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Starliner
The Empress of Earth
Finest passenger liner in the galaxy —
Brightest link in the chain that binds the starflung civilization of the 23rd century—
Six thousand lives in a single hull, trembling through multiple universes to land on raw, often violent worlds, each with its own history and wonder —
The Empress of Earth
Neutral pawn in an interstellar war!
When hostile necessity knows no law, Ran Colville and the rest of the complement of the Empress of Earth must bring home their ship and the passengers entrusted to them. From the Captain on his bridge to the Cold Crewmen who work in conditions that differ from Hell only by name, they'll have their work cut out for them this voyage!
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
Finest passenger liner in the galaxy —
Brightest link in the chain that binds the starflung civilization of the 23rd century—
Six thousand lives in a single hull, trembling through multiple universes to land on raw, often violent worlds, each with its own history and wonder —
The Empress of Earth
Neutral pawn in an interstellar war!
When hostile necessity knows no law, Ran Colville and the rest of the complement of the Empress of Earth must bring home their ship and the passengers entrusted to them. From the Captain on his bridge to the Cold Crewmen who work in conditions that differ from Hell only by name, they'll have their work cut out for them this voyage!
At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).
314 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 1992
353 people are currently reading
1210 people want to read
About the author
David Drake
306 books886 followersDavid Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the major authors of the military science fiction genre.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 143 reviews
August 7, 2021
Still my favorite Drake novel, I think. Rings all my chimes, though it does get a bit graphic. Drake talks about it here, http://david-drake.com/2017/starliner/
"I conceived Starliner as classic space opera, a longer version of a typical novella from Startling Stories or even Astounding during the 1940s. I’ve always been fascinated by ocean liners, so I used the superliner Normandie of 1938 as the template for my starship."
Plus, the ebook is free! Good thing, since my old paperback is gone. Give it a try, even if you're not a regular Drake reader. Highly recommended.
"I conceived Starliner as classic space opera, a longer version of a typical novella from Startling Stories or even Astounding during the 1940s. I’ve always been fascinated by ocean liners, so I used the superliner Normandie of 1938 as the template for my starship."
Plus, the ebook is free! Good thing, since my old paperback is gone. Give it a try, even if you're not a regular Drake reader. Highly recommended.
January 30, 2013
Sort of "Love Boat" meets "Starship Troopers." An interesting, inventive story, but a hard-to-relate-to "hero." The twenty-year-old writing holds up well enough. The kind of motivation and action which might appeal to young teen boys.
Idiosyncratic paragraph-ation and punctuation, both intentional and accidental, made for hard reading. The text seems to have been OCR scanned and not proofread. I wish Baen Books would spend a little effort to get their ebooks right.
Still, a good read.
Idiosyncratic paragraph-ation and punctuation, both intentional and accidental, made for hard reading. The text seems to have been OCR scanned and not proofread. I wish Baen Books would spend a little effort to get their ebooks right.
Still, a good read.
December 17, 2017
another of my favorite D. Drake's novels - a standalone taking place on a starliner as in the title but with adventure, aliens and politics
January 22, 2014
-Clásica en su subgénero.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El Empress of Earth es un crucero espacial de línea de enormes proporciones, dedicado al transporte de pasajeros y perteneciente a una empresa privada, aunque la Federación Terrestre lo considera como un representante propio en muchos sentidos. Randall Park Colville, más conocido como Ran, acaba de incorporarse a su tripulación como tercer oficial después de haberse hecho a sí mismo y haber pasado por otros destinos con mucho menos glamur y debe familiarizarse con los usos y costumbre de una nave que ofrece varios niveles de lujo y comodidades a sus pasajeros, que normalmente pertenecen a razas y culturas muy diferentes y cuya singladura va a llevarles a una zona del cosmos que está en tensión prebélica.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. El Empress of Earth es un crucero espacial de línea de enormes proporciones, dedicado al transporte de pasajeros y perteneciente a una empresa privada, aunque la Federación Terrestre lo considera como un representante propio en muchos sentidos. Randall Park Colville, más conocido como Ran, acaba de incorporarse a su tripulación como tercer oficial después de haberse hecho a sí mismo y haber pasado por otros destinos con mucho menos glamur y debe familiarizarse con los usos y costumbre de una nave que ofrece varios niveles de lujo y comodidades a sus pasajeros, que normalmente pertenecen a razas y culturas muy diferentes y cuya singladura va a llevarles a una zona del cosmos que está en tensión prebélica.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
October 19, 2017
Second edition of an earlier David Drake novel, October 17, 2017
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Starliner, Second Edition (Kindle Edition)
Other than the fact that it is sci-fi aboard a luxury space liner, this novel is of the same type of story as Arthur Haley's AIRPORT, HOTEL and others. The various airport movies, disaster movies and the classic 1932 film Grand Hotel also come to mind. As usual, Mr. Drake did his research for this novel and roughly based his luxury space liner, Empress of Earth, on the luxury ocean liner S.S. Normandie. If you have no interest at all in how a luxury liner is crewed, operated, built, decorated, etc., you may want to choose a different David Drake book.
