Drew Williams

Started off quite interesting, with the galaxy plagued by Zones Of Thought type technology restrictions (a la Vernor Vinge), a diverse cast of characters, and mysteries to be solved. But then all of that is virtually abandoned as the book devolves into a never ending series of battle sequences, with only the slightest pause in the action to reload weapons for the next one. Plot development screeches to a halt, characters mostly disappear, because it's pew pew pew time.
There are sequels, so show more hopefully the story resumes in the next one. show less

I have a hard time of regarding this as anything other than a workmanlike adventure story but since that was what the author was going for who am I to criticize. What I do find myself being critical of is the whole phenomena of "the pulse," which scrambled galactic civilization in this milieu; its impact seemed more and more arbitrary as I got into the book and it seems to be basically Williams' way of stacking the deck in terms of the story he wants to tell.

I received this book via NetGalley.

The Stars Now Unclaimed is an almost non-stop adventure romp that utilizes the space opera setting to the fullest. Jane Kamali is one of the Justified, an agent who collects rare children born with abilities (think X-Men) and brings them back to a safe area where they can grow and be trained to become agents in their own right--a much nicer alternative than the fate offered by the Pax, who use Borg-esque methods to subjugate whole planets. Despite the show more benefits of space travel, many worlds use fairly primitive technology because of a horrific event a century before called the Pulse.

Kamali's effort to extract a teenage girl, Esa, goes awry when the Pax attack. They flee the planet to discover the Pax are attacking everywhere. They gather more clues and allies as they flee for their lives.

If you like battles of all sorts, well, you get battles of all sorts. The thing is, I found that tiresome after a while. I kept wanting more character development, more distinct characters, and instead had action scenes that blurred together after a while. That said, the spaceship AIs were one element that stood out that I really loved. show less

The shift in POV from the jaded Jane to the teenage Esa gave this book a much more YA-ish feel than the first one. The combination of torture and death with dumb jokes, gratuitous profanity, and temper tantrums also made it more immature. It also needed a bit of tightening up, the same thoughts and fears and running gags are repeated too many times, and the final battle scene is quite drawn out. More questions are raised than answered, presumably to be explored further in the next book, but show more at this point I'm not sure I even care enough to continue. Which is too bad, because overall it's an interesting world with colourful characters, I just wish we got to experience more of it. show less