Review: Battle Cruiser

Battle Cruiser by B.V. Larson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm giving Battle Cruiser three stars because of what it could have been. I liked the gist of the plot but the execution was offputting. I found the stiff, formal, Victorian dialogue out of place for a futuristic Earth, but I suppose it's possible after a reformation as offsetting as something like a Carrington Event. The sticking point is the recovery timeline.  If the Carrington Event were as severe as portrayed, the redevelopment of advanced technologies (rejuvenation drugs, personal forcefields, and spaceflight itself) would indicate an incredibly steep developmental curve with an unreal amount of progress achieved in a short amount of time.

I found the characters thin and the love interest contrived in such a way as to be entirely unrealistic. The only character I really found interesting enough to care about was the Beta Female, Zye. Regardless of the thin characters and sometimes inexplicable criticism/outright obstructionism of the main character for no other reason than his lineage, I could see where the details of the plot could have taken a better course and made this a terrific story.

Overall, the book felt rushed with a series of contrived conveniences to make the storytelling easy and predictable.

Royce Sears
www.roycesears.com

View all my reviews