Starship Eternal

War Eternal #1

by M.R. Forbes, Jeffrey Kafer (Narrator)

A lost starship...
A dire warning from futures past...
A desperate search for salvation…

Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams is a Space Marine and the hero of the Battle for Liberty, whose Shot Heard ‘Round the Universe saved the planet from a nearly unstoppable war machine. He’s handsome, charismatic, and the perfect poster boy to help the military drive enlistment. Pulled from the war and thrown into the spotlight, he’s as efficient at charming the media and bedding beautiful celebrities as he was at shooting down enemy starfighters.

After an assassination attempt leaves Mitchell critically wounded, he begins to suffer from strange hallucinations that carry a chilling and oddly familiar warning:

They are coming. Find the Goliath or humankind will be destroyed.

Convinced that the visions are a side-effect of his injuries, he tries to ignore them, only to learn that he may not be as crazy as he thinks. The enemy is real and closer than he imagined, and they’ll do whatever it takes to prevent him from rediscovering the centuries lost starship.

Narrowly escaping capture, out of time and out of air, Mitchell lands at the mercy of the Riggers - a ragtag crew of former commandos who patrol the lawless outer reaches of the galaxy. Guided by a captain with a reputation for cold-blooded murder, they’re dangerous, immoral, and possibly insane.

They may also be humanity’s last hope for survival in a war that has raged beyond eternity.

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction, Audiobook, Military Fiction, Time Travel, Military Science Fiction

Audible Audio

First published January 9, 2015

About the author

M.R. Forbes is the author of a growing number of science-fiction series including Rebellion, War Eternal, Chaos of the Covenant, Stars End, and the Forgotten novels. Having spent his childhood trying to read every sci-fi novel he could find (and write his own too), play every sci-fi video game he could get his hands on, and see every sci-fi movie that made it into the theater, he has a true love of the genre across every medium. He works hard to bring that same energy to his own stories, with a continuing goal to entertain, delight, fascinate, and surprise.

He maintains a true appreciation for his readers and is always happy to hear from them.

To learn more about M.R. Forbes or just say hello:

Visit his website:
mrforbes.com

Send him an e-mail:
michael@mrforbes.com

Check out his Facebook page:
facebook.com/mrforbes.author

Join his Facebook fan group:
facebook.com/groups/mrforbes

Follow him on Instagram:
instagram.com/mrforbes_author

Find him on Goodreads:
goodreads.com/mrforbes

Follow him on Bookbub:
bookbub.com/authors/m-r-forbes

Reviews

[Zch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Note: Writing this as an avid science fiction fan, whose first real book he ever read was Star Wars at the age of 4, almost over 35 yeas ago, and never stopped devouring SF. When I ran out of SF translated into my mother tongue, I learned English and continued devouring. I don't know how many books I've read. By the age of 18 I've raided all libraries in my hometown and read EVERY SciFi (and lots of Fantasy) title. I enjoy good military SF, but this is complete and utter garbage.
Maybe it would be interesting if I was 4 years old again. At that time Star Wars was magical for me, and I struggled to understand some concepts.
With this book, I doubt I would have same problem.
Story is flat, characters are two dimensional, the author's concept of time travel (I won't spoil anything) is just uninspiring and unimaginative, worldbuilding leaves much to be desired and story is just garbage. How this got this high rating is beyond me.

If you crave some good SciFi combat with uber advanced tech go for Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga, or maybe Altered Carbon if you are not interested in long read.

Also, this is more fantasy then science fiction, it couldn't even be called space opera, not that I am big fan of techno babble, but this is just plain unfinished/unpolished and boring as hell.

Maybe I'm the wrong audience, maybe it's suited for kids who are getting into SF, and will get turned on by mechs/starfighters and scenes which describe how main character porks every second female he stumbles upon.

[Fred Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually started reading this book several days before I posted it.

This is a great mix of military science fiction and multiple time lines.

