Susan Shwartz (1) (1949–)

This novel is supposed to be a reinterpretation of [a:Joseph Conrad|3345|Joseph Conrad|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1198538984p2/3345.jpg] novel [b:Lord Jim|12194|Lord Jim|Joseph Conrad|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327936119s/12194.jpg|2578988]. It's at least made me want to dig up a copy and read that too. The premise is right up my alley - I love Horatio Hornblower and David Feintuch's Seafort Saga which is just Horatio Hornblower in space. This sounded great.

There are scenes in this novel that are really wonderful. A slow build up, beautifully detailed surroundings, believable emotion and intriguing backdrops suck you right in to the story.

Then you get an abrupt shift into the next one.

Over and over again the scene changed long before I was done with it. I was always wondering if I really understood what was going on.
I wanted to love this, but never got there. I'm not sure if the problem was the authour, the editor or just me, but the end result was was only so so. Perhaps you'll fare better
… (mehr)

Susan Shwartz (b. 1949) co-authored five Star Trek novels and has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards. Hostile Takeover, her most recent stand-alone novel, is structurally flawed but still worth reading. In the near future, corporations have replaced traditional governments. Execs travel in luxury to colonies in the asteroid belt, while steerage-class passengers travel to the belt as “shipcicles” to be thawed out only when their indentured labor is needed. Protagonist C. C. Williams is sent to the Vesta colony to quietly audit its books but soon finds herself the target of an assassination. Most of the action is packed into the last quarter of the plot, and I wish that C.C. had more scenes in which she exercised her forensic talents.… (mehr)