What I've been reading this week...
The blurb on the cover of Dauntless, the first book in the Lost Fleet series, says that Jack Campbell writes some of the best military science-fiction around. Perhaps so, but if that's true, it doesn't say much for the sub-genre.
I've read several reviews of the book along the lines that the plot is thin, the main character is one-dimensional and that the other characters are just sketches, yet it pulls you in and gets you to read on. I got about half-way through and thought 'Yes, they're right. There's very little to this, but I bear this.' And then I realised that I was being asked to spend my time and energy - and let's face it, with a long series of books - my money, on something that was merely tolerable. Life isn't long enough for that - there are too many decent books out there that I haven't read.
I've got nothing against poor writing as long as it's enjoyable, but this isn't. I stopped there, put it on the pile for the charity shop, and went in search of something better...
I wrote the above on Tuesday.
I don't know about the 'search for something better', but I started Robert Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon, a 1942 book of his that I hadn't come across before (though I suppose I've been reading his books for almost 35 years!).
And I carried on with The War on Hospital Ships.
Nothing. Which I know will come as a surprise to regular readers.