One of the main stars of the story is the ship herself but people are not neglected. There is intrigue, danger, difficult passengers, war, heroes, villains, romance and all the other things one expects from a David Drake book. My review is from the second edition of the book which has added content and better editing than the first edition which I read some years ago.
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Starliner, Second Edition (Kindle Edition)
Other than the fact that it is sci-fi aboard a luxury space liner, this novel is of the same type of story as Arthur Haley's AIRPORT, HOTEL and others. The various airport movies, disaster movies and the classic 1932 film Grand Hotel also come to mind. As usual, Mr. Drake did his research for this novel and roughly based his luxury space liner, Empress of Earth, on the luxury ocean liner S.S. Normandie. If you have no interest at all in how a luxury liner is crewed, operated, built, decorated, etc., you may want to choose a different David Drake book.
One of the main stars of the story is the ship herself but people are not neglected. There is intrigue, danger, difficult passengers, war, heroes, villains, romance and all the other things one expects from a David Drake book. My review is from the second edition of the book which has added content and better editing than the first edition which I read some years ago.
February 26, 2020
Another review described this book as Starship Troopers meets The Love Boat, and that's about right. Ran Colville is a new staff officer on The Empress of Earth, a 6000 person luxury starship. His job is managing trouble with the passengers, and with the kinds of people who go on interstellar voyages, that means a lot of trouble. There's a war brewing between two planets, passenger have personal issues, and Ran has to save the day. The story clumps along in a series of loosely connected vignettes, until at the end there's a hijacking attempt, and Ran leads a heroic rescue of his ship. Some decent gunplay, lousy characterization, downright awkward scifi sex (protip, the phrase 'swollen labia' should never be used in an erotic context). There are hints of a kind of callously cruel universe here, but the setting is little more than old stereotypes.
I'm coming around to solidly meh on Drake. If anybody knows which of his books are actually good, might read them, but otherwise, too many good books out there.
I'm coming around to solidly meh on Drake. If anybody knows which of his books are actually good, might read them, but otherwise, too many good books out there.
May 4, 2014
A nice bit of storytelling
Starliner makes for an enjoyable romp. What I liked about it was the slice-of-life plot line. Some of the characters are deftly twisted from the reader's expectations to be revealed as altogether different from their apparent personas. There is plenty of action, love, and adventure to keep the story interesting. Kudos, David, well done!
Starliner makes for an enjoyable romp. What I liked about it was the slice-of-life plot line. Some of the characters are deftly twisted from the reader's expectations to be revealed as altogether different from their apparent personas. There is plenty of action, love, and adventure to keep the story interesting. Kudos, David, well done!
July 5, 2014
Starliner, by David Drake, covers Ran Colville’s new job as junior staff lieutenant aboard the Empress of Earth, one of the two largest starliner passenger ships that compete commercially against each other. In fact, the military does not have such ships. But what wars could be won if they did!
Ran Colville is introduced bit by bit, and by the end of the book, we still don’t know all that much about him, but what we do know makes me want to know more about him. Talk about someone who lifted himself by his own bootstraps from nothing to something, Ran is the guy. From his home planet Bifrost, to his work as a Cold Crewman in sponge space (a novel conceptualization among the myriad realities of hyperspace travel), to ... other times before coming to serve aboard the Empress of Earth, there is enough to pique my curiosity.
