Nautilus

Nautilus concludes the Starfarer's tetralogy as the crew finally encounter alien representatives of Civilization -- the mostly off-screen interstellar community that Earth may or may not be allowed to join. The strengths and weaknesses of the novel are pretty much as with the previous books. Strengths: strong female characters who dominate most of the action, fairly progressive view of bisexuality. Weaknesses: a slow pace, too few characters for four books, too much time spent on high school level romantic complications. The book does best with issues in alien understanding and diplomacy. There is plenty of action at the end, with some arcs resolved, but many mysteries left open. Surprisingly, there is nothing further involving Earth, show more even though Earth politics triggered the entire sequence of events and motivated critical choices through the series,

Recommended as solid, but I wish it had been shorter and deeper, with more mature characters. show less

Really well executed social, some lovely ideas, and overall solid writing.

This finishes up the 4-volume Starfarer series...

Alien Contact specialist JD inherits a starship from a squidmoth, the Starfarer team meets the various alien inhabitants of a 4-planet system, and tries to get humanity accepted by interstellar Civilization, even as they deal with both political and interpersonal issues amongst themselves...