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"In space, size matters. Boomers. Ships of the Line. Star Destroyers. The bigger the ship, the better the bang. From the dawn of history onward, commanding the most powerful ship around has been a dream of admirals, sultans, emperors, kings, generalissimos, and sea captains everywhere. For what the intimidation factor alone doesn't achieve, a massive barrage from super-weapons probably will. Thus it was, and ever shall be, even into the distant future. From the oceans of Earth, to beneath the ice of Europa, to the distant reaches of galactic empires, it is the great warships and their crews that sometimes keep civilization safe for the rest of us -- but sometimes become an extinction-level event in and of themselves"--Back cover.… (altro)
Star Destroyers Author: Tony Daniel(editor), Christopher Ruocchio(editor), various authors Publisher: Baen Books Publishing Date: 2018 Pgs: 468 Dewey: PBK F STAT Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX _________________________________________________ REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS Summary: Heavy steel in space. Ships of the Line. Destroyers. Dreadnoughts. Super weapons. From the oceans of Earth to the icy seas of Europa and the distant lights farthest from the sky, warships and their crew carry out their duties facing the enemy wherever they may encounter them. Hurling steel and plasma and laser light across the medium of space, warfare among the stars. _________________________________________________ Genre: Space Opera Science Fiction Militaria War
Why this book: It's about space battleships and fleet action. It's my kind of stuff. Things blow up. _________________________________________________ Superweapon by David Drake
The Feel: First jump out of the gate and they are sitting at a Court of Inquiry, without lawyers or a reading of rights. Those surveyors are going to be lucky to walk out of this, monumental, historic find or not.
Favorite Character: The giant ship is already a character in the story just from its description in the inquiry.
Least Favorite Character: Both Balthaus and Rice. Disrespect will surely get them everywhere as Kearny slowly loses his mind trying to keep them all out of prison for just doing their jobs, but not up to Defense’s standards. Even though out in the void, the Survey Service doesn’t report to the Defense Department.
...course I don’t like any of the stuffed shirts questioning them at that Court of Inquiry either.
Hmm Moments: Wonder if Tadeko ran fast enough to stop The Shield coming online. Wonder if The Shield would decide that instead of running and hiding it does what it's designed for and starts killing the people that sent it out into space, proactively protecting itself. All fun and games until your killing machines turn on you.
Wisdom: Intelligence is intelligence whether it’s organic or artificial. Selling it short is a sure way to end up surprised in bad ways.
Juxtaposition: Like the jux of the Earthlings with the ancient aliens and what could happen, what would happen, what can happen. _________________________________________________ A Sudden Stop by Steve White
Favorite Concept: A British Empire that flourished beyond the modern era. A world where the American Revolution had a very different outcome. An Earth where various nation-states have interstellar navies and space battleships. That’s good worldbuilding.
The Sigh: And the helmsman/cyberpunk hero is a racist. ~isms when you are dealing with fictional species is one thing, probably not a good thing, but it’s one thing. It’s quite another when you are speaking about humans and using racial epithets that are actually in use. Rubs the wrong way and grates on the sense of the reader. And then, the excuse of “it’s what they call themselves”. Nope, not flying.
Juxtaposition: After the great worldbuilding, the main character meets an old friend and their conversation takes a cudgel to that worldbuilding I was so enamored of earlier. They clear blue sky in their first acquaintance starts debating 100s of years of alternate history, racial relations, and the Declaration of Independence. _________________________________________________ Pacing: The story hits a roadblock when the main character engages in a conversational flashback on the entire history of the alternate history British Empire and its relations to its North American subjects, rebels, and whether/when slavery ended. It’s a roadblock that stops down the nascent story’s flow. If that’s the story that White wanted to tell, then that’s the story he should’ve told.
There are a couple points where the story flow has all the life sucked out of it. Almost to the degree that I’m thinking of giving up on this story and moving on to the next.
Last Page Sound: Meh, there was potential, largely wasted. Disappointed. The story had a good hook. The worldbuilding was great.
Author Assessment: I expected better from the guy who has been writing the Starfire series. I’ve got the next in that series on request from the library. I hope it lives up to it’s past. We’ll see. I was looking forward to reading the series associated with this short. I’m out now.
Editorial Assessment: An editor should have questioned if that was really necessary. _________________________________________________ Another Solution by Mark L Van Name
Meh / PFFT Moments: Another solution is about the most un-space-battleship story and the history of space battleship stories. I guess it belongs in the collection but stuff doesn't blow up. More an A. I. or Tech-Gone-Wild story or a Foolish-Humans-Thinking-Their-The-Smartest story.
