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Bad Space #1
Hull Damage
Their spaceship is falling apart. There's a substantial bounty on each one of their heads. Their captain is a stark, raving lunatic.
Making a decent living as a space pirate is hard enough, what with the near-constant spaceship repairs, the dogged bounty hunters and the treacherous galactic underworld one must navigate to survive. The crew of The Unconstant Lover, therefore, have plenty on their plate, attempting to both turn a decent profit and stay one step ahead of the forces of law and order.
Now add Captain Nemo – ace pilot, megalomaniac and complete moron – to the mix.
Hell-bent on becoming the most fearsome dread pirate the galaxy's ever seen, Nemo leads his motley crew with bluster and bravado through planetary blockades, space station shoot-outs and rowdy barroom brawls.
Before long, the galaxy at large starts to take notice. Before long, The Unconstant Lover and her crew are caught in the crossfire of a bidding war between three of the galaxy's most dangerous crimelords.
Making a decent living as a space pirate is hard enough, what with the near-constant spaceship repairs, the dogged bounty hunters and the treacherous galactic underworld one must navigate to survive. The crew of The Unconstant Lover, therefore, have plenty on their plate, attempting to both turn a decent profit and stay one step ahead of the forces of law and order.
Now add Captain Nemo – ace pilot, megalomaniac and complete moron – to the mix.
Hell-bent on becoming the most fearsome dread pirate the galaxy's ever seen, Nemo leads his motley crew with bluster and bravado through planetary blockades, space station shoot-outs and rowdy barroom brawls.
Before long, the galaxy at large starts to take notice. Before long, The Unconstant Lover and her crew are caught in the crossfire of a bidding war between three of the galaxy's most dangerous crimelords.
- GenresScience Fiction
547 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2012
49 people are currently reading
167 people want to read
About the author
Timothy J. Meyer
10 books16 followersTIMOTHY J. MEYER is wanted on five counts of piracy, two counts of brigandage and one count of enthusiastic corruption of the galactic good. If you have any information on his whereabouts, please contact the local branch of the IMIS (Imperial Ministry of Interstellar Security).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 22, 2014
This book took me by complete and utter surprise. A science fiction pirate that kiiiinda has the Han Solo/Mal Reynolds thing going on but is actually a complete and utter b*stard into the bargain?
Yes PLEASE.
The entire crew deserves - truly - to die (except Odissieus because he is just darling), and yet, you root for them.
The good guys are bad, the bad guys are worse, and the only GOOD guys a: get gunned down without mercy and b: clearly had a shady past themselves and probably deserved everything they got.
There is a lot of technobabble but really? When confronted with (Weapon) that shoots green bolts of (stuff) which burn holes through (material) but bounce off (tougher material) so they have to use a (different weapon) that uses (more powerful stuff) which then burns through (tougher material) then what is so hard about accepting that not everything can be powered by crystals or gunpowder? It's a gun that shoots green bolts of energy, so far, so sci-fi. What the various stuff is called matters little and can be parsed as above.
A rare gem, so happy I found it!
Yes PLEASE.
The entire crew deserves - truly - to die (except Odissieus because he is just darling), and yet, you root for them.
The good guys are bad, the bad guys are worse, and the only GOOD guys a: get gunned down without mercy and b: clearly had a shady past themselves and probably deserved everything they got.
There is a lot of technobabble but really? When confronted with (Weapon) that shoots green bolts of (stuff) which burn holes through (material) but bounce off (tougher material) so they have to use a (different weapon) that uses (more powerful stuff) which then burns through (tougher material) then what is so hard about accepting that not everything can be powered by crystals or gunpowder? It's a gun that shoots green bolts of energy, so far, so sci-fi. What the various stuff is called matters little and can be parsed as above.
A rare gem, so happy I found it!
books-that-i-couldn-t-finish
April 21, 2014I couldn't get into this book despite it being free. I tried and tried over the last couple weeks and I think I finally realized what is bugging me about it today. The writer is working too hard and throwing around way too many made up names of everything. I mean everything. It reads something like this -
"The snarfblat of the Drog system's main handgun was powered by oophalogy."
