I haven’t previously read any Mike Resnick book, but I was in the mood to read some space opera and came across the first book in Resnick’s Starship series, Starship: Mutiny. The book is a fun, fast paced military space opera full of ships fighting, military adventures and our rogue hero who the people love (and the bureaucracy hates). So, let’s see what’s happened.
Wilson Cole is the newest member of the starship Theodore Roosevelt, but he’s not thrilled about it. Cole is a highly decorated war hero, but his heroics have cost him numerous promotions and his lack of respect for the bureaucracy has had him demoted from Captain down to Commander (and Second Officer). The Theodore Roosevelt is a ship for malcontents. The Captain killed seven people after his family was killed, the First Officer is strictly by the book, regardless of whether the book is right or not and the rest of the crew is no better. There are a large number of drug users and discipline is nowhere to be found.
On is first watch on the bridge, Cole sees an enemy ship heading towards a friendly planet and decides to take action. His actions get the crew a citation and additional decorations for Cole. But neither the Captain or the First Officer are happy, since they believe he went around them and didn’t follow regulations. Cole doesn’t care. He wants to do his part to end the war regardless of what orders he was given. The ship is then moved to a new location, where Cole, this time with the Captain’s help, engages the enemy once again. The story continues like that until the Navy is forced to take action and decide what they are going to do with Cole. But Cole isn’t sure he wants to wait to find out.
The book is clearly space opera with Cole being the renegade hero who the people love and the authorities hate. The book treats the military hierarchy with contempt and isn’t enamored with the majority of the people on the Theodore Roosevelt. The final actions seem a little forced, but the plot points were needed to move us in the direction of the next novel. The characters are fairly wooden. The Captain (and one gunner) are the only characters who do something different than you could predict within 3 sentences of meeting them. The plot is very thin, a repetitive account of Cole seeing something, coming up with a wild ass guess as to what’s going on(which is proven to be correct), saving the day and getting in trouble for it. Cole himself is a bit of a wish fulfillment super officer who’s bound and determined to do his best regardless of what stands in his way. But it is a fun ride while you’re going along. If you’re looking for space opera, this isn’t a bad choice. Mildly recommended.
This post is part of the thread: Starship – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.