There is a great deal of description of how the ship works, such as the communications for officers. In fact, the first quarter of the book covers these inner workings, sort of defining its ship’s universe to better understand how and why things happen later on. But in so doing, we’re not relegated to stale description but learn how it’s used as it is being used. I can appreciate this approach overall, though if you’re looking for action, well, be patient.
It’s pretty clear that something is going to happen with the ship, and something does happen with it. This could be considered a spoiler, but really, unless this is your first book to ever read, it’s pretty obvious something is going to happen. But there are many detours along the way, and what does happen is fairly surprising. At least I have not set your expectations to blowing your socks off, only being surprised.
Other characters in the book are filled out enough to serve their purpose and seem real without being completely cliche or pointless (except for some of the passengers). My only real complaint is the story seems more like a beginning, an ending, and a series of vignettes strung together rather than a cohesive story. I suppose it works somewhat okay for the story because it hearkens back to the TV show The Love Boat in style. The stories didn't necessarily coincide, but they were just things that happened along the voyage. For that view, I can accept the choices made by the author, but I’d really like to see more.
If you’re looking for a rip-roaring sci-fi yarn, you might be better off giving this one a pass. Its charms are more subtle, and even four weeks after having finished reading, it is still in my mind. That is the best recommendation I can provide. I’m giving it four stars because it’s slightly better than 3.5 stars -- but just barely, so it gets the benefit of the doubt.
Ran Colville is introduced bit by bit, and by the end of the book, we still don’t know all that much about him, but what we do know makes me want to know more about him. Talk about someone who lifted himself by his own bootstraps from nothing to something, Ran is the guy. From his home planet Bifrost, to his work as a Cold Crewman in sponge space (a novel conceptualization among the myriad realities of hyperspace travel), to ... other times before coming to serve aboard the Empress of Earth, there is enough to pique my curiosity.
There is a great deal of description of how the ship works, such as the communications for officers. In fact, the first quarter of the book covers these inner workings, sort of defining its ship’s universe to better understand how and why things happen later on. But in so doing, we’re not relegated to stale description but learn how it’s used as it is being used. I can appreciate this approach overall, though if you’re looking for action, well, be patient.
It’s pretty clear that something is going to happen with the ship, and something does happen with it. This could be considered a spoiler, but really, unless this is your first book to ever read, it’s pretty obvious something is going to happen. But there are many detours along the way, and what does happen is fairly surprising. At least I have not set your expectations to blowing your socks off, only being surprised.
Other characters in the book are filled out enough to serve their purpose and seem real without being completely cliche or pointless (except for some of the passengers). My only real complaint is the story seems more like a beginning, an ending, and a series of vignettes strung together rather than a cohesive story. I suppose it works somewhat okay for the story because it hearkens back to the TV show The Love Boat in style. The stories didn't necessarily coincide, but they were just things that happened along the voyage. For that view, I can accept the choices made by the author, but I’d really like to see more.
If you’re looking for a rip-roaring sci-fi yarn, you might be better off giving this one a pass. Its charms are more subtle, and even four weeks after having finished reading, it is still in my mind. That is the best recommendation I can provide. I’m giving it four stars because it’s slightly better than 3.5 stars -- but just barely, so it gets the benefit of the doubt.
May 18, 2017
I really enjoyed reading this book. You don't see very many books in science fiction where the book is from the point of view of the crew of a civilian, passenger starliner. I read a lot of space opera and most of the books are about military starships or civilian traders [whose ships might or might not be family-owned & family-crewed].
Starliner is about a huge starliner [think the Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth - thousands of passengers] which has a regular route between six or eight planets. Our protagonists are the ship's officers. There is an operational crew which literally flies the ship and then there are the staff crew that see to the passengers.
Mr. Drake based his starliner on large coal-fired liners such as Titanic. The men (stokers & firemen) who shoveled coal into the ravenous Titanic boilers were known as the "black gang". In this book, David Drake has the Cold Gang literally out on the hull of the ship making any needed adjustments/finetuning to the engines so that all of the engines ran smoothly & efficiently. No Cold Gang and that ship will never reach its next port of call.
