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. ( )

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.

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 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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )