I give this series a little bit of extra leeway when criticizing it because it’s more of a fun and light sci-fi novel, and I think it can be taken a little less seriously. But there were several things that kind of grated on me. For example:
– A love triangle that was completely manufactured out of thin air. Captain Burke brings aboard his old girlfriend and immediately she’s all hot for him! No awkward trying to figure out their relationship or get to grips with old wounds or anything like that, just “let’s get naked and have sexy fun times!!”
Problem is that this causes jealousy with the only other female character in the story that has any kind of speaking lines… even though it seems like there’s nothing actually between her and Captain Burke other than some light flirtation.
– An implausible misunderstanding that causes tension between Burke and Kristoff. It makes zero sense that Kristoff thought that Burke attacked a mine. There would be no reason for him to think such a thing. Why would a report about an attack on a mine even involve his team in a mention when they were nowhere near the place?
Not to mention that this is the exact same kind of misunderstanding that happened in the last book… just as implausibly, I might add. There are some serious matters of incompetence going on in this organization!!
– A Captain Burke who becomes way less likable in this book as most of the time he seems either like a bumbling idiot who has no idea what he’s doing, or a fiery hothead who shoots first and asks questions later and has zero control over his temper. For example, he flies his ship into passenger vehicle traffic in order to chase down his enemy, which is unsurprisingly unsuccessful. What did he think he’d be able to do before the authorities stopped him?
– Alien fanatics that are WAAAYY too easy to convince of the error of their ways, and to turn themselves over to the authorities.
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It seems like throughout the book, elements are added for the sole purpose of causing tension or bringing the story to a certain place, but there is very little effort made to make those elements make any kind of sense. That’s just lazy writing. You’ve got to do the leg work to make your story feel real to your audience.
But I did enjoy the book, in spite of its flaws. I give it a pass mostly because I feel like this series doesn’t need to take itself too seriously… but there’s still a point where you can take this writing not seriously enough, and Joshua Dalzelle is really skirting that line!