Mitchell Williams is a Space Marine and the celebrated hero who made the shot heard throughout the universe in destroying what appeared to be an unstoppable war machine. So now he is being used as a large public relations machine to enhance funding and recruitment into the Space Marines and other forces. The first month or so was fun but now Mitchell realizes he will never get to pilot a space fighter which is his true love. Plus he is under constant threat by the creators of the war machine he destroyed.

However, it's all a big lie as Mitchell was there when the war machine was destroyed but not the pilot that took the shot; he just happens to have been the only survivor of his team.

Soon it all starts to unravel as an assassination attempt comes really close and he meets someone who tells him he has a higher calling and needs to find Goliath.

Goliath was a state of the art warship that was launched 400 years ago for a 15 minute test run and never returned.

In his quest to find Goliath he runs into all sorts of people who may be able to help him or are trying to kill him.

A rousing space opera with compelling characters.

From a picky perspective it appears that the copy editor didn't read the last 50 pages of the book as there are grammar and spelling errors throughout. It was just weird that the front of the book was tight from this perspective, and then it changed.

Still a Good Read, and recommended

[L J Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am quite surprised by the quality of many self-published books. M R Forbes has produced a small gem here of interstellar warfare. This is the first of seven volumes that make up the entire story and I am itching to get to volume 2, The End of Liberty. The writing is quite good and the book has very few mispellings or editorial errors. The plot has a forward thrust that keeps you engaged and the many mysteries that are encountered are perplexing, but very interesting.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining!

Really enjoyed the story but Mitchell a bit too perfect. It got tiring to read about all the women throwing themselves in bed with him.

[AudioBookReviewer · Rating 4 out of 5]

ABR's full Starship Eternal audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Captain Mitchell Williams is the celebrated hero of the recent battle which saved Planet Liberty. Unfortunately, it’s all a lie, his wing mate and lover actually did it, sacrificing herself in a suicide attack against overwhelming odds. But the Alliance is keeping quiet, using Mitchell as a PR pawn to attract military recruits. The Alliance and Federation are 400 year old Earth factions who have been at war since an alien ship crashed into the Earth in the mid-21st Century.

Mitchell hates taking the credit, but goes along with the ruse until he is lured into a sexual liaison with the Prime Minister’s wife. Accused of rape and exposed as a fraud, he has only one option—run—but where? He is helped by criminals, an antique ship with future technology and even his past self. Barely making it to the edge of known space, he finds more questions than answers.

Starship Eternal has some time travel elements, but they are more conceptual than actual. Most of the action is real time and no one is jumping forward or backward at will. The novel is more of a high-tech military story with plenty of fighting action and military situations, brain implants, medical nano-bots, lasers and force fields. Much of the story takes place on a mining ship full of court-martialed misfits who run espionage runs when they aren’t trying to kill each other.

There is plenty of action throughout the story to keep any space war junky happy. Mitchell has every woman after him, getting enough sex for half the galaxy, though none of it described explicitly.

The story is read by Jeffery Kafer who does a very good job. He has a pleasant baritone voice and is good with character changes. You will enjoy listening to his voice through the length of the novel and presumably, through the sequels.

Starship Eternal is a great ride, full of action and plot twists that keep the listener thoroughly entertained. Though, technically SciFi military, it has a lot of space opera elements that give it a much wider feeling. Time travel is a central element of the story, but the scientific explanations don’t hold much water, better not to over think it. Just go with it and enjoy the ride. The novel wraps up the initial action well while still leading the listener to the sequel.

Audiobook provided for for review by the publisher via audiobookblast

[Charlie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slightly interesting story destroyed by too many stereotypes

Started so I finished because I wanted to know the end but seriously.... not well written at all. Many stereotypes of alpha males, woman who want alpha males etc etc. In this day and age, to me at any rate, sci-fi should be exploring possibilities not only of the future but of different ways of thinking, of feeling, of what it means to be human. I’ve read the synopsis for the following books just to get an idea of what happens because I don’t want to poke through any more of this.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 2.5/5
***Minor spoilers***

Mitchell is a Space Marine in a world where humans have colonized planets all over our solar system and other solar systems. In a battle versus their enemies known as the Federation, he watched as his friend and lover died while taking down the battleship that would have killed them all. After the battle, Mitchell is being paraded as a hero, with the military making him take credit for destroying the battleship so that he can become a celebrity and encourage military enrollment. All is going well enough until he is attacked in an assassination attempt, and after his p-rat (an overlay built to access from only your eyes) is repaired, he begins to have hallucinations saying how he needs to find the first spaceship humanity ever built. He isn't sure what that means, but he finds that he doesn't necessarily have to know, because he's about to be forced to do so by circumstances out of his control.

I'm always a bit tentative about space sci-fi because I usually seem to either hate it or love it. Somehow, this book ended up in between. In terms of things I liked, I found that characters to be pretty interesting and unique. Mitchell seemed a lot more self aware than other protagonists, which was a big relief. Millie, who shows up later in the book, annoyed me a little at first but quickly became pretty likeable. The plot was interesting in some ways, but most of my issues with this book were actually about the plot.

The plot to this book was the sort of plot that tried to do so many things at once without sufficiently explaining them. However, I also think that if more explanation was thrown in, the book would've become too long. For that reason, I think the book really would have benefited from having a simpler plot so that more would make sense to the reader. It felt that the whole explanation of the "futures past" thing was really glossed over and left me confused every time it was mentioned. Things became more confusing as the book went on, the my rating dropped as things kept getting more complex but still not explained.

Overall, I liked the general story and the characters in this book, but the plot really felt short. The author made it more complicated than it ought to be, and continued to add in more elements without properly explaining the previous ones. It became really tiring to keep reading about new things in the plot but not fully understanding them. I wouldn't stop you from reading this book, but I also wouldn't recommend it, and I think there's much better sci-fi out there to be read.

[Paloma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really into the plot... I was really not into the poor female representation though.

I strongly considered toughing it out. I was into the story and appreciated having a fast, action-packed read on my hands and then would be immediately taken it out of for a deep sigh and eye roll at the casual misogyny.

Listen, it's not blatant by any means. It's covert and subtly indicates an inability to create nuanced female characters.

First, why does every female in this story have to be super model hot? There's a subtle difference between describing someone's physical attributes (blonde, tall, lean, etc.) and the narrator letting you know indisputably that they're hot. If your story centers around military women and trophy wives of important men, just describe them as "fit" or "lean" or whatever. I don't need to know that they're all sexy.

Second, what is with the narrator and panties. It's unnecessary. It comes up when a young (specifically 19 or 20 young) woman walks up to Mitch and gets his autograph and says that she masturbates to him. I don't have a problem with a young woman expressing her sexuality in a healthy way. I have a problem with the fact that we need to make it VERY CLEAR how young she is (because it wouldn't be hot if an older woman said that) and we need to emphasize that her shirt barely covers her breasts and she's possibly just wearing panties as shorts.

Also, with Kathy: Kathy takes a run every morning before her squad wakes up. It was also apparently important to note that Kathy does not merely put sweatpants on but "over her panties". At the risk of sharing intimate secrets over the internet, I too put pants on over some sort of underwear. I really don't understand why it's necessary to say that your sweatpants go over your underwear. They usually do. The only reason to emphasize this is for the visual image in our head not to be of a young woman getting ready in the morning but specifically in a young woman in sexy panties putting pants on and covering them up.

I find it interesting as well that in the future, almost every important man is with a woman at least a decade younger in him. This is made clear in the gala. In and of itself, not a problem but it ticked me off that the first most important thing about a woman is how hot she is and the second most is how young she is.

Final nail in the coffin of casual misogyny: Mitch gets in trouble for allegedly raping a woman. It's clear to us, the readers, that he did nothing of the sort. However, rape and sexual assault are disturbingly common for many women. With report rates being low and many perpetrators running free, you're getting into dangerous territory by making a false rape accusation being a major plot point. I think one could, but it needs to be done carefully and respectfully and If you can't do that, please don't even touch the topic. I'm not opposed to sexual assault being a key point of a narrative, but this compounded with all the other points mentioned was just too much.

[Selena Lang · Rating 2 out of 5]

The characters all felt flat and uninteresting to me. Honestly the time loop theory had me very confused. It was hard to follow and did not really make any sense to me. It was decent enough to finish the book, but not enough to have me go out and buy the next two books in the series. It just did not hold my interest long. It felt...off somehow. And the quickness in which he was accepted and became, for all intents and purposes, the leader of the rag tag band of criminals was a bit too much. The author was trying for camaraderie or brotherhood or something along those lines I think, but it just did not come to fruition. It did not feel like a "band of brothers" or come even close to that. It was too quick to form real feelings and relationships among the crew and the ending was just that...an ending...no feeling of triumph or relief or looking forward to continuing the story.

[Kurt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good representation of the genre

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve only read one other book by this author, M. R. Forbes, and it’s interesting that he uses a bunch of convicts to do his fighting. In “Hell’s Rejects”, a group of criminals breaks out of “Hell” a maximum security prison and eventually start helping the military that put them there. Now, back to this book, we have a war hero, Captain Mitchell “Ares” Williams, running for his life after being framed for something he didn’t do. He runs right into a bunch of, you guessed it, criminals setup on a salvage starship called the “Schism”. But, things are not quite as they appear.

Captain Mitch Williams was leading the good life. A Space Marine fighter pilot who had not only survived the battle for Liberty, but who became the hero of the galaxy when he single-handedly destroyed the Federation behemoth that was attacking the planet Liberty. He’s now touring the galaxy being used as a recruiting tool for the Alliance Navy. And, he’s doing a good job. He’s a handsome fairly young guy, with a natural charm that makes his life interesting when meeting some of the galaxy’s more attractive females. He doesn’t mind the attention although it can be quite taxing at times and he would very much like to just go away for awhile and rest. Yet, there’s no rest for him now or in the future. The Federation knows who he is and they won't forget what he did. He lets his guard down once and slips his handlers (a PR guy for the Navy) and winds up getting that handler killed and himself almost assassinated.

He understands the assassination attempt. He doesn’t like the idea of being a target, but he’s military so he knows what they are trying to do. Then he gets another handler, but unlike the previous PR guy, this is one mean Major. She now outranks him and she’s not going to cut him any slack. He’s going to do what he’s told and go where he’s told and that’s a fact. Except everything is a lie.

This is a very good, fast paced story. It’s not just about the Alliance and Federation fighting each other, but something else is happening out on the fringes of the galaxy. Earth long ago launched its first FTL ship, the Goliath, which also became the first FTL ship lost forever. No one really knows where it went. Now, it’s up to Captain Williams to find it or Earth and all of humanity might just cease to exist.

I wish writers would find better military consultants when they write military stories. This one got some things right, but then it get confusing later on. We have a ships Captain, who is rightly called Captain by the crew, but she’s actually an Admiral. Now it totally doesn’t make sense why an Admiral would be commanding only a single ship on the fringes of the know galaxy. At best, the Captain of this ship would be a Navy Captain. That would make sense. There there’s the problem with Captain Williams coming aboard. He should have been temporarily promoted to Major so as not to have two Captains running around on one ship. That’s why Marine Captain equivalents in the Navy are called Lieutenants. There’s just one Captain of a ship and it doesn’t really matter what his/her rank is, as long as he/she is on the ship, he/she is addressed as Captain. Going around calling Williams, “Captain”, confuses the hell out of some parts of the book. Ok, that’s my gripe for this book.

It is a good start to a really interesting series. I already have the second book, “The End of Liberty” and I just realized that this series already extends out to book 7! Wow! I’ve got a lot of reading to do.