You get the idea. I'm a huge science fiction fan but this was too much. I just couldn't get into it.
"The snarfblat of the Drog system's main handgun was powered by oophalogy."
You get the idea. I'm a huge science fiction fan but this was too much. I just couldn't get into it.
June 7, 2015
OK, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm going to admit up front that this is not my first time reading 'Hull Damage', although it is my first time reviewing it, nor am I unfamiliar with the author. So take that into account.
First off, other reviewers, both here and on Amazon (and in person) have already effectively covered the things that are wrong with 'Hull Damage' (use of the Present Tense, the almost impenetrably florid prose, the largely episodic nature of the novel, the difficulty in keeping the zillion-and-one species of Bad Space straight in ones head, the etc.) so I'm going to focus on what I found Right with it.
I went back and forth on whether to give three stars or four for this book, but finally settled on three when I realized that the fourth was for nostalgia, applicable to me and few others*, so we went with three.
What is Right with 'Hull Damage' can be summed up in one word: Momentum! The story does seem, upon a casual reading (and indeed, upon my first reading a couple of years ago) to be episodic, but each episode adds one more thing (sometimes big, sometimes small) to the building tale of ambition and betrayal. Each piece accelerates the plot just a little more, like a pebble joining an avalanche until it tumbles to its inevitable, disastrous end. There is more of the heist movie (unsurprising, given that the author actually has written an independent heist movie) to its structure than the classically more unified, linear Space Opera plot. The action is almost entirely driven, not by external forces, which is more classically Space Opera, but, as with a good crime story, by the ambition and the personal obsessions of the main characters. And that's the thing, this is a tale about personal ambition, and instead of a unified plot, you have a tale that is held together almost solely by the arcs of the characters trying to get what each of them wants. Even if, in the case of one character *cough*Abraham*cough* we don't get a hint of what that is until the very end.
The writing, which takes a great deal of criticism in the less favorable reviews, also has its strong points. Specifically dialogue. As one would expect of an author who is first and foremost a screenwriter, the dialogue is largely crisp, clean and clever. Which makes this as good a place as any to address a common complaint, that of Two-Bit Switch's dialogue, a garbled thieves' cant assembled from a half-dozen different slangs and a couple Meyer just made up. I stubbornly refuse to join in the common condemnation of Two-Bit Switches incomprehensible lingo. The very incomprehensibility of the lingo is part of his character, the incoherence part and parcel with who and what he is, a mind that is quick moving but often garbled, less focused, if no less enthusiastic, in his obsessions than the others. It is where he's from and what separates him from the other crew members.
Another thing I find right about the book is the ensemble cast that is kept equally in our attention by the device of using all of them except the Captain/Protagonist as POV characters. He is the center of the story but not the center of our attention necessarily (a conclusion that would horrify and/or murderously enrage our main character certainly ;) ).
I know I promised to focus on what was right, but I can't finish this review without touching on the action sequences. They are many, central, lovingly and enthusiastically written, and it's obvious the author has put a great deal of time, effort and energy into them. This being said, this is where the florid, adjective-heavy prose seems to fail him the most, where it is most obviously slowing down sequences that should, by all rights, be the heart of much of the excitement the book is trying to offer.
All in all, however, at the end of the day, for whatever faults it had, one simple, completely subjective fact remains in my judgement of 'Hull Damage': I enjoyed it. What was right entertained me more than what was wrong annoyed me and I had fun. I read this while traveling and by the end, felt as if I had been on a road trip with old and untrustworthy friends.
* Some of us were lucky enough to encounter the further adventures of the 'Unconstant Lover' before the publication of 'Hull Damage' during its time as 'The Endless Night' a full-cast monthly Podcast Drama during 2009-2010. Sadly, the podcast, with uncommonly good production values, is no longer currently up, although if you run across copies of it do yourself a favor and grab it.