Our main protagonist is Ran Colville who started his starfaring career as part of the Cold Gang on smaller ships. Then he graduated to inside work as a staff ship officer dealing directly with passengers.
Mr. Drake also has the steerage class, known as Third Class in this book. These people are immigrating to a new world by means of a labor contract [that looks similar to indentured
servitude]. These are the folks with little money but willing to work hard for a chance at a better life on a new planet.
The majority of the characters in the book are the first-class passengers. These are the people with the luxurious accommodations.
I also enjoy reading books about diverse races/aliens. Most of the characters are human but by no means all.
Starliner was originally published in June 1992. The second edition (the one I read) came out in November 2013.
I strongly recommend this book to people who enjoy reading space opera, particularly from a different vantage point - namely a huge spacefaring passenger starliner and its crew!
Starliner is about a huge starliner [think the Queen Mary or Queen Elizabeth - thousands of passengers] which has a regular route between six or eight planets. Our protagonists are the ship's officers. There is an operational crew which literally flies the ship and then there are the staff crew that see to the passengers.
Mr. Drake based his starliner on large coal-fired liners such as Titanic. The men (stokers & firemen) who shoveled coal into the ravenous Titanic boilers were known as the "black gang". In this book, David Drake has the Cold Gang literally out on the hull of the ship making any needed adjustments/finetuning to the engines so that all of the engines ran smoothly & efficiently. No Cold Gang and that ship will never reach its next port of call.
Our main protagonist is Ran Colville who started his starfaring career as part of the Cold Gang on smaller ships. Then he graduated to inside work as a staff ship officer dealing directly with passengers.
Mr. Drake also has the steerage class, known as Third Class in this book. These people are immigrating to a new world by means of a labor contract [that looks similar to indentured
servitude]. These are the folks with little money but willing to work hard for a chance at a better life on a new planet.
The majority of the characters in the book are the first-class passengers. These are the people with the luxurious accommodations.
I also enjoy reading books about diverse races/aliens. Most of the characters are human but by no means all.
Starliner was originally published in June 1992. The second edition (the one I read) came out in November 2013.
I strongly recommend this book to people who enjoy reading space opera, particularly from a different vantage point - namely a huge spacefaring passenger starliner and its crew!
April 5, 2021
Always love a new (to me) David Drake story.
Thought I had read everything David Drake had written since he writes so well and is so entertaining. If you are a Drake fan and missed this one like I did, dive right in. If you are not a David Drake fan, why are you reading this review and not his books?
Thought I had read everything David Drake had written since he writes so well and is so entertaining. If you are a Drake fan and missed this one like I did, dive right in. If you are not a David Drake fan, why are you reading this review and not his books?
September 21, 2010
Ran Colville has worked himself up from poverty on the frontier world of Bifrost to his new position as Third Officer on the "Empress of Earth", the largest and newest starliner from Trident Starlines.
Ran faced the difficult job of proving himself to his superior officers and his subordinates as well, plus dealing with a much larger number of passengers than he'd had while working his way up on smaller vessels.
Well, if he thought that was a difficult job....
In addition he faces the kidnapping of a pasenger, on a world where there are no authorities to help find her. Aslo, a bored, rich alien noblewoman is showing unusual interest in him. And last but not least, of the six thousand passengers on board, there are quite a few from the planets of Nervasa and Grantholm. And just after the voyage starts, those two governments declare war on each other......
David Drake has wirtten dozens of science fiction adventures, and this is an interesting read with fast paced dialogue and interesting characters.
The only minor flaw is he does one chapter for each planet the ship docks at. Therefore, it is a bit choppy in spots; you wish some planets had been described more. It is almost like a series of short stories linked as a novel.
That did not detract from my enjoyment at all. No incredibly deep philosphy or archaelogy here--just a nice fast paced adventure. Recommend for any science fiction fan .
Ran faced the difficult job of proving himself to his superior officers and his subordinates as well, plus dealing with a much larger number of passengers than he'd had while working his way up on smaller vessels.
Well, if he thought that was a difficult job....
In addition he faces the kidnapping of a pasenger, on a world where there are no authorities to help find her. Aslo, a bored, rich alien noblewoman is showing unusual interest in him. And last but not least, of the six thousand passengers on board, there are quite a few from the planets of Nervasa and Grantholm. And just after the voyage starts, those two governments declare war on each other......