[Pariah Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written and paced. Imaginative with excellent character development. Truly impressive! I've already bought the next three books in the series just based on the first.

The only way you know it's self-published is the consistent grammatical mistakes, which are jarring. The author apparently doesn't know that ship names are to be italicized and that non-interrogatory sentences that include the words "who," "what," "when," "where," and "why" shouldn't end in question marks. The author also named an event "the Shot Heard 'Round the Universe." After writing he clearly did a search & replace on the entire book to capitalize every instance of "Shot," the majority of which shouldn't be, which is distracting from the reading.

[Donna Berthelette · Rating 1 out of 5]

does this book (or these books) stop being stupidly sexist or does it continue along the same lines as the first few chapters? the objectification of the women in the book so far has been disgusting and a huge turn off.

....ok I couldn't stomach it anymore. This is absolute garbage how he describes/treats women in his book. going to the Did Not Finish pile which I just created for the book. That's how bad it was.

[Mark R · Rating 1 out of 5]

Generally speaking, books like this should judged as a series instead on their own merits. If I was judging the book alone, it's be a solid 4-star space opera pulpy page turner, not a bad example of the breed either. The conceit behind the titular War Eternal is a decently fun idea itself.

Oh, sure, the brave hero punches way above his weight class, every woman falls madly in love with him, the author forgets his own established plot details and characterizations a time or two, the usual suspects, no big deal, you knew what this series was.

If the author had just stayed in his pulpy nonsense lane, I'm sure I'd have ridden out the series, happy as can be with the shocking twists and turns as the actions of a surprisingly small number of heroes saves the galaxy against all odds!

Instead, as the series progresses, in his bid to darken things up a bit, the author decides to make Cormac, the serial murder-rapist who doesn't even have the decency to keep his actions in the past of the series like everyone else in the suicide squad the main character what's-his-name-generic-hero-the-dumb-genius joins up with. I got about halfway through the page count of the series before realizing that asshole has a good chance of making it all the way until book 7, and just couldn't do it anymore when he started joking about getting laser eyes to repair his dramatic injuries that would have killed a better character.

If you want to read about morally black pulp characters, doing what they have to in an increasingly grimdark universe where even the heroes are tainted, fighting hopeless battles they win anyways through sheer grit that eventually get laser eyes, I'd read a 40k novel about Commissar Yarrick. He's literally a space Nazi, and he'll leave less of a bad taste in your mouth.

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great but one thing lets it down

I really enjoyed this book, the story is epic and well written with a great concept of timelines. The battles that take place are very well written and do not get overly complicated as sometimes seen with these books.

The only thing letting it down is the fact that the main charter is literally irresistible to women, every woman in the book comes on to him and hr sleeps with most of them. That aside I'm still going to read the next book as I'm hoping that this was building up to something else that causes him to change in the next book. The story and the potential that the book has set up for the series is enough for me to carry on.

Well worth a read.

[Robert D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a difficult book to get into. Mitchell, the main character, for all his intelligence and skills he actually was doing a good job of not paying attention to details and allowing himself to be lead into circumstances easily avoided. Once past chapter 11 it was a little more interesting, though Mitchell was still being lead into trouble. When reading the book I kept finding it very similar to Robotech. At towards the end even more so. It was not a bad book, but it took a while to get going.

[Andrew Rose]

Opening Salvo

M.R. Forbes ventures out from the previous paranormal fiction and into the lanes of deep space in this Space opera story. The characters are well written and the plot is deep, keeping the reader guessing as both time and space are explored. If you like David Weber give this a try

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read. Cannot wait to read the second book. Thank you for the recommendation, John W!

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one a lot! it's good science-fiction, and it leans toward a mature rating, but the action is good. I will be reading more of this series.

[James Carter · Rating 1 out of 5]

Charming and charismatic!? The main character is a complete womanizer. Nothing else in the book was strong enough to forgive this so I abandoned it 65% in. Terrible.