First off, other reviewers, both here and on Amazon (and in person) have already effectively covered the things that are wrong with 'Hull Damage' (use of the Present Tense, the almost impenetrably florid prose, the largely episodic nature of the novel, the difficulty in keeping the zillion-and-one species of Bad Space straight in ones head, the etc.) so I'm going to focus on what I found Right with it.
I went back and forth on whether to give three stars or four for this book, but finally settled on three when I realized that the fourth was for nostalgia, applicable to me and few others*, so we went with three.
What is Right with 'Hull Damage' can be summed up in one word: Momentum! The story does seem, upon a casual reading (and indeed, upon my first reading a couple of years ago) to be episodic, but each episode adds one more thing (sometimes big, sometimes small) to the building tale of ambition and betrayal. Each piece accelerates the plot just a little more, like a pebble joining an avalanche until it tumbles to its inevitable, disastrous end. There is more of the heist movie (unsurprising, given that the author actually has written an independent heist movie) to its structure than the classically more unified, linear Space Opera plot. The action is almost entirely driven, not by external forces, which is more classically Space Opera, but, as with a good crime story, by the ambition and the personal obsessions of the main characters. And that's the thing, this is a tale about personal ambition, and instead of a unified plot, you have a tale that is held together almost solely by the arcs of the characters trying to get what each of them wants. Even if, in the case of one character *cough*Abraham*cough* we don't get a hint of what that is until the very end.
The writing, which takes a great deal of criticism in the less favorable reviews, also has its strong points. Specifically dialogue. As one would expect of an author who is first and foremost a screenwriter, the dialogue is largely crisp, clean and clever. Which makes this as good a place as any to address a common complaint, that of Two-Bit Switch's dialogue, a garbled thieves' cant assembled from a half-dozen different slangs and a couple Meyer just made up. I stubbornly refuse to join in the common condemnation of Two-Bit Switches incomprehensible lingo. The very incomprehensibility of the lingo is part of his character, the incoherence part and parcel with who and what he is, a mind that is quick moving but often garbled, less focused, if no less enthusiastic, in his obsessions than the others. It is where he's from and what separates him from the other crew members.
Another thing I find right about the book is the ensemble cast that is kept equally in our attention by the device of using all of them except the Captain/Protagonist as POV characters. He is the center of the story but not the center of our attention necessarily (a conclusion that would horrify and/or murderously enrage our main character certainly ;) ).
I know I promised to focus on what was right, but I can't finish this review without touching on the action sequences. They are many, central, lovingly and enthusiastically written, and it's obvious the author has put a great deal of time, effort and energy into them. This being said, this is where the florid, adjective-heavy prose seems to fail him the most, where it is most obviously slowing down sequences that should, by all rights, be the heart of much of the excitement the book is trying to offer.
All in all, however, at the end of the day, for whatever faults it had, one simple, completely subjective fact remains in my judgement of 'Hull Damage': I enjoyed it. What was right entertained me more than what was wrong annoyed me and I had fun. I read this while traveling and by the end, felt as if I had been on a road trip with old and untrustworthy friends.
* Some of us were lucky enough to encounter the further adventures of the 'Unconstant Lover' before the publication of 'Hull Damage' during its time as 'The Endless Night' a full-cast monthly Podcast Drama during 2009-2010. Sadly, the podcast, with uncommonly good production values, is no longer currently up, although if you run across copies of it do yourself a favor and grab it.
July 19, 2012
So I finished this book and have delayed writing a review for a week or so, really just to make sure I still liked the book.
Bottom line, short review: It's a good book, worth the time I put into it. I don't know if it's still up for free, but the book is of a better quality than most indie published books people are paying for.
