Book Log 8/2013 - David Feintuch: Midshipman's Hope - Seafort Saga #1

[jacey]

Without a doubt this is Hornblower in space, with all the self-doubt and stiffness that characterised CS Forester's somewhat wooden hero. Stuffed full of Victorian Values which seem to lean towards spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-child, and focuses heavily on 'hazing' – apparently an American tradition of tormenting cadets in various nasty and pointless ways to toughen them up – all of which I found actively distasteful. It's not that I object to an author putting a character through hell, I don't, but usually it's for a plot-related reason and caused by the bad guys. Not so here. Oh, yeah, and in the future there's still capital punishment in the space navy. Hanging, would you believe?

Feintuch also makes a big thing about Christianity having had a renaissance in the future with all disparate branches now being united. That's always bound go down like a lead balloon with me, though I admit to not being unbiased in this. Even so it doesn't strike me as being realistic as many Christians move towards secularism

Anyhow, the plot fairly rattles along (with pauses for introspection). Nicholas Seafort is 17 and this is his first space assignment. In this book we see him trying to live up to what he thinks he should be as he's thrown unexpectedly into a position of responsibility, trying to lead men more experienced than himself. As I said, Hornblower in space, specifically Midshipman Hornblower in space. For me it blows its believability completely with a series of unfortunate and unlikely events which not only kills off the captain and his two senior lieutenants, but then also removes the 4th in command via a very quick-acting cancer. As if that wasn't enough – upon reaching Hope Nation – guess what? Yes, that's right, the bigwigs have been killed off and Seafort is actually senior to the officer left in charge and therefore in charge of the whole sector. I'm all for the occasional coincidence, but that's a lot to swallow

To be fair I know a lot of people appreciate Feintuch a lot more than I do, but this is not for me and I won't be reading more Seafort books.

Comments

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Probably a wise decision because Seafort's ManPain gets only worse.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Oh dear.

[davegullen.livejournal.com]

Yes, the ManPain doth grow and grow. It was the self-doubt, the inner agonies of ManConscience and ManDoubt that did for me rather than Feintuch apparently deciding to impose the worst possible outcome on every single encounter.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I was thoroughly sick of Seafort by the time I dragged myself to the end of this. Glad it's not just me.