The Sigh: Not about this short, but more about the whole collection. I've noticed that I'm about a fifth of the way through the book and I'm not getting flush-the-missile-racks and cannon fire and standing-on-the-burning-deck type stories which is kind of what I wanted. _________________________________________________
The Magnolia Incident by Mike Kupari
Hmm Moments: I love letters home from the front stories. And this one was well written.
Meh / PFFT Moments: The fight is 95% off screen.
Wisdom: The fear of annihilation makes Man seek security at the expense of freedom. That is nationalist barbarism. _________________________________________________ A Helping Hand by Jody Lynn Nye
The Feel: I love the alien ocean trope. Especially when I like the submarine/starship similarity genre too. Favorite Character: The Deeps. Alien whales who look like giant bacteria with solid bodies.
Least Favorite Character: Samwa the alien who they are there to rescue who doesn’t want to be rescued. He has good reason for what he does. But he’s going to get all of them killed and worsen an already hot war.
Hmm Moments: I like the dive and hide and run and strike aspects. The sitting duck aspect of it is maddening...and I’m not inside the submarine in an alien ocean being depth charged to hell and gone.
The Unexpected: This one has that “Captain there be whales here” feel. I love that.
Missed Opportunity: I wanted Nurys and the Colorado to blow hell out of all of them. At least she got that mothership.
Last Page Sound: Favorite of the collection, so far.
Conclusions I’ve Drawn: Seems like all out war between the Lits, the Glicks, Humans and the Turuchs is a foregone conclusion in this universe. _________________________________________________ Boomers by J. R. Dunn
Hmm Moments: US vs USSR in space. Well...US vs derelict Soviet spacecraft with nuclear weapons onboard post fall of Communism. ...with some KGB deadender crews wanting to bring back the glory of the Fatherland. Flashback-ish.
A runaway impulse vessel that was supposed to be one place but was halfway across the system from its intended destination.
Of course, it’s the KGB. _________________________________________________ Hate in the Darkness by Michael Z Williamson
The Feel: This one has an odd feel to it. The command and control of the Freehold ship is odd...un-Navy like.
Least Favorite Character: Metzger. Mr I-have-to-eat/I-have-to-sleep after a whole 30 seconds or page and a half of action. Meh.
Meh / PFFT Moments: The bridge crew conversations on both the aggressor and the defenders ships were a bit too cardboard for me.
Editorial Assessment: An editor should have stood a bit closer to this story. _________________________________________________ The Stars are Silent by Gray Rinehart
Hmm Moments: So, the Tigris got her ass kicked by the Kellador in a surprise attack.
Their orbit is going to betray them a long time before they get a chance to fix their C-Drive. They’re in trouble. And an invasion force is emerging beyond the star that is hiding them, for the moment. Damn. That’s good stuff.
WTF Moments: Ambush or full on invasion. The crew of the injured Tigris looks to be in for hell.
Last Page Sound: Favorite story so far.
Things I’d Like to See: Wish we got more of this story.
The new skipper recovered from his shellshock. And the ongoing war against the Kellador. _________________________________________________ Excerpts from Two Lives by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Juxtaposition: Love story...tragedy...death.
The Unexpected: Didn’t see that coming. _________________________________________________ Icebreaker by Dave Bara
Favorite Character: Ramos is Ahad. You don’t realize that until halfway through.
Hmm Moments: An overmatched sub hunt in the seas of Europa. Nice.
Questions I’m Left With: You are left with a pretty big question at the end of this one. _________________________________________________ Try Not to Kill Us All by Joelle Presby
Favorite Concept: Humans building their next level civilization on recycled bits of alien tech and material left behind is wholly within character. The aliens trying to recycle anything left behind so that no aliens get ahold of said tech makes sense too. The two ideals crashing into each other makes for good drama.
Hmm Moments: That’s good worldbuilding. The human cultists worshipping aliens makes total sense, knowing humans. I’m looking at you Ancient Astronaut Theorists.
With as badassed as they built the cleaners up to be, these people should probably hit the gas and get the hell out of that system. But intelligence isn’t humanity’s strongest attribute in most sci fi stories.
Meh / PFFT Moments: With only 5 stories to go to the end of the collection, yes, stuff has blown up. But there hasn’t been very much ship-to-ship combat. And no fleet action to speak of.
Last Page Sound: I liked this one. Well done. _________________________________________________ Skipjack by Susan R Matthews
Hmm Moments: Something is off about the Skipjack’s crew. Even beyond their happy gas environment.