So, what kept the book at 3 stars, rather than some sort of earth-shattering, life changing 5 star book? Well, despite the strong writing and fun world, there were a few problems I couldn't quite get around:
1 - The complete and total misanthropy of the main character. I think the author intended to make Nemo a somewhat heroic rogue, but goes a little far. The parallels between Nemo and Firefly's captain, Mal, have been drawn by a few people. But while the characters in Firefly may perform illegal activities, they are always clearly supposed to be "honorable". Captain Nemo essentially acts as a real brigand, killing prisoners after a successful interrogation, ignoring debts unless the other person is strong enough to enforce them, etc etc. While I have no problem with this sort of character, it makes it VERY hard to care about their well-being. His complete disregard for anyone else (including the only likable character in the book, Odisseus, who's loyalty to Nemo is confusing to the reader)just makes the crew loyalty in hazardous situations confusing. Additionally, it makes the presence of any sort of character development nearly impossible. This keeps the novel stuck in a "fun to read" category, but keeps it from really developing any serious concepts.
2 - Alliteration. There are instances in this novel in which the author appears to get a little over-excited. When this happens, he seems to slip into joyful, boundless alliteration. This can get to be a bit off-putting, and tends to happen whenever the author is describing Abraham ("custom of striding about the ship utterly shirtless" and "charting all the picaroons of yore" should never be in the same paragraph, particularly when that paragraph precedes {see what I did there?} "a washed-up swabber steeped in antediluvian vernacular, anecdotal portends and archaic notions"). It's something an editor should have been able to catch and dial back a bit. It also tends to occur during action scenes, "through the utter routing of his wretched resistance, the attackers anthem..." you get the picture. It isn't horrible, but can be distracting.
3 - Speaking of action... The third (and final) issue I had with this book, was that the author tended to overuse a writing too I'll just call "boy, wasn't that fun?" A large number of he action scenes start in the middle, or at the end. Heck, the entire book starts in the middle of a bar brawl and then goes on to explain how it started. The book will describe the crew planning a caper, and then the next chapter starts in the middle of a gunfight. Or, the crew will be stuck, facing impossible odds, and the next chapter they're back on a safe station, talking about what a close call that was and describing the exciting escape in the past tense. I don't mind the technique, but when it happens over and over again you start to wish for a temporally linear action scene.
Anyway, despite my overly long rant, I did enjoy the book and I am going to get the next in the series when it comes out. It's well written and fun and definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of sci-fi.
Bottom line, short review: It's a good book, worth the time I put into it. I don't know if it's still up for free, but the book is of a better quality than most indie published books people are paying for.
So, what kept the book at 3 stars, rather than some sort of earth-shattering, life changing 5 star book? Well, despite the strong writing and fun world, there were a few problems I couldn't quite get around:
1 - The complete and total misanthropy of the main character. I think the author intended to make Nemo a somewhat heroic rogue, but goes a little far. The parallels between Nemo and Firefly's captain, Mal, have been drawn by a few people. But while the characters in Firefly may perform illegal activities, they are always clearly supposed to be "honorable". Captain Nemo essentially acts as a real brigand, killing prisoners after a successful interrogation, ignoring debts unless the other person is strong enough to enforce them, etc etc. While I have no problem with this sort of character, it makes it VERY hard to care about their well-being. His complete disregard for anyone else (including the only likable character in the book, Odisseus, who's loyalty to Nemo is confusing to the reader)just makes the crew loyalty in hazardous situations confusing. Additionally, it makes the presence of any sort of character development nearly impossible. This keeps the novel stuck in a "fun to read" category, but keeps it from really developing any serious concepts.
2 - Alliteration. There are instances in this novel in which the author appears to get a little over-excited. When this happens, he seems to slip into joyful, boundless alliteration. This can get to be a bit off-putting, and tends to happen whenever the author is describing Abraham ("custom of striding about the ship utterly shirtless" and "charting all the picaroons of yore" should never be in the same paragraph, particularly when that paragraph precedes {see what I did there?} "a washed-up swabber steeped in antediluvian vernacular, anecdotal portends and archaic notions"). It's something an editor should have been able to catch and dial back a bit. It also tends to occur during action scenes, "through the utter routing of his wretched resistance, the attackers anthem..." you get the picture. It isn't horrible, but can be distracting.