David Drake has wirtten dozens of science fiction adventures, and this is an interesting read with fast paced dialogue and interesting characters.
The only minor flaw is he does one chapter for each planet the ship docks at. Therefore, it is a bit choppy in spots; you wish some planets had been described more. It is almost like a series of short stories linked as a novel.
That did not detract from my enjoyment at all. No incredibly deep philosphy or archaelogy here--just a nice fast paced adventure. Recommend for any science fiction fan .
July 7, 2014
I really, really enjoyed this! Surprised, as the author is known for his military SF, and that's not usually my thing. This is a civilian luxury star-liner, and we follow the adventures of one 3rd officer on board. Reminiscent of Retief or Drake Maijstral, this book has some humor, some "comedy of manners" a la Jeeves and Wooster, and some tough-guy SF. Very suitable for Adventures Aboard the King Richard, an old Traveller adventure. I heartily recommend it, and am off to try some more David Drake. FYI, the ebook is free from Baen, the publisher.
October 3, 2020
Well written swashbuckler
This book is primarily about intergalactic swashbuckling. There are ample cheery vignettes and interesting side plots, but mostly it's about various scrapes and adventures and interspecies romantic conquests. It does not pass the Bechdel test. However, it is extraordinarily well-written and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
This book is primarily about intergalactic swashbuckling. There are ample cheery vignettes and interesting side plots, but mostly it's about various scrapes and adventures and interspecies romantic conquests. It does not pass the Bechdel test. However, it is extraordinarily well-written and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
June 11, 2016
More scifi like this please
Not lacking for action, but less politically naive, more thoughtful (and thought provoking), than I'm used to in the genre, relatively. Liked it very much.
Not lacking for action, but less politically naive, more thoughtful (and thought provoking), than I'm used to in the genre, relatively. Liked it very much.
September 5, 2019
I've read a fair amount of David Drake. This was a big disappointment. Got about half way through it and realized it was going nowhere, or maybe somewhere, but I was unwilling to put in the time. Seemed like one pointless vignette after another.
Love his Lt. Leary series though.
Love his Lt. Leary series though.
June 24, 2014
Good read
as most of David Drakes novels this one moved along smoothly with no indication as to what was about to happen. Very entertaining.
as most of David Drakes novels this one moved along smoothly with no indication as to what was about to happen. Very entertaining.
December 22, 2015
The last twenty pages really bumped it up a full star. Throughout it was solid sci-fi, but there's a lot of that. I'm not often surprised though, and I didn't see the resolution happening like that.
May 5, 2018
This is the first Drake book I've not been able to get into. Only got though 25% I won't go back to it.
July 23, 2018
A trip and a half
The descriptions made it easy to imagine being there as an observer to the action and adventures with hints of romance thrown in.
The descriptions made it easy to imagine being there as an observer to the action and adventures with hints of romance thrown in.
February 25, 2024
This book is a sort of Love Boat in space, if Gopher, Isaac, and Julie had ever been called on to perform quick commando missions. Which for all I know they did in an episode or two.
The Empress of Earth is one of the two biggest starliners in operation. It runs a regular route through high traffic travel destinations and tourist destinations. The people on it all have their different reasons for being there. They have their own stories which Drake switches among just as in The Love Boat.
It’s a lot of fun, but it isn’t all episodic soap opera. It’s also episodic adventure. There’s a war starting, and that provides both soap opera and space opera stories.
Because it is a novel that switches between many unrelated characters, we don’t get to know much about the passengers. One of the most interesting is an enigmatic mooch, Wade, claiming to have had unbelievable adventures long ago, and his sidekick. Of course, when the real adventure subplot begins their part becomes even funnier and more interesting.
But while we don’t learn much about the passengers, we do learn about the crew. The main character, such as passes for one in this book, is Ran Colvill. He is completely out of place in the universe, which is why he prefers to work on a starliner.
A big part of Ran’s story is his relationship with his father.
