn is about a colony that was cut off from the rest of the human hegemony for about 100 or so years. Or 300 years; I don't really remember and it diesn;t matter. Then an Earth battlecruiser comes through the system, with obvious signs of battle damage. the battlecruiser is so much more advanced than anything they have that it seems invincible, and the scary thing is whatever it is in the black that was able to destroy it. Imagine the cargo cult, those Stone Age tribes in the Pacific suddenly introduced to the rest of the world when the Americans and Japanese suddenly begin waging war in their isolated little island. That was the premise. Instead, Antares Dawn got sidetracked into a nova, whole chapters that could've been reduced to a few sentences. It was just so bland. Hopefully McCollum got better as he wrote. ( )