Starliner

I read just about half of this book. I was offended by the main protagonists generalizations about women. It felt very sexist to me. I think men who are very successful with women have a genuine and deep love of women. I understand the character was supposed to be something of a player or playboy. I was not feeling it. Otherwise the book the world building was interesting. I gave up on the book because I read for enjoyment.

Another review described this book as Starship Troopers meets The Love Boat, and that's about right. Ran Colville is a new staff officer on The Empress of Earth, a 6000 person luxury starship. His job is managing trouble with the passengers, and with the kinds of people who go on interstellar voyages, that means a lot of trouble. There's a war brewing between two planets, passenger have personal issues, and Ran has to save the day. The story clumps along in a series of loosely connected vignettes, until at the end there's a hijacking attempt, and Ran leads a heroic rescue of his ship. Some decent gunplay, lousy characterization, downright awkward scifi sex (protip, the phrase 'swollen labia' should never be used in an erotic context). show more There are hints of a kind of callously cruel universe here, but the setting is little more than old stereotypes.

I'm coming around to solidly meh on Drake. If anybody knows which of his books are actually good, might read them, but otherwise, too many good books out there. show less

I'd forgot what a strange story this is.

In sum: Starliner is an episodic account of a voyage aboard a premium passenger starship, from the perspective of a junior hospitality officer. A handful of the passengers keep reappearing. There's a war developing. Some of the characters aren't exactly what they seem. The protagonist is very competent, but we probably learn too much about his love life. His (female) superior seems to defer to him more than seems healthy for a chain of command. In the end, our protagonist is a rather reluctant hero, and having second thoughts.

One of two huge ships that span the galaxy offering both luxury travel and indentured "cattle" class fares, the Empress of Earth is Lieutenant Randall Colville's new posting. As interstellar conflict threatens, the huge ship is a tempting target for pirates and rival planet's loyalists. Keeping her safe will be a hard job, even for a man steeped in the harsh environs of the Cold Crew...

If the plot of every single Love Boat episode somehow fell in a vat with... Retief, perhaps? This might be the result. Not half bad, but the ending was grim for my taste.

Starliner by David Drake reads like a collection of short stories and short-shorts strung together to create a novel. Drake begins with series of 3-8 page segments that introduces the main characters. Superficial character development predominates. A plot, while not evident, is foreshadowed by the social and political climate.

Members of the ship’s crew are confronted with minor problems concerning a group of passengers. In these early episodes Drake describes the ship and the diverse socio-political universe represented by the passengers. The continuing string of self-contained episodes become tedious as a more substantive plot failed to develop.

The quali-short story format continues as the ship arrives at each planet and the show more characters are faced with a new set of problems. The focus on ports requires a description of the physical appearance of the port, the planet, and the physical and social characteristics of the residents.

The final climactic episode is only slightly more interesting than the previous problems confronted by the crew. The book continues for another 20 pages following the final resolution; Drake uses these pages to state a moral justification for pragmatic action.

Fans of Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers or Lt. Leary series will be quite disappointed by Starliner. show less

Fun to read but lacked some character development. If you're in the mood for a quick read with lots of action, it's worthwhile.

Sample Chapters: http://webscriptions.net/chapters/0671721216/0671721216.htm