Star Voyager Academy

Star Voyager #1

by William R. Forstchen

Cadet Justin Bell and his comrades at the elite Star Voyager Academy must face many obstacles and make tough decisions, both within the Academy and without, as tensions rise between the United Nations of Earth and space colonies threatening to secede. Author of ONE SECOND AFTER and described by Harry Turtledove as “one of the most intriguing writers today in the field of historical and military science fiction”, STAR VOYAGER ACADEMY offers a fast-paced, intelligent tale of young people facing challenges that will be part of America’s future.

"Bill Forstchen's works have flair and power."
- Joel Rosenberg

"With Bill Forstchen, you'll get some of the best adventure writing in years!"
- Science Fiction Chronicle

"One of the most intriguing writers today in the field of historical and military science fiction."
- Harry Turtledove, author of THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH and HOW FEW REMAIN

re: the LOST REGIMENT series:
"A parallel world novel of majestic sweep and gripping intensity."
- L. Sprague de Camp, author of LEST DARKNESS FALL and THE ANCIENT ENGINEERS

"Bill Forstchen is highly respected in the military history community because he is the only one working in the field who understands the operational aspects of war, as well as the tactical and the policy/Strategic levels."
- Dr. Dennis Showalter, Past President of the Society for Military History, author of TANNENBERG: CLASH OF EMPIRES

for ONE SECOND AFTER
"A riveting, cautionary tale."
- Booklist

"… a gripping author. Plot, characters and all the rest of the writing stew are well executed.
- The Washington Times

Genres: Science Fiction, Collections, Science Fiction Fantasy

193 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 1994

About the author

William R. Forstchen (born 1950) is an American author who began publishing in 1983 with the novel Ice Prophet. He is a Professor of History and Faculty Fellow at Montreat College, in Montreat, North Carolina. He received his doctorate from Purdue University with specializations in Military History, the American Civil War and the History of Technology.

Forstchen is the author of more than forty books, including the award winning We Look Like Men of War, a young adult novel about an African-American regiment that fought at the Battle of the Crater, which is based upon his doctoral dissertation, The 28th USCTs: Indiana’s African-Americans go to War, 1863-1865 and the "Lost Regiment" series which has been optioned by both Tom Cruise and M. Night Shyamalan.

Forstchen’s writing efforts have, in recent years, shifted towards historical fiction and non fiction. In 2002 he started the “Gettysburg” trilogy with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich; the trilogy consists of Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War, Grant Comes East, and Never Call Retreat: Lee and Grant - The Final Victory. More recently, they have have published two works on the events leading up to Pearl Harbor and immediately after that attack Pearl Harbor, and Days of Infamy.

In March 2009, Forstchen’s latest work, One Second After, (Forge/St. Martin’s books) was released. Based upon several years of intensive research and interviews, it examines what might happen in a “typical” American town in the wake of an attack on the United States with “electro-magnetic pulse” (EMP) weapons. Similar in plotting to books such as On the Beach and Alas Babylon, One Second After, is set in a small college town in western North Carolina and is a cautionary tale of the collapse of social order in the wake of an EMP strike. The book has been optioned by Warner Bros. and currently is in development as a feature film. The book was cited on the floor of Congress and before the House Armed Services Committee by Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R.-MD), chair of the House Committee tasked to evaluate EMP weapons, as a realistical portrayal of the potential damage rendered by an EMP attack on the continental United States.

Forstchen resides near Asheville, North Carolina with his daughter Meghan. His other interests include archaeology, and he has participated in several expeditions to Mongolia and Russia. He is a pilot and co owns an original 1943 Aeronca L-3B recon plane used in World War II.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/willia...

Reviews

[martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

My brother and I have been looking at this book for YEARS: we each remembered it vividly, but couldn't remember the title, until someone identified it on a message board where I'd posted. Victory!

I found an online review that says this is a poor-man's Ender's Game knockoff. There's a zero-G flying game played by kids on a space station school, which IS very similar to Ender's Game, but I think the similarities end there. It's basically Hogwarts in space: boarding school drama, plus having to learn astrophysics and how to deal with different gravities. Add in a talking computer named Uncle and lots of details about how to fly a spaceship, a brewing political schism between planetary colonists and Earth, and oh yeah, that flying game, and I was hooked.

Alas, with adult eyes I see how nasty some of the talk is about how Native Americans getting killed off was just a natural part of human domination, ick ick. Manifest Destiny is probably not the historical concept you want to be using as your positive metaphor, Forstchen.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in the Star Voyager trilogy by William R. Forstchen. Star Voyager Academy is essentially a sci-fi young adult novel. It is written in the spirit of Robert A. Heinlein's juvenile novels. A young man, Justin Bell, goes to the prestigious Star Voyager Academy. He was given an automatic entry because his father was a hero who sacrificed his life to save others. He doubts his own ability but in reality, is very intelligent and resourceful. He is also inexperienced with girls and people in general. He will have many trials on his journey to graduate from Star Voyager Academy.
Meanwhile, war is brewing in the Solar System as Mars and the outer colonies threaten to withdraw from the United Nations and have their own governments. All of this and aliens have taken notice of humankind and they are not at all friendly.
This book is a great read for those who are fans of YA and of Heinlein's juveniles.