[maxamoud · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much

I didn't like the main character And I didn't like how Female characters was Handled and the science part was underwhelming I'm gonna look for another space opera.

[Austin Bates · Rating 3 out of 5]

The concept for this story is a mixed bag of elements ranging the gamut from "ooh, that's interesting" to "Uh, what?" and also "So, basically, magic then?" The narrative style is more or less solid, with excellent pacing and smooth flow. However, some of the characters, plot devices, and technology portrayed requires a bit more of a suspension of disbelief than I can manage. This is probably where I fell out of liking this book the most.

First, the concept central to the plot conflict of this novel is not well presented, and sure part of that is the circumstances under which the concept is relayed to a character. But even still, the idea of it is only ever brushed over, and we, the readers, are just expected to go along with the ideas that spawn from this vague and opaque concept.

Second, the actual nature of the enemy and the technology around them is never clear. This is where my "magic" comment comes in. This is where I'm sure the other books in the series will pick up and provide more details. However, in the span of this single story, what's presented is weird and unclear.

Third, the character development in this story is oddly hit and miss. The protagonist is interesting, and dealing with a lot of guilt, but many of the rest of the characters he meets are weirdly undeveloped. In fact, another major character he encounters seems a contradiction in ideas and seems all over the place. Many of the other characters are just names with one or two described faucets.

Fourth, the sociopolitical climate is never once explained. We eventually learn of three major factions: New Terrans, The Federation, and The Alliance, but its never explained why they're all at war with one another, what people think about it, how it affects society, etc. I know that this is book 1 of 7, and without looking at the titles or summaries, I would bet money one or more of those books will touch on this further. But in the scope of this first novel, the lack of scene setting is bizarre, since a large part, actually, almost the entire first part of this novel is predicated on the ongoing war between the Alliance and the Federation, and a military-recruiting drive the protagonist is part of. But why are these two factions fighting? No one is ever presented as being opposed to this war without reason. Even one simple scene of a protester barging on stage during a TV interview with the protagonist would have set up a great launching point for context.

Fifth and finally, a large part of this story takes place in space, and yet I'm always left confused as to the actual distances in which things occur. Perhaps my perspective is tilted because I've read all of The Expanse books so far, which take PAINSTAKING efforts to emphasize the actual vastness of space and how combat would occur in it (slowly and from insane distances). In Starship Eternal, however, I think there were maybe three or four references to actual distance measurements in the entire book. Further, when combat occurs, it sounds like ships are waiting until they're right on top of each other before firing. That's a bit weird. And not all of the directional or vector descriptions are clear.

All that said, the book has an intriguing series of plot twists and great pacing. At some point I'll probably read the next installment, but by the end I was starting to lose interest and felt myself pulling away from the story.

[Ryan Pritchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tldr and no spoilers: 5/10, excellent sci-fi, entirely too much sex for my taste. Left me wishing it was better executed because it was well written. Will read more due to my enjoyment not being ruined, just hampered.
Kind of a "The Expanse, if it was a turn your brain off action flick" sort of vibe.

5/10 feels both too low and not low enough, so it probably fits. I think the amount of work that went into the plot and the writer's ability to play with dramatic tension and write a gripping action scene are a bit at odds with how over the top horny this book was for the main character. Which makes for a weird place to digest the book. Because I love what the book offers as a sci-fi book, but find trouble finding a lasting joy navigating the choice to make actually all but 1 female character rocket-propelled towards romance with him in some way. Which is a kicker, because in a vacuum I think the female characters all had potential to be extremely interesting in their own right, but then they're all cheapened by the unifying factor of "must sleep with main character, must sleep with main character" being all but a siren call to them. For someone who had lost the love of his life, development of a sex addiction to cope could potentially be interesting, but not when he has the Marty Stu-like quality of warping role of almost all female characters he comes near into bond girls that can't keep away from him.

