The expanse of space is vast, cold and lifeless. Deep in a sense – or at least I am going to say that, to use in the next line: Starship Eternal is batting 0.500. Dare to guess which way? Don’t be an optimist.
The book follows a space marine fighter pilot (wait, what?) and god’s gift to women as he deals with the cost of fame for a heroic action that he did not commit. More or less he’s now a mascot for his Alliance, being used to drive recruits in a little interstellar spat with a neighbouring empire known as the Federation. After an attempted assassination, the microchip in Mitchell’s head is damaged and he starts hearing “find the Goliath,” at the most inconvenient of times. From here the book jumps down the trope ladder, plays with some time-travel concepts, and delves into the “race to save humanity” trip that probably intrigued you to take a look at this novel in the first place.
The expanse of space is vast, cold and lifeless. Deep in a sense – or at least I am going to say that, to use in the next line: Starship Eternal is batting 0.500. Dare to guess which way? Don’t be an optimist.
Forbes has some interesting ideas, but the novel is hampered by a lack of execution. The writing while technically adequate, it is bland and banal, and the storytelling and characterization is awful. Mitchel is insufferable, and cliché. All of the other characters are forgettable. Moreover moments which are supposed to have emotional weight, or be triumphant, just come across as cringey. Wading through those scenes where the crew of his adopted home and space ship scream “riggah” made me want to eat my own arm to escape.
Still all of this would be forgivable if the action – something that should be the meat of a novel like this – was less skip-worthy. Going a bit meta, per the tagline “eternity would be boring, so is this,” it’s not that there isn’t action. There is plenty of action. Boring, unbelievable, nonsensical action that rips from Gundam as much as it does Groundhog’s Day. Stay with me on that last remark. I am not saying that Mitchel is waking up constantly being serenaded by the same Sonny and Cher song over, and over. More or less all the battles seem copy and pasted.
Starship Eternal is cartoonish, clumsily plotted, and borderline misogynistic. And really, the only thing more unbelievable than the science is the interactions of the characters. My final suggestion for those looking for good space opera is to wait, rather than spending eternity trying to enjoy this starship ride.
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