[Denise Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was eager to read this, because I liked his One Day After series. His characters and stories are good. His only problem is he tends to lecture. It wouldn't be bad if you're a teen and didn't already know history or wasn't aware you were being lectured to. Being older, it can be annoying.

I know Forstchen is a history professor with a particular interest in the Civil War, and I can already tell this series is being set up to be the Civil War in space. Still, he's a good story teller, and even a bad book by him is better than a good book by most people, so I'll read anything he writes.

[Wenzel Roessler · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I 1st started reading this book I felt it was a 3 star outdated science fiction young author story. Then there were some pretty interesting training scenes I thought to myself this is a 4 star book . Then the characters really started to take shape and this is blossom into a 5 star book.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Voyager Academy is essentially a scifi young adult novel. It's important when giving it that label to know that the book was originally written in 1994 before ya books really took off.

And now for a bit of personal history lesson. I first read Star Voyager Academy back in the late 90's when I was a teenager. And I loved it. Partially because admittedly it is a bit of wish fulfillment: slightly awkward not the brightest, fastest, best looking guy ends up in space academy and ends up saving the day a few times. So yaye! A few weeks ago I was looking for something a bit on the lighter side and I remembered this book. So I popped over to Amazon and grabbed a used copy. And a day after it arrived I'd already finished it. Partially because it's a bit on the shorter side at only 288 pages but also because I spent a LOT of hours reading it. It sucks you in.

But apart from the teenage wish fulfillment, there's a LOT more going on in this book. Forstchen does a great job bringing home that this isn't a Trek or a Wars where we have readily accessible artificial gravity, warp drives, and the like. This is still very early space flight with gravity being achieved through station rotation, food is grown in hydroponics bays, and safety is a top priority. Added to that is the political backdrop of colonies and deep spacers struggling with oversight and demanded loyalty to an Earth many of them have never seen.

This might sound like a lot to include in one book set on a space station but the author does a fantastic job of weaving it into the lives of these cadets and the impact these larger elements have on them and our protagonist. We see them struggle to meet grades but also the beauty of space and the exploration/new frontiers that the book paints a fantastic picture of.

Justin plays the window for the reader to start to see and experience the world that the author has created. And in that world Forstchen starts a lot of conversations about what it means to be American, Earther, a member of the Human Race. Not surprisingly given Forstchen's background, there are sprinklings of historical tidbits spread throughout.

Overall this is a fun read that provides some basic teenage wish fulfillment but also dropping some interesting concepts and ideas that at least he me thinking about what nationality and obligation mean as we move to the stars.

[Freyja · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is your standard teen child of a hero following in his parent's footsteps and not finding it easy. Worse, his peer group looks at him and doesn't see what they expect the son of such a hero to look like, to the point that one classmate in his situation actually bullies him a bit. I found myself wanting to slap the bitch silly. Of course our protagonist hooks up with an outsider who seems to be what he isn't. They complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, almost too well IMHO. Eventually they prove their competence and later there is an emergency where the two have a chance to be heroes or die.

I finished it in one afternoon easily. It's not very hard science fiction as there isn't a lot of description of any technology.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nostalgic read

A traditional “boy’s book”, as Heinlein would describe it. Fortschen did a nice job of updating the story, even if the occasional anachronism slipped by. I’m ready to keep reading the series, which I am sure I will enjoy as much as his others.

[Andria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really like Forstchen’s writing style and how he ties history into his books in different ways, like the fact that a sci fi is also historical. Wish it was longer and would have been 5 stars if it had been more in depth with more character development.

[Diane R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leaves an interest in space and the people who would go there. I am a child of the space race.

I would recommend this book to today's children and teens at but a.basic knowledge f space. The characters are teens in boarding school on bc a spaceship.

[Stefanos Kouzof · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard, nicely thought out sci-fi. No plot holes, nice characters, inspiring vision, an order of magnitude above the rest. Highly recommended.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Star Voyager Academy was a book that attempted to be more than it could be. At it's most basic level, it was striving for the same feeling one got from reading Ender's Game. It takes a ground of kids, puts them onto a space station school for the army, and makes them play war games. A sound premise that could work very well. However, the author attempts to weave in a subplot involving the colonization of Mars and the rights and obligation it has in regards to Earth. This subplot takes up about half the book and doesn't lead to any particularly meaningful events. More than anything, it seems that the author was setting up the story for a sequel that he was planning.

