The novel is about a disillusioned soldier in a future war. But that’s only the first 100 pages, which flow pretty well and are decent science fiction battle action. After the climax of the first part, which is about the soldier Felix and his troubles, there is a jarring discontinuity and the story picks up two years later with a pirate named Jack Crow, who escapes from prison, makes a deal with another pirate and goes down to a planet.
By this time I was well and thoroughly bored. I hate it when authors make their characters do stuff which they can’t describe. Jack Crow runs a con, and Steakley writes that it is very sneaky and how it feels and all that. Everything except explaining what the con actually is. Cop out! I kept trying to read on but it was both horrendously boring and not particularly good so I couldn’t bear to continue. Who knows, there may be nice action stuff ahead, but I’ll never get to it.