The weird part is how one of the substories of this 1992 book mirrors (through a glass, darkly) the September 11 attacks. It isn’t just the far-in-the-background-hijacking, which immediately brings those attacks to mind, albeit turning them into a conspiracy theory. In the aftermath of the very-much-forefront hijacking, one of the passengers asks another,
In context, this is meant to be satirical, but given what else happens, it is satirical in an entirely different way post 9/11.
I need to emphasize that calling this a sort of Love Boat in space is not in any sense pejorative. It’s a great idea and this book is a lot of fun. It would also be a great premise for a convention game.
The Empress of Earth is one of the two biggest starliners in operation. It runs a regular route through high traffic travel destinations and tourist destinations. The people on it all have their different reasons for being there. They have their own stories which Drake switches among just as in The Love Boat.
It’s a lot of fun, but it isn’t all episodic soap opera. It’s also episodic adventure. There’s a war starting, and that provides both soap opera and space opera stories.
Because it is a novel that switches between many unrelated characters, we don’t get to know much about the passengers. One of the most interesting is an enigmatic mooch, Wade, claiming to have had unbelievable adventures long ago, and his sidekick. Of course, when the real adventure subplot begins their part becomes even funnier and more interesting.
“Adventures are things that happen to other people, Wade,” he said. “Personally, I think I like it that way. Anyway, I can't claim that hiding in my cabin for several hours was much of an adventure, though I suppose—” He looked hard at Wade. “—it might be possible to embellish the facts a little.”
But while we don’t learn much about the passengers, we do learn about the crew. The main character, such as passes for one in this book, is Ran Colvill. He is completely out of place in the universe, which is why he prefers to work on a starliner.
"Everybody's—out of place, you know, on a starliner.”
A big part of Ran’s story is his relationship with his father.
Ran smiled, and though he had to force it, the impulse was real enough. He was better off than most people. It was just that he knew where he was, while not many other folks seemed to. Maybe they were happier not to know, but ignorance hadn't been something Chick Colville held forth as a virtue to his son.
The weird part is how one of the substories of this 1992 book mirrors (through a glass, darkly) the September 11 attacks. It isn’t just the far-in-the-background-hijacking, which immediately brings those attacks to mind, albeit turning them into a conspiracy theory. In the aftermath of the very-much-forefront hijacking, one of the passengers asks another,
"You think we should have—what, attacked men with guns?” Dewhurst said. “Refused to cooperate?”
“Nothing of the sort!” Wade said forcefully. “Leave that to the professionals, to the ship's officers and crew. That's no business for passengers, after all.”
In context, this is meant to be satirical, but given what else happens, it is satirical in an entirely different way post 9/11.
I need to emphasize that calling this a sort of Love Boat in space is not in any sense pejorative. It’s a great idea and this book is a lot of fun. It would also be a great premise for a convention game.
His face was indistinguishable from those of his men: empty eyes and a mouth as cruel as the seam the laser had cut through the console.
June 11, 2019
A departure for Drake, but just a bit
An interesting twist on Drake's usual hard military SF. It's not quite "Love Boat meets Hammer's Slammers" but it does lean that direction. There's an interesting theory here about how a passenger ship can be converted for military purposes that seeds the narrative. And while you might think the study of a luxury liner would be boring, Drake keeps things moving by giving readers a chapter for each stop on the ship's route, each an adventure and each with a fair share of action. Or sex... more than I was expecting.
I didn't find any of the main characters particularly lovable or disdainful, and while I enjoyed the ride it wasn't terribly memorable. A decent read.
I listened to the audiobook. It was mostly well read with few errors but there were times when the narrator would speak quietly to simulate whispering and that was really annoying because I listen in the car and ambient noises made it hard to hear.
An interesting twist on Drake's usual hard military SF. It's not quite "Love Boat meets Hammer's Slammers" but it does lean that direction. There's an interesting theory here about how a passenger ship can be converted for military purposes that seeds the narrative. And while you might think the study of a luxury liner would be boring, Drake keeps things moving by giving readers a chapter for each stop on the ship's route, each an adventure and each with a fair share of action. Or sex... more than I was expecting.
I didn't find any of the main characters particularly lovable or disdainful, and while I enjoyed the ride it wasn't terribly memorable. A decent read.
I listened to the audiobook. It was mostly well read with few errors but there were times when the narrator would speak quietly to simulate whispering and that was really annoying because I listen in the car and ambient noises made it hard to hear.
