Review: Nick Webb - Constitution

[Brian G Turner]

I'll often check out sample chapters for books Amazon recommends. Usually I see weak writing in the first paragraph, and basic technical problems on the first page: poor use of POV, infodumps, lack of context or stakes or conflict.

But Constitution by Nick Webb surprised me. Not only was the prose tight and the pace good, but there was a masterful degree of character building - often rare in Military SF full stop, let alone for minor characters. And there was a wonderful attention to structure.

The pace is furious. There's conflict and tension on every page - heck, Webb goes out of his way to create it to the point that it flirts with farce, as any opportunity for things to go wrong is fully exploited.

Simply put, the story has an alien invasion headed toward Earth, and the only ship with a chance in shell of stopping it is an outdated piece of junk, captained by a grumpy pensioner and his alcoholic commanding officer - a ship that is currently being stripped down of all offensive ability, ready to be decommissioned and turned into a museum...

As a piece of Military SF it truly stands out from what I've already read in that subgenre.

However, it does have it's flaws. There are parts of the story that touch so close to Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek to be almost derivative - I mean, a Chief Engineer named Scott? Additionally, Webb really misses out on opportunities for scientific realism - after reading Jack Campell's Lost Fleet series this year I'm desperate to see other SF writers in general acknowledge the problems of time delay and distance in space.

All that aside, I found Constitution to be an engaging and hugely entertaining novel. The challenge now is to see whether Webb can maintain the same break-neck standard of pace and tension through the rest of this series.

 

[ratsy]

Glad you liked it Brian. He does keep the pace in the next one. I think I read each of them in a couple days, which is somewhat unusual for me. It's funny because I've heard many others say it is Battlestar Galactica style, but I have never seen it, and SF is fairly new to me so I found it engaging and original. I am looking forward to the next one. These books are massive successes, and I think Warrior climbed as high as #60 overall on amazon when it debuted.

 

[Vertigo]

Interesting Brian, I might add to my (ever-growing) wish list.

 

[ralphkern]

Here is an interview I did with the author, Nick Webb awhile back.

Nick Webb author of Constitution interviewed by Ralph Kern

 

[J Riff]

He works for NASA.

 

[Brian G Turner]

an alien invasion headed toward Earth, and the only ship with a chance in shell of stopping it is an outdated piece of junk, captained by a grumpy pensioner and his alcoholic commanding officer - a ship that is currently being stripped down of all offensive ability, ready to be decommissioned and turned into a museum...

Just to mention Constitution by Nick Webb is currently 99p on Amazon.co.uk:
Constitution: Book 1 of the Legacy Fleet Trilogy: Volume 1: Amazon.co.uk: Nick Webb: 9781514769935: Books

If you haven't tried it yet, at this price it's definitely worth a look.

 

[Vertigo]

Just to mention Constitution by Nick Webb is currently 99p on Amazon.co.uk:
Constitution: Book 1 of the Legacy Fleet Trilogy: Volume 1: Amazon.co.uk: Nick Webb: 9781514769935: Books

If you haven't tried it yet, at this price it's definitely worth a look.

Thanks for that Brian; it has now been moved from my to read list to my owned pile. Not sure when it'll make it to the top of that (I've already got rather too many series on the go) and, whilst I'm worried about how much it sounds like a Battlestar copy, at 99p I'm willing to take the chance!

 

[Vertigo]

Hmm, well, I'm not too sure how to put this as quite a few people here (and on Goodreads) seem to really like this book and I don't want to ruffle any feathers but I'm afraid I thought it was dreadful. I'll not do a review as such (just not worth the bother) but I will list a number of reasons why I thought it was so bad.

It was certainly fast paced - can't complain there - and I made it even faster paced as after the first 100 pages I switched to really just skimming my way through it.

1. there were many dodgy bits of pseudo science. Okay so no one's claiming this to be hard SF but Nick Webb's meant to be a scientist working on lightweight materials for space craft. I'd have expected more. For example he has "Less than a Planck-second, and therefore imperceptible..." I have no knowledge of and can find no reference to such a thing as a 'planck-second.' There is, however, a Planck time which is supposed to be the "smallest usable time difference" so you can't have anything less than it.

