Eric Thomson (1)

A series to match the scope of Foundation with the fire of Honor Harrington!

The second establishment clause in a Galactic apocolypse written with hope and heart. I am enjoying Thomson's writing craft. I love the classic sci-fi trophes, asides and names the season the context without overdoing it into satire. Everything from ancient history to modern culture creates good characters and solid development! Bravo!

I liked it, but

There were some formatting issues. Editing, really. When the narrative changed POV there needed to be a break between paragraphs to signify a focus change. There were too many moments where the next paragraph would suddenly be revealing information that clearly belonged to a different brain than the current POV character. There was also a bit too much tell and not enough show at times. Usually with peripheral characters.

I also was concerned by the odd naval terms that confused show more the space battles. Ships that are traveling head-on cannot fire full broadsides at each other. That’s not how that works.

I will be reading the next book in the series. I liked the plot (very complex, although it clearly took after Hornblower). I liked the writing. I liked the universe. show less

I liked it, but

There were some formatting issues. Editing, really. When the narrative changed POV there needed to be a break between paragraphs to signify a focus change. There were too many moments where the next paragraph would suddenly be revealing information that clearly belonged to a different brain than the current POV character. There was also a bit too much tell and not enough show at times. Usually with peripheral characters.

I also was concerned by the odd naval terms that confused show more the space battles. Ships that are traveling head-on cannot fire full broadsides at each other. That’s not how that works.

I will be reading the next book in the series. I liked the plot (very complex, although it clearly took after Hornblower). I liked the writing. I liked the universe. show less

Space mystery

This is really a murder mystery with a SF skin. The SF part is handled well and does not detract from the story, and it makes for a ‘cleaner’ mystery as you can use an alien species as a driving force for certain necessities (can’t autopsy the body, language barrier for some witnesses/suspects, etc.). The call out to Ian Fleming was obvious to me, but pointing it out at the end was well done.

Proofreading was good. No serious complaints.

I will purchase the next installment. show more This was well written. I may use this as a jump into his other novels. show less