Last Page Sound: That’s sneaky and wonderful and tragic. Warriors with honor subservient to faceless nobodies without honor and the onrushing end where the nobodies got fooled. _________________________________________________ Homecoming by Robert Buettner
Favorite Quote: “I know what it means. I’m a drunk, not illiterate.” Greatness.
Favorite Concept: Referring to the brass as chair commandos is great.
Last Page Sound: That’s a good story.
Questions I’m Left With: No mention of what happened to and with the Wiechesian Separatists both on the ship and back on the Ice Age world the refugees had escaped. _________________________________________________ Not Made for Us by Christoper Ruocchio
Favorite Concept: Deep sleep soldiers going hotspot to hotspot putting down insurrection and invading and such in a Roman-esque setting amongst the stars.
Meh / PFFT Moments: The joining up that Carax did, purportedly for his wife and son doesn’t wash when placed in context to his being a popsicle out of time and touch with that family he left behind. Them probably being long dead as he cold sleeps his way through the years between battles.
Juxtaposition: Aren’t a soldier’s enemies always demons when they are described in the heat of battle? Heroes and villains, good guys and bad guys, angels and demons...all comes down to who survives and who writes the history.
Get Off My Lawn: I don’t know...the whole life is life motif when they’d just found a human who’d been cooked and put on the dinner table. I don’t know about that peace gesture Carax was engaging in before the other centurions caught up and saved his ass. _________________________________________________ A Tale of the Great Trek War Aboard the Starship Persistence by Brendan DuBois
Favorite Concept: Mutiny and generational war between members of the crew, tribal, bringing the conflicts of earth with them into the stars and the distant future. Humans being humans.
Meh / PFFT Moments: That doesn't belong in a book called Star Destroyers. Sigh
The Unexpected: Oh geez, that's what TREK is? Damn.
Get Off My Lawn: That's what they're killing each other over? Really? _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________
Meh / PFFT Moments: Considering that this was called Star Destroyers there needed to be more stuff blowing up and ship to ship fighting.
Last Page Sound: There were good shorts peppered throughout this collection. Some were meh. But mostly there were good. Some, even, great.
I like the collection. By and large it wasn't about star destroyers. There were ships in every story. Some good. Some great. Some meh _________________________________________________ ( )
"In space, size matters. Boomers. Ships of the Line. Star Destroyers. The bigger the ship, the better the bang. From the dawn of history onward, commanding the most powerful ship around has been a dream of admirals, sultans, emperors, kings, generalissimos, and sea captains everywhere. For what the intimidation factor alone doesn't achieve, a massive barrage from super-weapons probably will. Thus it was, and ever shall be, even into the distant future. From the oceans of Earth, to beneath the ice of Europa, to the distant reaches of galactic empires, it is the great warships and their crews that sometimes keep civilization safe for the rest of us -- but sometimes become an extinction-level event in and of themselves"--Back cover.
)
Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni...
(3.83)
1
Author: Tony Daniel(editor), Christopher Ruocchio(editor), various authors
Publisher: Baen Books
Publishing Date: 2018
Pgs: 468
Dewey: PBK F STAT
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
_________________________________________________
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:
Heavy steel in space. Ships of the Line. Destroyers. Dreadnoughts. Super weapons. From the oceans of Earth to the icy seas of Europa and the distant lights farthest from the sky, warships and their crew carry out their duties facing the enemy wherever they may encounter them. Hurling steel and plasma and laser light across the medium of space, warfare among the stars.
_________________________________________________
Genre:
Space Opera
Science Fiction
Militaria
War
Why this book:
It's about space battleships and fleet action. It's my kind of stuff. Things blow up.
_________________________________________________
Superweapon by David Drake
The Feel:
First jump out of the gate and they are sitting at a Court of Inquiry, without lawyers or a reading of rights. Those surveyors are going to be lucky to walk out of this, monumental, historic find or not.
Favorite Character:
The giant ship is already a character in the story just from its description in the inquiry.
Least Favorite Character:
Both Balthaus and Rice. Disrespect will surely get them everywhere as Kearny slowly loses his mind trying to keep them all out of prison for just doing their jobs, but not up to Defense’s standards. Even though out in the void, the Survey Service doesn’t report to the Defense Department.
...course I don’t like any of the stuffed shirts questioning them at that Court of Inquiry either.
Hmm Moments:
Wonder if Tadeko ran fast enough to stop The Shield coming online. Wonder if The Shield would decide that instead of running and hiding it does what it's designed for and starts killing the people that sent it out into space, proactively protecting itself. All fun and games until your killing machines turn on you.
