[.ca] Midshipman Hope (ISBN 1857234340)

Horation Hornblower in Space:
If you put Horatio in space then this would be it. This is an honest military science fiction book without any nonsensical dialog or 'fantasy' type bs Just good straight action and adventure with an 18th century british naval flare. It rocks :)

Overrated:
I think this book should have two sets of reviews, one set for those people who are in its target market (males under age 25) and another for everyone else. As someone in the "everyone else" category, I was not impressed. This is not the worst book ever written but it's pretty bad. The writing is decent but the lead character is unlikeable and uninteresting, the other characters are little more than cariacatures, spankings (yes, spankings) abound and contrivance is heaped upon contrivance in order to get our young "hero" in command of the spaceship.

Just Short of a SF Tier One Effort:
I have long ago accepted that most tier 2 and tier 3 American SF eliminates minorities and other nationalities in their projection into the future. If they are mentioned they are sterotyped, made into minor charaters or not mentioned at all. To allow the United Nations to be the new government in the future would have to have two of the bigest populations on the planet Earth (Chinese, Indian, Islamists, Latinos, etc.,). Many of the most imaginative SF creations are marred by the lack of projecting homo sapian into the future in his many flavors. The fact that is was not done relegates the novel to second tier. Still an interesting effort even though the main character needs to be a liitle more observant and less self-consuming. If not, his survival seems improbable, through all the trials and tribulations at such a young age. Honour Harrigan made me react emotionally positivly and hopefully for the future. This book makes me hope it is a little better then this in the world.

Good Science Fiction Should Not Make You Want To Die:
Just as a general rule, well-written science fiction shouldn't make you so depressed that you want to die. If you want a rough approximation of what the series is like, imagine a boot stamping on the human face, forever. Rather than letting us get caught up in the romance and the mystery of the idea of an intergalactic navy, Feintuch puts us through endless iterations of the same theme: naval discipline is harsh and strict and strict and did we mention harsh because it's time for another "caning". It's not a world that you want to live it, but it's not written as a dystopia, or as cautionary message; it's written as plain fact, even as necessary. There's no progression towards a better future, no warning of things to come, no indiciation that the world will change, no reason to read the series. It gives me the same kind of queasy feelings that I got from the Gor books. You can take from that what you will. And as for the idea that it's a good antidote for our "hedonistic" society, and that the British Navy was able to rule the waves: Rum, sodomy and the lash were the hallmarks of the British Navy, and our military - where corporal punishment is forbidden - manages to do just fine on its own. -Darren MacLennan

Entertaining with Reservations:
First, let me point out that the book definitely has a homoerotic theme. From page 296-97: "I moved closer to the fire, watching my handsome midshipman's face as he chatted with Amanda. Odd feelings stirred, recalling Jason, eons past." Second, I agree that the world as described would be pretty unpleasant. Last, I agree that the book has an uncomfortable number of unlikely events. All that said, it's still pretty entertaining.