3 - Speaking of action... The third (and final) issue I had with this book, was that the author tended to overuse a writing too I'll just call "boy, wasn't that fun?" A large number of he action scenes start in the middle, or at the end. Heck, the entire book starts in the middle of a bar brawl and then goes on to explain how it started. The book will describe the crew planning a caper, and then the next chapter starts in the middle of a gunfight. Or, the crew will be stuck, facing impossible odds, and the next chapter they're back on a safe station, talking about what a close call that was and describing the exciting escape in the past tense. I don't mind the technique, but when it happens over and over again you start to wish for a temporally linear action scene.
Anyway, despite my overly long rant, I did enjoy the book and I am going to get the next in the series when it comes out. It's well written and fun and definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of sci-fi.
May 2, 2014
Hull Damage, was, quite frankly, a huge surprise. A free Kindle book that's actually good? One that's actually a surprise? One with an adventurous writing style? Yeah, it does happen.
Hull Damage's basic 'trick' is that it isn't written from the perspective of its main character, Nemo. Instead it's written from the perspective of the people around him, predominantly his four main crew, who oscillate between wanting to strangle him and following him (mostly the former). It's a constant question of just what's going on in his head and just whether or not he is the idiot everyone thinks he is. It's reminiscent of the excellent anime Irresponsible Captain Tyler, but with a far greater variance in Nemo's competency and basic sanity. Nothing says hopeless like turning up to a naval battle absolutely hammered.
It's a trick that works purely because of how funny the interaction between the characters is. Nemo's irresponsibility, ego and unpredictability often force his crew into insane situations (a shootout in the cover of a pickle stand and a crazy battle with a warship standout in particular), but much of the humour just comes from the predictability of their life. Whether it's Two-Bit's chronically unreliable gun or Moira's tendency to get shot whenever she goes to a specific bar, there's an almost fatalistic notion to the humour, of how the insanity's coming and there's nothing they can do about it.
Adding to the fun is an imaginative universe that feels bursting with possibilities. There's dozens of references to sides of the setting that feel imaginative and fleshed out, even when they're just one sentence. There's often dozens of characters on the sidelines that sound like they'd be fun to learn more about. While the novel doesn't spend a lot of time defining what's what in the setting, it feels like it's thought out.
Finally, it's worth pointing out how wonderfully unpredictable the plot is. At one point I realised that I was a quarter of the way through the novel and I really had no idea where it was going, but I was having loads of fun getting there. There's a wonderful question hanging over the story of exactly what Nemo wants and who he is, and while it isn't entirely explained, there's enough hints that half the fun is trying to guess what he's planning.
Hull Damage certainly isn't for everyone. The characters are amoral and violent, the world's degenerate and profane, but it's fun. Really, really fun. It's definitely one of the best books I've read this year.
Hull Damage's basic 'trick' is that it isn't written from the perspective of its main character, Nemo. Instead it's written from the perspective of the people around him, predominantly his four main crew, who oscillate between wanting to strangle him and following him (mostly the former). It's a constant question of just what's going on in his head and just whether or not he is the idiot everyone thinks he is. It's reminiscent of the excellent anime Irresponsible Captain Tyler, but with a far greater variance in Nemo's competency and basic sanity. Nothing says hopeless like turning up to a naval battle absolutely hammered.
It's a trick that works purely because of how funny the interaction between the characters is. Nemo's irresponsibility, ego and unpredictability often force his crew into insane situations (a shootout in the cover of a pickle stand and a crazy battle with a warship standout in particular), but much of the humour just comes from the predictability of their life. Whether it's Two-Bit's chronically unreliable gun or Moira's tendency to get shot whenever she goes to a specific bar, there's an almost fatalistic notion to the humour, of how the insanity's coming and there's nothing they can do about it.
Adding to the fun is an imaginative universe that feels bursting with possibilities. There's dozens of references to sides of the setting that feel imaginative and fleshed out, even when they're just one sentence. There's often dozens of characters on the sidelines that sound like they'd be fun to learn more about. While the novel doesn't spend a lot of time defining what's what in the setting, it feels like it's thought out.
