This, the fourth book in Currie’s Odyssey One series, was a considerable disappointment to me. Weston has crashed to Earth in the Odyssey but, unlike the Odyssey itself, he has survived. The Drasin are falling to Earth and the outlook for mankind is looking grim. And Currie’s solution to this seems to be to fill all the action with Hoo Rah clichéd marines or marine wannabes constantly spitting out suitably gung ho one-liners and liberally sprinkling in lots of warm fuzzy “it’s all so desperate but we’ve just got to win and we’ll darn well go down fighting to do so.” The final insult being a pilot making all his own tactical decisions despite the ship’s captain sharing the bridge but, apparently, superfluous to the ship’s command. I liked the fact that the battle action in the previous books was measured and controlled. Yes, the ground fighting sequences and space fighter sequences did gravitate towards that sort of atmosphere but they didn’t dominate, making the books feel reasonably well balanced. This book didn’t find the same balance and I kept finding myself rolling my eyes at the apple pie and testosterone fuelled bad ass bravado.
And on top of that the book’s production felt much less well finished; there were far more typos than the previous books (though nowhere near as bad as some indies that I’ve read), bits of dodgy science and acronyms introduced but only first explained after being used for sometimes several chapters.
On the plus side the pacing was fast and all that clichéd action does, admittedly, create a level of excitement; though too cheaply for my taste. The setting is a good an interesting premise that has captured my interest and is probably the only thing that might keep me reading this series. However even here there are some major holes. Maybe explanations will be coming along later but, if so, there are a lot of holes that Curries is taking a very long to fill. If humans didn’t originate on Earth (which is a major part of this series’ premise) then how do we account for the fossil record? And how come no one on Earth seems to be questioning that fact? Did he really have to bring Gaia into play with the Earth being a sentient being in its own right? And how come Central, Priminae’s equivalent of Gaia, is the sentience of the planet they currently inhabit rather than the one they originated on? And how come the Priminae technology is not really all that much more advanced than terran technology when, ten thousand years previously, when their sun expanded and engulfed their planet, their technology was already so advanced that could create a shield around the entire planet to protect it from the plasma of the star’s outer layers where it continued to orbit?
I’m just not sure I have the patience to continue with this one when there are so many other good books out there waiting for me to read.
3/5 stars.
And on top of that the book’s production felt much less well finished; there were far more typos than the previous books (though nowhere near as bad as some indies that I’ve read), bits of dodgy science and acronyms introduced but only first explained after being used for sometimes several chapters.
On the plus side the pacing was fast and all that clichéd action does, admittedly, create a level of excitement; though too cheaply for my taste. The setting is a good an interesting premise that has captured my interest and is probably the only thing that might keep me reading this series. However even here there are some major holes. Maybe explanations will be coming along later but, if so, there are a lot of holes that Curries is taking a very long to fill. If humans didn’t originate on Earth (which is a major part of this series’ premise) then how do we account for the fossil record? And how come no one on Earth seems to be questioning that fact? Did he really have to bring Gaia into play with the Earth being a sentient being in its own right? And how come Central, Priminae’s equivalent of Gaia, is the sentience of the planet they currently inhabit rather than the one they originated on? And how come the Priminae technology is not really all that much more advanced than terran technology when, ten thousand years previously, when their sun expanded and engulfed their planet, their technology was already so advanced that could create a shield around the entire planet to protect it from the plasma of the star’s outer layers where it continued to orbit?
I’m just not sure I have the patience to continue with this one when there are so many other good books out there waiting for me to read.
3/5 stars.