The parts of the book that actually focus on the characters tended to swing from repetitive dialogue to somewhat deeper exploration of the characters themselves. The reader does get a feeling that Justin Bell is going through a change throughout his summer at Star Voyager Academy and living up to what everyone knew was in him all along.

All in all, the book is probably best read by those who enjoy any kind of books in the science fiction genre. It is definitely not a good book to represent the genre, it is a fairly quick read for those who enjoy a stint into the future.

[Sublimacia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Čítané v češtine ako Hvězdná Akademie.

Jednu hviezdičku to má pretože beriem do úvahy dátum výroby a skutočnosť, že YA SF vtedy ešte nefičalo ako dnes. Druhá hviezdička je za relatívne ľahký priebeh a rýchle čítanie.

Jedna hviezdička chýba za originalitu. Pretože naozaj je to ako bakalárska práca z Vysokej školy filozofickej - katedra Klišé a Opakovaní. Všetko čo je tam už bolo napísané a použité presne tak isto. Mladí študenti na vesmírnej akadémii, náš hrdina si nájde správňackého kamaráta, dievča čo doň rýpe, zasadnutého vedúceho, milujúceho riaditeľa školy, test na ktorom všetko stojí, školskú športovú udalosť, ktorú hrdinsky vyhrá, výlet kde sa stane hrdinom a neustále filozofovanie nad významom ľudstva.
Nájdete tam Endera, Pottera, Jupitera Jonesa s Petrom (aj Parkerom) a Bobom ... a vlastne všetkých :-D

Druhá hviezdička chýba za absenciunejakej dejovej linky. Nič sa v tej knihe nedeje. Pozeráme ako študuje prvý ročník a to je všetko. Keby to bolo prvých sto strán z tisíc tak chápem, ale ono je to celú knihu.

Tretia hviezdička chýba za opisy. Keby neopisoval úplne všetko je to veľmi čitateľná poviedka. Občas zdržoval aj to málo, čo sa dialo práve tým, že sa stratil v opisoch a filozofovaní.

Našťastie je to malinká knižka takže som netrpel dlho.

[Alex Ricard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy read. Recommended for fans of pulpy, fluffy sci-fi - I'll readily admit I was drawn you this book by the pulpy Uncle Sam-recruitment-poster-style cover. It's kind of an Ender's Game knockoff without much of the cleverness or long-term goals that book was able to achieve. It's got zero-g battle sports and everything.

The author's hamfisted attempts at conflating libertarianism, the Civil War, and the American Revolution are just a bit much. And the dialogue is hokey and a little too-familiar - one of the viewpoint characters, I couldn't tell if he was supposed to be Scottish or Southern. And just about all of them have the same voice, like if a middle aged man was trying to imitate how teenagers talk.

But the characters are nice, and the development of protagonist Justin Bell is well done, and the aforementioned battle sports are pretty exciting to read. I'll be picking up the sequels, but I'm in no rush.

[Matt Kurjanowicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really cool coming of age story. I really liked the environment and the ideas coming through about the awe of space. However, the book felt very quick and quite flat. I'm hoping that the characters are built upon in further books in the series. As it is, I feel like this book was half way between a novel and a short story. It lacked the depth of character development of a novel and also lacked the succinctness and get-straight-to-the-point-edness of a short story.

I am, however, impressed with how versatile the author is, as well as his pervasive and prolific nature. My first Forstchen book was "We Look Like Men of War," a civil-war era historical fiction novel. My second was a Wing Commander series book and this was my third. Each of the three books requires a separate style and premise.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I Really like WRF. He's a great writer, with other wonderful series. I'd read 20 more Lost Regiment books if he'd write 'em. But hey, this is book is a Reader's Digest Condensed version of Ender's Game. Young kids in a space academy, training for a global military, with strange aliens who are starting to feel us out with minor attacks, and old heroes who barely fought them off the first couple times . . . But with none of the depth or breadth or scope. A cheap knock off. How did OSC NOT sue him? It's not badly written, it's just written off Ender's outline . . .

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a brilliant piece of escapist fiction. It has a relevant political section that seems to almost be prophetic of the mindset in America today. The book follows Justin Bell during his summer session at Star Voyager Academy. His tests, his successes, and his failures. When I first read this book many years ago, it was a stand alone novel. Now I find out that there are two others. I guess I'll have to add them to my reading list.

[Jennifer Robb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the underlying story of an awkward 16 year old who's grown up in the shadow of a hero father (now deceased in the line of duty) who finds leadership qualities that he didn't think he had and emerges as a hero in his own right by saving a classmate.
I less liked the long stretches of political discussions and philosophy that sometimes invaded the narrative in talking about whether colonies had the right to want independence and how they should go about it.

[Brad Theado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable read

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Similar to some Heinlein books