Overall a pretty good book. A wonderful space opera. I enjoyed the main character and his first mate. Both good characters easy to like. Other characters not so much. Many of the more main characters had actions that caused you not to like them but actually lose respect for them. Other characters were quickly passed over and though it seemed like they should have larger parts they didn't. Lets face it though this is not a book you read to fall in love with good characters, its about the battles, and in that aspect it was good. This felt like it wanted to be an Honor Harrington book, but failed. Oh, not a copycat of the Manticore milieu, but "tone" of that universe. But instead of using the Universe of Ark Royal to examine the strengths and weaknesses of different view points, we area subjected to a constant chest thumping "military good, everyone else stupid." It got tiresome fast. I also got tired of over things that were repeated over and over and over again. Yes, the aliens are alien. Got it. Yes, Ark Royal has armor and the new ships don't. GOT IT. BUT, it was still a fun tale. I was listening to the audiobook, so maybe in printed form it is possible to spot yet another empathic assertion about group-X and just skip past it. If so, the book would have been even more fun.My exhaustion with repetitive bits and one mindless treatment of groups of people would have ranked this a one star. But it was still fun enough to get three.
What do You think about Ark Royal (2000)?
Derivative- Weak and cliched characterisation. Science and tactics also very weak.
—than
Very Silly at times, but decently written piece Military SF.
—katyttty
Just awful. Good concept but very poorly executed.
—Anna_Szakacs