Wisdom:
Intelligence is intelligence whether it’s organic or artificial. Selling it short is a sure way to end up surprised in bad ways.
Juxtaposition:
Like the jux of the Earthlings with the ancient aliens and what could happen, what would happen, what can happen.
_________________________________________________
A Sudden Stop by Steve White
Favorite Concept:
A British Empire that flourished beyond the modern era. A world where the American Revolution had a very different outcome. An Earth where various nation-states have interstellar navies and space battleships. That’s good worldbuilding.
The Sigh:
And the helmsman/cyberpunk hero is a racist. ~isms when you are dealing with fictional species is one thing, probably not a good thing, but it’s one thing. It’s quite another when you are speaking about humans and using racial epithets that are actually in use. Rubs the wrong way and grates on the sense of the reader. And then, the excuse of “it’s what they call themselves”. Nope, not flying.
Juxtaposition:
After the great worldbuilding, the main character meets an old friend and their conversation takes a cudgel to that worldbuilding I was so enamored of earlier. They clear blue sky in their first acquaintance starts debating 100s of years of alternate history, racial relations, and the Declaration of Independence.
_________________________________________________
Pacing:
The story hits a roadblock when the main character engages in a conversational flashback on the entire history of the alternate history British Empire and its relations to its North American subjects, rebels, and whether/when slavery ended. It’s a roadblock that stops down the nascent story’s flow. If that’s the story that White wanted to tell, then that’s the story he should’ve told.
There are a couple points where the story flow has all the life sucked out of it. Almost to the degree that I’m thinking of giving up on this story and moving on to the next.
Last Page Sound:
Meh, there was potential, largely wasted. Disappointed. The story had a good hook. The worldbuilding was great.
Author Assessment:
I expected better from the guy who has been writing the Starfire series. I’ve got the next in that series on request from the library. I hope it lives up to it’s past. We’ll see. I was looking forward to reading the series associated with this short. I’m out now.
Editorial Assessment:
An editor should have questioned if that was really necessary.
_________________________________________________
Another Solution by Mark L Van Name
Meh / PFFT Moments:
Another solution is about the most un-space-battleship story and the history of space battleship stories. I guess it belongs in the collection but stuff doesn't blow up. More an A. I. or Tech-Gone-Wild story or a Foolish-Humans-Thinking-Their-The-Smartest story.
The Sigh:
Not about this short, but more about the whole collection. I've noticed that I'm about a fifth of the way through the book and I'm not getting flush-the-missile-racks and cannon fire and standing-on-the-burning-deck type stories which is kind of what I wanted.
_________________________________________________
The Magnolia Incident by Mike Kupari
Hmm Moments:
I love letters home from the front stories. And this one was well written.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
The fight is 95% off screen.
Wisdom:
The fear of annihilation makes Man seek security at the expense of freedom. That is nationalist barbarism.
_________________________________________________
A Helping Hand by Jody Lynn Nye
The Feel:
I love the alien ocean trope. Especially when I like the submarine/starship similarity genre too.
Favorite Character:
The Deeps. Alien whales who look like giant bacteria with solid bodies.
Least Favorite Character:
Samwa the alien who they are there to rescue who doesn’t want to be rescued. He has good reason for what he does. But he’s going to get all of them killed and worsen an already hot war.
Hmm Moments:
I like the dive and hide and run and strike aspects. The sitting duck aspect of it is maddening...and I’m not inside the submarine in an alien ocean being depth charged to hell and gone.
The Unexpected:
This one has that “Captain there be whales here” feel. I love that.
Missed Opportunity:
I wanted Nurys and the Colorado to blow hell out of all of them. At least she got that mothership.
Last Page Sound:
Favorite of the collection, so far.
Conclusions I’ve Drawn:
Seems like all out war between the Lits, the Glicks, Humans and the Turuchs is a foregone conclusion in this universe.
_________________________________________________
Boomers by J. R. Dunn
Favorite Concept:
Commando ship boarding party, nice.
Hmm Moments:
US vs USSR in space. Well...US vs derelict Soviet spacecraft with nuclear weapons onboard post fall of Communism. ...with some KGB deadender crews wanting to bring back the glory of the Fatherland. Flashback-ish.
A runaway impulse vessel that was supposed to be one place but was halfway across the system from its intended destination.
Of course, it’s the KGB.
_________________________________________________
Hate in the Darkness by Michael Z Williamson
The Feel:
This one has an odd feel to it. The command and control of the Freehold ship is odd...un-Navy like.