Finally, it's worth pointing out how wonderfully unpredictable the plot is. At one point I realised that I was a quarter of the way through the novel and I really had no idea where it was going, but I was having loads of fun getting there. There's a wonderful question hanging over the story of exactly what Nemo wants and who he is, and while it isn't entirely explained, there's enough hints that half the fun is trying to guess what he's planning.
Hull Damage certainly isn't for everyone. The characters are amoral and violent, the world's degenerate and profane, but it's fun. Really, really fun. It's definitely one of the best books I've read this year.
August 15, 2020
I had a hard time getting into this and i ended up dropping it. The short version is that the introduction didn't grab me with a overly long fight scene with endless alien words and phrases being thrown at me.
This right on the action approach didn't work for me and i ended up not getting sucked into this setting.
This right on the action approach didn't work for me and i ended up not getting sucked into this setting.
May 3, 2023
Yok arkadaş. Bitiremedim. İkinci defa başladım, dedim ikinci bölümü bitirmiş olayım bari ki mevzu açılır belki. Ama yok.
Anlatı kesinlikle kötü değil. Sadece... Anlamak için her 5 saniyede bir sözlüğe bakmam ve her bir kelimesini tek tek kontrol ettiğim cümleyi bir de çeviri programıyla dönüştürmem gerekiyor. Elemanın kullandığı kelimelerin pek çoğunu anadili İngilizce olanların bile anlayamadığını gördüm. Demek ki sorun bende değil.
Hikaye aksiyon dolu vs. ama... Yok arkadaş. Olmuyor. Çok istiyorum bitirebilmeyi, keyif alabilmeyi ama... Olmuyor. Sırf uzun uzun uğraştığı için "emeğe saygı" münvalinde 2 değil 3 yıldız veriyorum (ben de kimsem artık, laflara bak).
Anlatı kesinlikle kötü değil. Sadece... Anlamak için her 5 saniyede bir sözlüğe bakmam ve her bir kelimesini tek tek kontrol ettiğim cümleyi bir de çeviri programıyla dönüştürmem gerekiyor. Elemanın kullandığı kelimelerin pek çoğunu anadili İngilizce olanların bile anlayamadığını gördüm. Demek ki sorun bende değil.
Hikaye aksiyon dolu vs. ama... Yok arkadaş. Olmuyor. Çok istiyorum bitirebilmeyi, keyif alabilmeyi ama... Olmuyor. Sırf uzun uzun uğraştığı için "emeğe saygı" münvalinde 2 değil 3 yıldız veriyorum (ben de kimsem artık, laflara bak).
August 30, 2016
An impressive debut novel that is riddled like so many laserholes with insanely interesting characters, meaty prose, pithy dialogue, and immense, imaginative world building on a level of mastery seldom seen in the often borrowed and tired genre of contemporary Science Fiction literature... this is a damn impressive first foray from Meyer and a stellar read. Don't take my word for it though. Pirate this book today and see for yourself. Just be sure to arm yourself before entering into the wild, lawless expanse of Bad Space. You're off the edge of the galaxy, matey... here there be bastards.
January 5, 2013
A distinctly weird book but very well written and a great read.
April 22, 2014
Pirates, space ships and a good laugh, what isn't to like?
April 28, 2014
Not sure I'm going to be able to finish this book. The third person present tense is very off-putting.
4/28/14 I gave up.
4/28/14 I gave up.
July 26, 2014
Awesome
very entertaining read, thoroughly enjoyed it. 14 more words required ok I'm a happily married man who enjoys reading on the side
very entertaining read, thoroughly enjoyed it. 14 more words required ok I'm a happily married man who enjoys reading on the side
February 20, 2016
Like it
Worth a read. Going to get next book. Some of the language used is a little hard to understand
Good still
Worth a read. Going to get next book. Some of the language used is a little hard to understand
Good still
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews