Could someone please tell me what’s happened to Mike Resnick? He used to write great adventure tales set in his Birthright
universe. But in the last few years he’s started writing more and more crap. The Return of Santiago, The Outpost, and Starship: Mutiny were not good. Dragon America was better but still less than stellar. I just finished Starship: Pirate and it’ll be the last of this particular series that I’ll read. I’m not going to give up on Resnick just yet, but he’s quickly falling down the rungs.
Pirate continues the story of Wilson Cole, a brilliant officer in the navy of the galactic Republic. Back in Mutiny he pissed off one too many a bureaucrat landing him in the brig for insubordination. His crew busted him out and at the start of Pirate they’ve decided to become space pirates to support themselves. Only thing is, they don’t really know how to be pirates, so they are a bit clunky at first. Nevertheless, the crew of the Teddy Roosevelt successfully dispatches another pirate ship and steals its loot. It takes several tries, but they finally unload it.
The second half of the book begins when they meet a former pirate by the name of the Valkyrie
who, while supposedly a good pirate, didn’t inspire much loyalty in hew crew. They ran off with her ship while she was sleeping off a drunk. In return for being taught how to be good pirates and other sundry details, the Teddy Roosevelt agrees to retake her former pirate ship for her.
The basic plot synopsis isn’t bad. The execution is. The bulk of the text is simply the characters arguing. Aren’t they supposed to be a disciplined former military crew? Cole dispenses with military rigmarole. No sirs
for him. So his crew argues with him every time he opens his mouth. Mostly this is so Resnick can have him explain the utter perfection of his logic. Except for once in a while when Cole yells at people for questioning his orders. The way Resnick exposes this logic is just irritating. Even once it would be irritating. But it’s just the whole book.
Oh, and Cole is sleeping with his security officer. She constantly monitors all conversations aboard ship, interjecting in bodiless fashion frequently. At least a few times she yells at Cole for raising his voice, telling him she’s already listening in and doesn’t need a higher volume to be heard. How many times does Resnick need to do this? Though she and Cole aren’t in a committed relationship, she constantly bickers with him over the possibility he might sleep with someone else. She also frequently threatens to withhold the sexin’ but changes her mind when Cole calls her bluff. So very tiresome.
I could go on. But I think that last sentence in the previous paragraph sums up the entire novel. It’s just so very tiresome.
Title: Starship: pirate
Author: Mike Resnick
Imprint/Publisher: Pyr / Prometheus Books
Series: Starship ; 2
Publication Date: December 2006
Format: Hardcover
Length: 336 p., including six appendices and an author biography
ISBN-10: 1-59102-490-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-59102-490-3
Subject: Space ships — Fiction
Subject: Piracy — Fiction
LC Classification: PS3568.E698S737 2006
get over yourself twat, the series is good, moves fast and is a light read and for people In the military, like myself, the characters make perfect sense.