Least Favorite Character:
Metzger. Mr I-have-to-eat/I-have-to-sleep after a whole 30 seconds or page and a half of action. Meh.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
The bridge crew conversations on both the aggressor and the defenders ships were a bit too cardboard for me.
Editorial Assessment:
An editor should have stood a bit closer to this story.
_________________________________________________
The Stars are Silent by Gray Rinehart
Hmm Moments:
So, the Tigris got her ass kicked by the Kellador in a surprise attack.
Their orbit is going to betray them a long time before they get a chance to fix their C-Drive. They’re in trouble. And an invasion force is emerging beyond the star that is hiding them, for the moment. Damn. That’s good stuff.
WTF Moments:
Ambush or full on invasion. The crew of the injured Tigris looks to be in for hell.
Last Page Sound:
Favorite story so far.
Things I’d Like to See:
Wish we got more of this story.
The new skipper recovered from his shellshock. And the ongoing war against the Kellador.
_________________________________________________
Excerpts from Two Lives by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Juxtaposition:
Love story...tragedy...death.
The Unexpected:
Didn’t see that coming.
_________________________________________________
Icebreaker by Dave Bara
Favorite Character:
Ramos is Ahad. You don’t realize that until halfway through.
Hmm Moments:
An overmatched sub hunt in the seas of Europa. Nice.
Questions I’m Left With:
You are left with a pretty big question at the end of this one.
_________________________________________________
Try Not to Kill Us All by Joelle Presby
Favorite Concept:
Humans building their next level civilization on recycled bits of alien tech and material left behind is wholly within character. The aliens trying to recycle anything left behind so that no aliens get ahold of said tech makes sense too. The two ideals crashing into each other makes for good drama.
Hmm Moments:
That’s good worldbuilding. The human cultists worshipping aliens makes total sense, knowing humans. I’m looking at you Ancient Astronaut Theorists.
With as badassed as they built the cleaners up to be, these people should probably hit the gas and get the hell out of that system. But intelligence isn’t humanity’s strongest attribute in most sci fi stories.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
With only 5 stories to go to the end of the collection, yes, stuff has blown up. But there hasn’t been very much ship-to-ship combat. And no fleet action to speak of.
Last Page Sound:
I liked this one. Well done.
_________________________________________________
Skipjack by Susan R Matthews
Hmm Moments:
Something is off about the Skipjack’s crew. Even beyond their happy gas environment.
Last Page Sound:
That’s sneaky and wonderful and tragic. Warriors with honor subservient to faceless nobodies without honor and the onrushing end where the nobodies got fooled.
_________________________________________________
Homecoming by Robert Buettner
Favorite Quote:
“I know what it means. I’m a drunk, not illiterate.” Greatness.
Favorite Concept:
Referring to the brass as chair commandos is great.
Last Page Sound:
That’s a good story.
Questions I’m Left With:
No mention of what happened to and with the Wiechesian Separatists both on the ship and back on the Ice Age world the refugees had escaped.
_________________________________________________
Not Made for Us by Christoper Ruocchio
Favorite Concept:
Deep sleep soldiers going hotspot to hotspot putting down insurrection and invading and such in a Roman-esque setting amongst the stars.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
The joining up that Carax did, purportedly for his wife and son doesn’t wash when placed in context to his being a popsicle out of time and touch with that family he left behind. Them probably being long dead as he cold sleeps his way through the years between battles.
Juxtaposition:
Aren’t a soldier’s enemies always demons when they are described in the heat of battle? Heroes and villains, good guys and bad guys, angels and demons...all comes down to who survives and who writes the history.
Get Off My Lawn:
I don’t know...the whole life is life motif when they’d just found a human who’d been cooked and put on the dinner table. I don’t know about that peace gesture Carax was engaging in before the other centurions caught up and saved his ass.
_________________________________________________
A Tale of the Great Trek War Aboard the Starship Persistence by Brendan DuBois
Favorite Concept:
Mutiny and generational war between members of the crew, tribal, bringing the conflicts of earth with them into the stars and the distant future. Humans being humans.
Meh / PFFT Moments:
That doesn't belong in a book called Star Destroyers. Sigh
The Unexpected:
Oh geez, that's what TREK is? Damn.
Get Off My Lawn:
That's what they're killing each other over? Really?
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Meh / PFFT Moments:
Considering that this was called Star Destroyers there needed to be more stuff blowing up and ship to ship fighting.
Last Page Sound:
There were good shorts peppered throughout this collection. Some were meh. But mostly there were good. Some, even, great.
I like the collection. By and large it wasn't about star destroyers. There were ships in every story. Some good. Some great. Some meh
_________________________________________________ (