Devils advocacy here though, since it is called to attention that Mitchell is very conventionally attractive, talented, and intelligent. It certainly makes sense that female characters would find themselves attracted to him. And I give a clean pass to two: the news personality woman in the beginning and Millie. Former: it's a statement made early about the setting and how the alliance treats Mitch as a celebrity. And I think Millie was a legitimately interesting character, marred a bit by how quick she ended up with Mitch. But to be stuck on a prison boat or sorts beating off advances with a metal bat, for Mitch to arrive, be genuinely interesting and attractive, turn her down initially (not as interesting of a choice since they ended up together shortly after) and then develop a great working relationship together, I thought was neat. Imperfect, but I give Millie a pass because I found her interesting. Rising action with prime Minister's wife? Really gross way to showcase the antagonists' ability to hijack people. Spooky, but could've been done another way. Major Arapo? Didn't need to kiss Mitch. Sets up more later, but also could've been done differently. Pseudo Russian pilot? To be fair they didn't do the dirty, but the attraction was there. And by that point, I'm not about to herald Mitch's ability to keep it in his pants when he and Millie are plowing each other's brains out between chapters, even if I liked their relationship.

I think my endpoint thesis is "love what the book does, hate how it goes about it.". Making so many plot points fueled by Mitch rutting like a damn animal makes for a portrait with not enough color. Very interesting plots around, but when each one starts from a sex-fueled point, I just wish that the author chose to paint with more nuanced color. Because he proves he can do nuance!

Maybe more will come in later books that touch on these gripes. Definitely going to continue.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

What fun! But then, I'm pretty easy to please

This isn't my first rodeo with M.R. Forbes. I thoroughly enjoyed another series of his and wanted to read more, as close to chronologically as I can. I already knew going in to this one that I would be in for a wild ride of fantasy/sci-fi goodness, and I was RIGHT. This was right up my alley of entertainment. Once the story took off from its semi-slow start, I was hooked. Sure, there were some overly busy scenes that were hard to visualize, or complicated terminology not easy to remember, but all that did was really cement the fact that I was in another world and time. It made it feel that much more a story all its own.

There were plenty of things to keep me busy as a general sci-fan: insane action, futuristic tech, space battles, fun characters, and intriguing plot revelations. I loved Mitch almost right away, and Christine just the same. There were plenty of characters to both like and dislike in this book. I do pine for more expansion on folks, but I'm willing to wait to see what the future entries will reveal to me. The story itself was mostly easy to follow, though it did kinda lose me here in there once it took a complicated turn deeper into sci-fi territory. But to be fair, any story that involves time travel in any capacity isn't guaranteed to be easy to follow, at least for me. Mind-boggling stuff, and I admire anyone who can tell a story on it without getting lost themselves.

I don't remember having many complaints, other than feeling a little lost as I tried to visualize certain action scenes. There were also a couple of scenes here and there that felt a little nonsensical, like I didn't quite catch how they came to be. I feel like there was simply a lot going on at times that I couldn't always keep things straight. But that's more my problem than anything else. And it certainly didn't ruin things for me. I still had a hell of a good time on this one and am absolutely pumped to continue.

Because I want answers, dammit!

[Craig Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's start with the bad. There's this obsession in (particularly US) Sci-fi with sex, there's clearly a large part of the audience (or at least the authors) that consider the form to be more Western Hentai than Sci-fi. What's weird about Starship Eternal is it all seems so incredibly bolted on.

It would've been acceptable for our protagonist to be merely irritated at the idol worship he is subjected to, and indeed that element is well written. It is even somewhat forgivable to see him acting out on some of that through the clear self-loathing he has gained. Where it became incredibly problematic was when seemingly well rounded female characters succumbed with zero motivation, the worst example being the 'Admiral', who jumps into bed with him after telling a traumatic story of rape, completely destroying the incredible characterisation the author had embedded her with up to that point. I'm not saying it is impossible, but it damages the story and the character deeply.

The other issue is the book's ending, which packs so much plot in it comes across as rushed and poorly edited. It's very much a "blink and you miss it" time, and there's nowhere near enough space to adjust to the transformations occurring.