2. Many of the main characters, including the spaceship Constitution, are absolutely lifted straight out of Battlestar Galactica; both of them; I was just waiting for Boxy to make an appearance. Not the story possibly, thought some elements of that as well.

3. The characters' dialogue is also lifted from Battlestar Galactica after a quick rinse through a mad WWII B movie. It was so gung ho it was painful.

4. The other lifted element seemed to be from all those old disaster movies; every time the reader is given some heart warming bit of family back story you just know that person is for the chop.

5. So what about the plot? What plot? I mean aliens invade, there's one big battle which the good guys win against all the odds and that's about it. Oh I forgot there's the human traitors helping the aliens. Where could that bit have come from I wonder?

6. An XO might possibly address their captain by his first name in private but on the bridge. This is not a friendly club, this is a military ship no matter how run down it and its officers might be. The same is done at all levels of the hierarchy.

7. The aliens have far superior technology (this is drummed into our heads many times over) and they certainly seem to in every case except our little squad of fighters which seem to achieve a kill rate of about 100 to 1. Every time one of them touches their gun triggers multiple alien spaceships are obliterated and yet they really only lose one pilot in their two engagements (the other two are sent on suicide runs which doesn't really count).

8. Finally on my reader it was 258 pages and in that fairly moderate size of book he managed to cram in 11 POVs. Admittedly he didn't head hop within scenes but 11 is just too much for such a short book. It did, I suppose, let him keep the narrative in the action rather than some of it having to be second-hand.

I'm sorry but, for me, the only thing going for this book is it's fast pace - I finished quickly before suffering too much pain.

I know some of you folk liked this book a lot but listen @ralphkern your writing is way better than this. Seriously!!!

 

[Brian G Turner]

I don't want to ruffle any feathers but I'm afraid I thought it was dreadful.

It's okay, plenty of different tastes on the forums.

It's interesting that you shared a number of criticisms, but had far less tolerance for them. I wonder if that's because you're widely read in military SF and are tired of seeing the same tropes and inspirations mined?

 

[Vertigo]

That's very possible, Brian. Maybe particularly so as regards my criticism of the gung ho dialogue and narrative for that matter. It seemed to me that half the time everyone was treating it like a game and then coming all over surprised and shocked when their friends died. I know there is a certain amount of that in real life but, speaking as someone who spent a little while in the army, this felt way way over the top. Maybe it isn't for Americans, I don't know. But then I've never got that same gung ho feeling from the Weber books for example. In fact I've not even had it from the Bujold Vorkosigan books which run much closer to that style. However much of it felt to me like just plain bad writing. I meant it when I made the comparison with Ralph!

Also to be fair that sounds a bit like I'm just complaining about how he wrote the fighter sequences (which I definitely found to be some of the weakest scenes) but it is also a reference to scenes like Granger and Yarborough (I think) chucking back two finger of whiskey in one shot several times over in a meeting about the future of the Constitution. I'm not objecting to two old friends having a drink but the way it was described put me in mind of a bad western this time with the cowboys stood at the bar chucking back their whiskeys. And that was just typical of so many other scenes. I simply found the writing grated badly with me; it was the sort of writing I'd expect if I was reading a '70s pulp SF shoot 'em up story. And it's also why I find so few of those old SF books live up to my memory of them.

 

[ratsy]

Well Ralph did just have a short story published in The Legacy Fleet anthology too...

 

[Vertigo]

Well Ralph did just have a short story published in The Legacy Fleet anthology too...

Indeed, so I noticed. And I suspect that if I read the anthology the comparison would be all the more obvious. Though maybe for that Ralph would tailor his style to suit. I'm afraid, though, I'm unlikely to be finding out...

 

[Brian G Turner]

lifted straight out of Battlestar Galactica

I'm currently rewatching the Battlestar Galactica miniseries, and while I did remember the ship being decommissioned I hadn't remembered it being turned into a museum - which is the opening plot point for this story.