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Starship  By  cover art

Starship

By: Mike Resnick
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Mike Resnick
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Publisher's summary

The date is 1966 of the Galactic Era, almost three thousand years from now, and the Republic, created by the human race - but not yet dominated by it - finds itself in an all-out war.

They stand against the Teroni Federation, an alliance of races that resent Man's growing military and economic power. The main battles are taking place in the Spiral Arm and toward the Core. But far out on the Rim, the Theodore Roosevelt is one of three ships charged with protecting the Phoenix Cluster - a group of 73 inhabited worlds.

Old, battered, some of its weapon systems outmoded, the Teddy R. is a ship that would have been decommissioned years ago if weren't for the war. Its crew is composed of retreads, discipline cases, and a few raw recruits. But a new officer has been transferred to the Teddy R. His name is Wilson Cole, and he comes with a reputation for heroics and disobedience. Will the galaxy ever be the same?

BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction by author Mike Resnick.

Engage! Hear the rest of the Starship series.
©2005 by Mike Resnick (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Starship

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    39
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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    125
  • 4 Stars
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  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
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    17

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Good Fun

Let me start with what this is not.
It is not Orson Scott Card, deep and emotional.
It is also not Asimov, overwhelming you with technical details. This is a good story about characters you come to like very quickly, and it never lets you get bored or distracted. It is light and engaging, and the hero is what he should be, a little smarter than everybody else. (a bit like James Bond) I could do without the narrators overused and distinct "said Cole",.. "said Foreyes",.. "said Cole",.. "said Fujiama",.. But this does disappear as the story continues.
I bought the second book before I had finished the first, because the characters are fun to travel with.

Well worth the credits.

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25 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

You can't keep a good man down

Semi space opera/military.
The lead character is a Wilson Cole, an officer in the Navy of the Republic. The backdrop is an interstellar war with Teronis (and fluid alliances with other parties in the outer rim of the galaxy).
It's not as gung-ho a say David Weber's "Prince Roger" series - but a good start.
Basically, its based around a very quick witted Cole, who has been given a bunch of misfits for a crew, a crap ship and is posted out of the way. Cole came about to this predicament because he was too good and did everything to ensure a successful mission (beyond the call of duty) - in doing so embarrassing his superiors.
We follow Cole, in his journey to transform the misfits in to a fighting force..


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15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Move along, nothing to see here

I've almost made it through this whole series by now, I don't really know how I have endured it this far. I guess I just like to finish what I start. And let me tell you, ill be relieved when Jonathan Davis pulls me through the last minute of this audiobook.
Long winded speeches about Wilson Coles genius, cliches and repetitions of said reasons why Wilson is the only one person in the universe with two brain cells to rub together, it just gets tiresome.
Get a David Weber or Lois McMaster Bujold book instead. Pass this one up now, before it's too late.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Totally disappointing!

Sorry there isn't a rating lower than one star. If you are, have ever been, or are ever considering serving in the military, this story will make you cringe. I guess if I had no idea what the military was about, I might have enjoyed this a bit more, but nothing over two stars. the protagonist is supposedly a decorated officer who is resisting the stupid orders of the persons above him, and relies on his superior intellect and moral judgement to justify all of his mutinous actions in the end. He also is supposed to be a natural leader who inspires the loyalty of his enlisted crew by always being a stickler for the rules. Alright, I can buy the premise, and can think of some good characters who have had similar situations (Honor Harrington leaps to mind). But, and here is the problem, the total incompetance of the officers above him is so over the top that you would never buy their getting to positions of power. Also, his total disregard for the rules personally, while enforcing the rules in a draconian manner with subordinates is unbelievable at best. Believe me, that sort of behavior does the exact opposite of inspire loyalty in the real world. Listen, I like military fantasy a lot, and I enjoy difficult, even untenable situations, but this is just too unbelievable! Combined with the poor character development, the one-track narrative, the reader's performance (he sounds so bored and supercilious I have the feeling he liked the story about as much as I did, and did everything in his power to make it unappealing), the ridiculous aliens and the pointless romantic and sexual innuendo (one character was blackballed for an alien liason, and spends the time hinting about her kink) this novel is just too awful to recommend to anyone.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

A tired cliche

The author gives us an explanation as to why he wrote the series to begin our tale. He says he is interested in writing the story of a leader.