If these issues were addressed it would be an incredibly interesting story. There's, the "Wheel of Time" concept that is very apropos at the moment (with Jorden's version's resurgence in mainstream media), some genuine mystery to grapple with and otherwise decent characters.

[Desmond · Rating 1 out of 5]

Time and again as I read this book, there were these small glimpses of a better novel. Yet, between stereotypical and sophomoric character writing, uninteresting and flat plotting, and a confusing and poorly presented setting and world, this book is just bad. It's easily the worst I've read in some time.

The main character is the primary problem here, an alpha male space marine whom the author spends several chapters describing as so cool that nearly every woman throws herself at him and men will literally risk summary execution just to spy on his sexual exploits. He is, despite this, a charisma black hole, deeply uninteresting while being instantly loved and admired by every character he encounters. He is also, would you believe it, the chosen one of this story, the only one who can save the galaxy. It is honestly stunning how quickly every character encounters believes his bizarre tale of time travel and desertion, and the extreme punishments that are dealt to the rare characters who dare to question him. In general, the time travel aspect of this book is poorly executed and in my opinion not interesting. It just becomes another excuse for the author to revel in how cool his main character is.

Do yourself a favor, and read anything else.

[Thomas James · Rating 5 out of 5]

To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before

Title taken from the original Star Trek. (They later changed it to, "...where no-one has gone before." ) Forbes takes us there. To places no-one has gone before. In Starship Eternal he introduces and incorporates the concept of circular or endless time. This is a concept alien to me and, indeed, it gets complicated and confusing at times. How could it not? He develops the main character well, demonstrating both his strengths and faults. What makes him tick. What makes him happy, sad, mad, and enraged. Forbes doesn't miss any part of what makes us human and, in that way, I identify with him. I am not likely to ever be a star-fighter pilot, but we are human. With strengths, weaknesses, fears and all. That is exactly what I enjoyed most about this book. The science-fiction and story are great fun, but they are the messenger not the message. Forbes told me he primarily wants to make people think. Success, Mr. Forbes. Success.

[Anders · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that the main protagonist isn't the usual underdog. Instead he has everything (the skills, the looks, etc etc), but is a wreck on the inside. Another nice touch is the mysterious key people who appears on photographs and videos centuries apart. I also liked the different high-tech gadgets, not to mention the explanation why ship computers still aren't as good as humans in space ship dog fights, how "beautify"-filters are applied directly to news media streams etc.

I read some other reviews where other readers complains about the too two-dimensional characters, their lack of character development and the fact that all (good looking) women throws themselves at the protagonist. I agree to all that. To the authors defense, quite a few of the characters doesn't last enough to have a fair chance to develop. Also, I don't know if the women exist to describe Mr Perfect (bad author) or if it, in combination with the drinking, is a way to describe Mr FairlyBrokenMan (good author). I think the next book will answer that.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this in Kindle Unlimited and the synopsis sounded really good.

I've read this over the last 4 days and I have to say the plot was really interesting but annoyingly it seemed to lack somethinh special.

I found it really hard to empathise with Mitchell... And i couldn't relate to any of the characters, that could be due to the fact thats it's futuristic but also i found none of the characters to be good.

I found the pacing lacked something... It seemed to go slow but then at times it seemed to rush which was just odd. I found the characters to be very unbelievable and strange - and not in a good way.

The narrator Mitchell is very reliable and the story is told well from his pov despite it seeming to jump around at times.

Not sure if I will be continuing the series or not 🤔

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like science fiction but normally prefer fantasy books when I am yearning for an imaginative read. That said...I have loved many sci-fi novels that I have read and this book now joins those ranks. It is well written and has an intersting and engaging plot along with characters you connect to which all combined makes for a very enjoyable experience. I do think that the ending of the book where you find out who or what the antagonist is may be a little muddled and unclear from a "ahhhh...I see" perspective but I suspect it will be cleared up in more detail in the rest of the series which I will definitely read!