If I was the editor for a dictionary, I would put this book's cover art next to the entry for "genre trash." It's the kind of book that begins with a dozen paragraphs of galactic history, delivered as pure exposition from no one's perspective, before introducing an unstoppable protagonist who starts out a slave and is banging an alien princess by twenty pages in. That literally happens. Then in the next twenty pages he is involved in a court conspiracy to assassinate an alien duke with a gun-implant in his middle finger. Another twenty pages later and he's working as a psychic mass-murder prevention cop on a space station. I know what you're thinking: "that actually sounds kind of sweet." And it is, a bit. Here's the thing: while not without redeeming qualities, Starhammer is just not worth your time when there is so much better science fiction out there.To Rowley's credit, his vision and ambition in world building are pretty laudable. But when it comes to execution -- narrative, dialog, and character building -- he just falls on his face over and over. If you encapsulated the plot of this book as an outline or a series of bullet points, you would get me and most other sci fi enthusiasts pretty excited, because there's a lot of fantastic action, weird aliens, galactic empires and such to make things interesting and varied. But then you sit down to read the book, which is composed of sentences made of words, and you start groaning at least once a page. To call the writing hamfisted is maybe too harsh. I think what's actually going on is more like a total abdication of editorial oversight on behalf of the publisher. Patrick Rothfuss lets books bake in the editorial oven for years after he finishes writing them. This feels like it was maybe given a single pass before being shipped to the printing press. For me, that seriously undercut the enjoyment I was able to extract from these pages, but looking around at other reviews I see that's not the case for every reader. And indeed, this came recommended to me by a friend who introduced me to Iain M. Banks, whose recommendations have rarely led me astray. But speaking for myself, I frequently found the characters' motivations unfathomable, both on the human and alien side of the equation. It's tough for me to get invested in the plot, no matter how sweet it looks in outline form, when the principal actors are the literary-dramatic equivalent of two-by-fours with faces drawn on them by magic marker.Now I'm reading some Robert A. Heinlein, and it feels like a breath of fresh air after walking past a row of Chinese restaurant dumpsters in August. Your mileage may vary, but if you're like me you'll mostly resent this book for being just good enough that you didn't put it down halfway through and move on with your life.
The Halo videogames borrowed heavily from this book, and Jason Jones of Bungie Studios was my reference for picking it up. For its creativity I am grateful that Jones appreciated it and borrowed many ideas for the game series. But the story itself is so dark that it gets predictable and gross. Torture, torture, rape, torture, humanity keeling over without a fight, people betraying each other over and over again...I am not sure Rowley realizes that when the enormity reaches that scale, it can't sustain itself. Societies based on evil don't last millenia. Anyway this also causes the characters to be personality-free and utterly disposable.I suppose in terms of science-fiction there were a lot of interesting ideas for the time. But I am glad that Jones, and the rest of Bungie, decided to include heroism and good in their stories. This utterly lacks any of it. It was the age of relativism in fiction, and like Jones' other favorite work, The Black Company, this story gets predictably amoral because of it.I won't be reading the sequels. I also skipped through to the end once a particular character was about to meet a horrible fate. I wonder how nerds of this era, who frequently identified with Star Wars, could also identify with this.
What do You think about Starhammer (1986)?
This book is the first in "The Vang" series. In this book the human race, after coming into contact with a technologically superior, but morally corrupt alien race, have become their slaves. The aliens modify human DNA to create genetic mutations that serve their particular needs. One of these genetic "slaves" becomes the hero of the story and, through circumstance, travels on a path, (an extremely violent path) that will change the course of human history. This book is a great read. Why is it so good? Well, the characters, plot, bad guys, impossible odds and a great epic story about a reluctant hero. I highly recommend this book to fans of Space Opera and fans of Christopher Rowley.
—Michael