He fails. The main character is not a leader. He is a subverter. It just so happens that he is smarter and more "intuitive" than all his superiors. His superiors are so ridgidly unbelieveable it strains the imagination (of the reader!).This stereotyped story of untinking space marines and a stupid face saving military hierarchy was simply absurd. The main character stands out because he is a "thinker" while everyone else are lazy ignorant louts. Unbelievable! It as if the author's intended audience was 6th grade boys and he was writing in the media frenzy at the end of the Vietnam War.

I will not be listening to the rest of the series and I love a good series.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

He's such a hero!

It's amazing how he knows so much more and performs so much better than every single person in the universe. Amazing.

He's like Superman, in space... jumping from one dilemma to the next and only he can save the ship/planet/people because he is faster and smarter and more skilled than anyone else. And the only reason he isn't King of the Universe is because those in power are too stupid to see how smart he is.

There are a lot of "aliens" with detailed descriptions, even though it seems like they were added in for no purpose other than to show that the author was creative enough to think of decent aliens.

Anyway... the story is fast paced and interesting. The narration is good. The sci-fi is good. Overall, it's average-good. I got it on sale and am ok with it, but it's way too smug a story to be worth full price. (I'd give it 2.5 stars if possible.)

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Clich?s at Warp Speed

My first time to give 1 star to any book. I listened to about a half-hour and started to suspect that I was hip-deep in space-mediocrity. So, sez I to myself, maybe just a little bit more, since I hate to press ERASE on a book I've already paid for. Twenty additional minutes were more than enough.
The set-up? Wilson Cole, twice busted from captain of his own space ship because he can't live according to the regulations (i. e., he's convinced that he makes better decisions than his superiors, and so disobeys orders he thinks are dumb...all in time of war). All the cardboard scenarios are here, folks: the renegade who plays by his own rules; the brilliant intuitive decisions that only he can make; his million-to-one guesses about what will take place...and that of course do come to pass just as he predicts; his know-it-all expositions to his intellectual inferiors, who gaze with open-mouthed admiration at their hero. Puh-leeze! It's a stereotypical earth cop show transfered into hyperspace (and by the way, they travel at light speed and click off dozens of light years without a net...or any sort of escape hatch from relativistic physics). I just read Caesar's Commentaries from AudioBooks. A dictator, yes, but now there was a brilliant leader and strategist! And a wonderful writer, as it turns out. Pass on Mutiny, go for the Commentaries.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

I am rather impressed.....

I originally passed over this title as dull sounding. Finally, after running very low on any interesting looking volumes, I decided to try it.And was I surprised! It's not very cerebral for sure, but it IS entertaining. Just what I like when I'm suffering from burnout - an escape. As I listened, the writing just started to sound better. The characters grew on me...well, except that Chief of Security...and by the end I found myself engrossed. The fence David Copperfield is a real hoot and an engaging character. He lives in his own world and is a great comic relief. The hero, Wilson Cole, is no James Kirk or even a Jean Luc Picard, but he is a rogue, a scoundrel, and totally believable. Overall, I really liked it. So much so, that I immediately bought the 2nd and 3rd volumes. AND I'm hoping for more!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not worth your time

This novel wasn't as interesting as other recent Sci Fi military epic series. I read the first and second because I was traveling and it is all I had to listen to. They were somewhat entertaining, but the plots were two predictable and redundant. I wish Wilson Cole and his ship goodbye while I go find some more more interesting sci fi that takes much more advantage of the genre.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Needs character development

Resnick should add more depth to his characters. Wilson Coal is the hero. He lacks the nuances that make other authors' heros multi-dimensional. So far - having listened to two books - the hero doesn't make any mistakes or lose at anything.

Think Honor Harrington for an example of a well developed character.

Having said the above, I have purchased all 3 books in the series, so something brings me back

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5 people found this helpful