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David McK (3773 KP) rated Dragonflight in Books

Apr 11, 2021  
Dragonflight
Dragonflight
Anne McCaffrey | 1968 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
4
7.8 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
OK, so first things first: this novel is older than I am (by about 10 years or so)

First published in 1968, I believe.

As such, it's of a very different time than today.

It's also undoubtedly a strange amalgam of science fiction (they're on a different planet, people!) and fantasy, leaning - I felt - more towards the latter than the former.

It also has, I believe, a strong following of people who thoroughly enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, I'm not one of them, finding it to be dull, boring and (mostly) bland, despite the initially intriguing setting. It also doesn't help that I didn't find any of the main characters to be all that interesting or even engaging - a cardinal sin, in my opinion. Characters don't necessarily have to be 'good' (see: Marvel's 'Loki'), but they do need to hold your attention!

Sorry, Ms McCaffrey - this just didn't really work for me.
  
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Cynthia Armistead (17 KP) rated Fantasy in Death (In Death, #30) in Books

Mar 1, 2018  
FI
Fantasy in Death (In Death, #30)
J.D. Robb | 2010
8
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>Fantasy in Death</i> is an interesting take on the death-by-gaming plot that has previously been done by a couple of fantasy and science fiction authors, most notably in Niven and Barnes' Dream Park series. I doubt that most of Robb's readers will be familiar with the other books, as they're probably coming from the romance world (crossing over from her Nora Roberts titles) instead of the science fiction genre.

What hit me the most, though, was nostalgia for the dot com boom. The portrayal of the hot start-up company with its open, cheerful offices full of tech toys and energy, well-paid employees on fire with ideas and enthusiasm happily burning the midnight oil to work on exciting projects&mdash;I remember those days! Okay, the technology wasn't as advanced as the stuff in the book, but I can relate.

I always enjoy the portrayal of Dallas and Roarke's relationship as a mature partnership. It is a bit clich&ecuted at this point that every case has some aspect that justifies bringing in Roarke as a civilian consultant, but it's part of the formula. The sex is somewhat paint by numbers by now, too, but as prolific as Robb/Roberts is, I'm wondering if she has templates for different series and she has her own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratemeyer_Syndicate">Stratemeyer Syndicate</a>-type operation going on somewhere. (I've never read anything but the Eve Dallas books, so please take that as the joke it's meant to be!)

I was a little disappointed in the reveal, as I felt that the bad guy was too obvious. I won't say more, as I don't want to give anything away. I'll probably continue reading the series, but I'm past feeling an urgent need to grab them as soon as they come out, and this definitely isn't one of the few series that I could re-read and enjoy.
  
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David McK (3773 KP) rated Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, #1) in Books

Jan 30, 2019  
Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, #1)
Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, #1)
Jack Campbell | 2006 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
While I doubt this novel is going to win any awards for literature, I have to say that it is a good enough read: not brilliant, but not terrible either.

Written by a ex-navy man, it's easy to see the influnece of his career in the pages: this is 'real' science-fiction, not science-fantasy, with the space battles obeying the laws of physics as we know them. The plot outline is also somewhat remniscient of the new series of BattleStar Galactica, with a smaller rag-tag force being chased by a numerically superior foe. Ironically, this book was first released at around the same time as that series came on TV, with (in this edition) the author claiming that that WAS NOT an inspiration (in the interview at the end), as if he'd been thinking of BSG it woud've been the older series.

With the way the book opens I must also admit that, at first, I thought I'd missed something: the best corollary I can think of is as if the film Aliens (that's the one with the 'S') had started without the whole prologue of them finding Ripleys life pod: you'd be able to infer what had happened, but would be feeling a bit lost at first.