February 19, 2024
Ooooo I struggled with this one. On one hand I love the idea of space cruise customer service heroes! It's a fun concept and you can go a lot of cool places with it, and to his credit Drake did go some cool places, but the total lack of character development combined with an apparent allergy to transitional scenes just killed this one for me. Also. Also: Please stop using technical language an/or vaguely horrifying phrases in your unnecessary (though thankfully brief!) explicit scenes. There are at least three relevant sentences in this book that I would deeply love the have scrubbed from my brain.
January 14, 2022
I have always thought that Baen was a premier publisher in the science fiction realm with the best authors and story lines. But as time has gone on and I've read more books published by them, my opinion has wavered. Maybe it's just me, but I have a very hard time making a real solid connection with the author's writing and the story for that matter. Starliner turned out to be that way too. While it wasn't as hard to read as Star Soldiers (Andre Norton) I didn't feel a 100% connection to what was going on. Opposite of that are books written by Jon Brazee, which I can read for days and feel totally immersed in the story. Starliner is okay...but I wasn't impressed.
May 13, 2020
This was a rather slow read, and I kept hoping it would pick up the pave and get better. It did for about the last 15%, but so much of the last 15% was unrealistic it couldn’t make up for the other part of the book. There’s a lot of unnecessary dialogue that takes up space, and I couldn’t really get into the characters. Luckily, I picked this up for free for my Kindle which adds a star to my review. If you are a dedicated science fiction fan, I would give this one a pass.
August 23, 2021
Great read
David Drake is a throwback author to a time when things were clearer. Men were men, women were women, and the world was more clearly defined.
This is a story about what it would be like on a passenger liner in space, and it is fun to see Drakes prediction of future tech. If you are not familiar with his work, then this should be a fun book for you. If you have read his material, it’s a bit less peachy, and definitely less blasty.
David Drake is a throwback author to a time when things were clearer. Men were men, women were women, and the world was more clearly defined.
This is a story about what it would be like on a passenger liner in space, and it is fun to see Drakes prediction of future tech. If you are not familiar with his work, then this should be a fun book for you. If you have read his material, it’s a bit less peachy, and definitely less blasty.
May 22, 2024
3.5* An interesting novel, comprised primarily of side adventures and snippets of the life of a Ship's Officer on a luxury Starliner. It definitely felt like the Titanic in space, with similar "colonial" and "class" attitudes. The overhanging ominous threat of a great war coming weighed heavily throughout. There were some classic Drake combat descriptions and, as always when war is involved, dire consequences. I could also see foreshadows of his great RCN Series in Ran and Holly's relationship as well as some of the concepts of sponge space. It is a must read for Drake fans.
April 29, 2025
Early David Drake story
This is a very early novel by David Drake which is very bleak and very action oriented! Very hard style of Science Fiction! Very dim view of human politics and warfare! I have read nearlyevery thing that David Drake has written and published in terms of science Fiction but not the fantasy genre by Drake!! I enjoy Drake's Science Fiction the best especially his Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy stories!
This is a very early novel by David Drake which is very bleak and very action oriented! Very hard style of Science Fiction! Very dim view of human politics and warfare! I have read nearlyevery thing that David Drake has written and published in terms of science Fiction but not the fantasy genre by Drake!! I enjoy Drake's Science Fiction the best especially his Daniel Leary and Adele Mundy stories!
September 21, 2018
Greater good
This story, a space opera, is about lots of different things. The author does a good job of pulling the various threads together without leaving the reader wondering what’s happening. Some old hands and new join together to try to keep the huge star liner’s passengers safe from hijackers and themselves. A worthwhile read.
This story, a space opera, is about lots of different things. The author does a good job of pulling the various threads together without leaving the reader wondering what’s happening. Some old hands and new join together to try to keep the huge star liner’s passengers safe from hijackers and themselves. A worthwhile read.
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January 24, 2021I had a hard time reading this book. It just didn't keep my interest. The writing wasn't smooth. Transitions were awkward and unexpected. The editing (if there was any) wasn't very good. I had to re-read certain sentences to make sure I understood what was being communicated. At times, the sentence structure was very awkward.
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