The Ship Avenged

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: A suspenseful book, with a touch of humor and romance. Definately a keeper!

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy the Hardback!
Review: I am a diehard Stirling fan, and this is the weakest of his books. "The City who Fought" was wonderful, and this is just uninspired. I conjecture that working out of his own universe took its toll. Go back and read any of his other books, and give this one a miss. Even Joat is toned down. When she confronts her Uncle, all she does is punch him in the nose!!. Not the old rip their eyes out Joat we knew and loved in "City who Fought"

Rating:
Summary: A Very good read.
Review: I have read all of the 'ship' series.I do believe that this book wraps up a lot of loose ends from The City Who Fought.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad read, but...
Review: I really enjoyed "The City Who Fought", especially the character of Joat, so I was thrilled when I finally found out there was a sequel. Well...it was all right. Not bad, not great, certainly not what it could have been. All the right moves were made in the beginning to set up a truly fascinating read, but it just never came together. The end of the book is riddled with plotholes and dangling plot lines that the author tried to tie up neatly at the end, but just...didn't. It wasn't just that the romance felt horribly contrived, but ALL the character relationships towards the end started feeling like actors reading lines that didn't quite add up. And unfortunately, some of the most important action of all was glossed over by an "overview" last chapter that left me screaming. The book would've benefitted from an extra fifty pages or so to tie up all the complications that were brought in at the last minute.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad read, but...
Review: I really enjoyed "The City Who Fought", especially the character of Joat, so I was thrilled when I finally found out there was a sequel. Well...it was all right. Not bad, not great, certainly not what it could have been. All the right moves were made in the beginning to set up a truly fascinating read, but it just never came together. The end of the book is riddled with plotholes and dangling plot lines that the author tried to tie up neatly at the end, but just...didn't. It wasn't just that the romance felt horribly contrived, but ALL the character relationships towards the end started feeling like actors reading lines that didn't quite add up. And unfortunately, some of the most important action of all was glossed over by an "overview" last chapter that left me screaming. The book would've benefitted from an extra fifty pages or so to tie up all the complications that were brought in at the last minute.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad read, but...
Review: I really enjoyed "The City Who Fought", especially the character of Joat, so I was thrilled when I finally found out there was a sequel. Well...it was all right. Not bad, not great, certainly not what it could have been. All the right moves were made in the beginning to set up a truly fascinating read, but it just never came together. The end of the book is riddled with plotholes and dangling plot lines that the author tried to tie up neatly at the end, but just...didn't. It wasn't just that the romance felt horribly contrived, but ALL the character relationships towards the end started feeling like actors reading lines that didn't quite add up. And unfortunately, some of the most important action of all was glossed over by an "overview" last chapter that left me screaming. The book would've benefitted from an extra fifty pages or so to tie up all the complications that were brought in at the last minute.

Rating:
Summary: The Jack of All Trades grows up
Review: In this authorized sequel to McCaffrey & Stirling's "The City Who Fought," it's 10 years since the barbarian spacegoing raiders the Kolnari captured Space Station SSS-900-C and were sent scurrying with tails between legs by Simeon, the Brain that runs it, and Joat, the 11-year-old technodemon who lurked in its conduits. In gratitude, Simeon and his Brawn, Stationmaster Channa Hap, adopted Joat and saw that she received an education. Now Joat is out on her own, a dropout from Brawn school with a small ship called "WYAL" (for While You Ain't Lookin') and her very own AI, Rand, who, while not a Brain, functions almost as well as one.

Unfortunately the Kolnari have neither forgotten nor forgiven their defeat, and their warlord, Belazir t'Marid, has succeeded in acquiring a virus that attacks the cognitive centers of the brain and, in effect, brings on a kind of artificial Alzheimer's Disease. To spread it, he must create a human carrier, then return that carrier to his own planet and wait for the virus to do its work. The carrier he selects is Amos bin Sierra Nueva, Prophet and leader of the religiously-oriented colony world of Bethel, which played a major role in the Kolnari defeat a decade before. So that Amos can't warn his people of his state, Belazir injects him with a paralyzing agent and advertises, through his underground contacts, for a free ship to carry his "package" home. The "WYAL"--which, unknown to Belazir, has been hired by Central Worlds master spy Bros Sperin to look into the man Belazir uses as a contact and fence--responds, and in short order the fate of Bethel, Station Simeon, and much of the civilized Galaxy hangs on Joat, Rand, Sperin, a Sondee scientist named Seg !T'sel, Joat's one crewmember Alvec, and Amos's close friend and head of security, Joseph.

Anyone who liked Han Solo should be pleased to make the acquaintance of the adult Joat, who is just as shifty and morally ambiguous as the world's most famous Corellian and even better with techie toys. And the Kolnari, like the Imperials who were Solo's bugaboo, are a race of villains you love to hate--utterly evil, yet in a way comprehensible. Seg the Sondee--a romantic with James-Bondworthy dreams of the glamor of espionage, "working on an opera in his spare time" (as practically every Sondee is), and a highly skilled medic and computerman--is another great original character. Though the romantic attraction between Bros and Joat seems rather forced, the story itself is convoluted and fast-moving, with lots of military throwaway such as might be expected from Stirling. A good entry into the Brain & Brawn series.

Rating:
Summary: This is worth reading!
Review: Oh, cease your idiotic propagandized drivel, you people who have no understanding of a well-written novel. So what if S.M. Stirling can't write a convincing romance? The rest of the book is good. The plot is interesting, and the end is maybe a little sappy, but that's just becaues Stirling can't write romance. Big deal. The book is good and carries you along with it. The Kolnari are well represented, the characters are well-developed, and overall the book is well-written, except for Stirling's attempt at romance. That's no big deal, even romance writers can't write good romance. People still read those idiotic excuses for books, and those don't have any redeeming virtues.

Rating:
Summary: Not a brainship, not avenged
Review: Set in McCaffrey's "Brainship Universe" the book starts off well, bringing onstage the now 23 year old, smart and pretty, blonde JOAT with her ship WYAL (not a brainship but with a likable AI). The first three quarters of the book move right along, not too many characters, neatly divided between the good and the bad, and a clear if somewhat simple plot. Then, when the story is set for a nice (if perhaps unimaginative) finish, suddenly a lot of complications are thrown in as if the writer forgot his 101 writing class (open story: main character suddenly in trouble and has to do something to get out of trouble, take it from there till main character is out of trouble). From then on there is to much trouble for JOAT to do anything about it, nothing makes sense, everybody does just the opposite of what they promised to do and JOAT is thrown back and forth like a rag dol, boom, fortunately she lands in the black, somehow (how?). End of book.

Rating:
Summary: Not a brainship, not avenged
Review: Set in McCaffrey's "Brainship Universe" the book starts off well, bringing onstage the now 23 year old, smart and pretty, blonde JOAT with her ship WYAL (not a brainship but with a likable AI). The first three quarters of the book move right along, not too many characters, neatly divided between the good and the bad, and a clear if somewhat simple plot. Then, when the story is set for a nice (if perhaps unimaginative) finish, suddenly a lot of complications are thrown in as if the writer forgot his 101 writing class (open story: main character suddenly in trouble and has to do something to get out of trouble, take it from there till main character is out of trouble). From then on there is to much trouble for JOAT to do anything about it, nothing makes sense, everybody does just the opposite of what they promised to do and JOAT is thrown back and forth like a rag dol, boom, fortunately she lands in the black, somehow (how?). End of book.