Bookworm Speaks!- Battlestations

Bookworm Speaks!

Battlestations 

Edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett

****

The Story: The Fleet thought the wars were over…but as a deadly race of insectoid invaders, the Ichton, sweep through the galaxy, races new to the alliance are in dire need of aid. Star Central answers with the mammoth battle station Stephen Hawking. The Hawking takes the fight beyond the boundaries of human space where the Ichton prove to be a formidable foe. Meanwhile, within the pseudo-planet’s stratified decks, the pressures of constant combat and close quarters may become the enemy’s most dangerous advantage. 

The Good: This book is different from a lot of military science fiction, in that soldiers are not the main focus, it is the people who have made their lives on board the battle station. There are plots and intrigue, fortunes made and lost, all the while a relentless enemy is bearing down above their heads. Epic scale conflicts can be great but getting into the nitty-gritty of life during wartime is compelling as well. Old conflicts still leave scars upon the people and all the talk of courage in the face of adversity does not pan out as well in real life. In the end…this book reminds of a painful lesson about humanity…the worst enemy of us is oftentimes ourselves. 

The editors did a good job with providing some context to the story by dividing the various entries into various categories, branching into different aspects of the society that has formed on board the Stephen Hawking. Counter-Intelligence, diplomacy, acquisition of resources, all form the basis of what the stories are trying to tell. 

The Flaws: Again, we run into the same problem faced by many readers of anthologies: The up and down quality of the stories. Some of the stories are interesting, some are boring, and some are just mediocre. This crops in many anthologies but it is a bit more pronounced in this volume than in some of the other anthologies that Bookworm has read. 

First off…it describes itself as military science fiction, but the majority of stories seem to have very little to do with the military aspect of the Stephen Hawking. It largely concerns the civilians and refugees of station. In of itself, that is not a bad thing, but readers might have gone into this book expecting soldiers and battlefields and instead getting stories about con artists and tradesmen. Its not what was promised and to be completely honest, its pretty boring. 

What this anthology lacks is consistency. Every story is going to be different, all of them being written by different authors, but it seemed like it was never coordinated as to what kinds of stories were going to be told. Aside from common terms used within the text, every story is pretty much stand alone, with no consideration to an overall story arc, like the summary says it will be.  

The war they are supposed to be fighting is extremely dull. A race that consumes all in its path has been done before. So much so that it is almost cliche. War is about winning and losing on both sides of the conflict with the civilians thrown into the middle. The Hawking is fighting a tidal wave, which is impossible. A strong antagonist is important in writing but the conflict itself also has to be fruitful in order to keep the reader engaged. The “horde of locusts” race allegory works for a two-parter on a space opera television show but can wear out its welcome in a four hundred page book, if the writers are not careful. In this book, they were not. 

Finally: Its not that big of a deal, but there is something disconcerting about naming a war machine after a scientist that has been labeled as a humanitarian. 

Final Verdict: Battlestations is an intriguing look at what people can become during the outbreak of war but the ultimate execution was lacking and as a whole, the book suffered.

Three out of Five Stars

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