Center of Gravity: Star Carrier, Book Two

You'll enjoy this one. Same generic plot, same boilerplate characters, same breakneck space battles that are highly entertaining, etc.... However I'd say this book is roughly 50% space battle where the first book was 75%. There is a bit more downtime and an attempt to flesh out characters, aliens, and the conflict. A nice attempt, but nothing surprising.

Once again a very decent performance from Nick Sullivan.

Biggest gripe: like the first book, Ian Douglas explains everything over and over and over. How many time do we need explained that a VC-10 CRATE missile has a variable yield warhead and can accelerate at 5000G? Really?

"Empire strikes back"
second book even better than first .
I anticipate that third book won't be the last.

I read the first book in this series and really thought Ian Douglas had set up an interesting universe full of aliens, advanced technology and desperate situations. Unfortunately the second book was a huge disappointment. I don't know if Douglas just banged the story out in three days to fulfill a contract or if he has someone else ghost write the book. Either was it is a huge mess.

To me what makes a space opera interesting is when the author chooses a universe very similar to our real universe with one or two changes. Like a hostile alien race that is in conflict with us poor humans. Then determine what advances in technology is needed to make such a story possible and interesting.

In the Star Carrier series the there are three main technological advances.

1) Advanced nano technology in the form of star ship hulls that can change shape, replicators that can create most anything from feed stock, and nano bots that keep humans healthy and alive for a very long time.

2) Artificial intelligence that is faster and smarted than human intelligence.

3) FTL spacecraft capable of travelling many light years in a few days and the ability to create artificial black hole singularities that allow small fighter space craft to accelerate at 50,000 gravities so they can reach light speed in about 10 minutes. This technology also allows humans access to practically unlimited energy drawn from the quantum vacuum.

Now this could make for some very interesting stories if the author spent a few minutes to figure out how these technologies would change the tactics of space warfare. And write stories that reflect that thought. Instead Douglas fights the space battles as if he where using aircraft carriers and fighter jets.

Even worse he changes the capabilities of the technology depending on what the plot needs at the moment. For example in one scene the human shield technology can withstand everything an entire enemy fleet can throw at it for several weeks while waiting for reinforcements to arrive. Then a bit later we have a situation where the shields are brushed away by a single ship with the first shot. This sort of hand waving is scattered throughout the book so frequently it completely disrupted my ability to accept any of the technology as real.

As for tactics, if you have a technology that lets you accelerate things to light speed in 10 minutes then all you need to do is send light speed missiles to impact the enemy home worlds and bases. Plus the enemy would do the same to us. No need to send a fleet of ships. Just one ship that can launch a few light speed rocks and you win. Anything approaching at light speed is by definition undetectable and unstoppable. Even worse the humans have the technology necessary to create artificial black holes and it never occurs to anyone that a black hole might make a pretty good weapon. Even when several human ships are destroyed by their own black holes when they take damage.

So the technology is inconsistent, poorly defined and in many cases completely ignored if Douglas thinks the plot needs a bit of suspense.

This leaves the character development of the aliens and humans to make the book interesting. Not in this mess. The aliens had huge potential from the first book. Then in the second book the aliens are all over the place. Sometimes they are given god like powers and then a few pages later they act like brain damaged apes. The humans don't do any better, they are all caricatures at best. Completely one dimensional, predictable and boring.

In summary - if you read the first book cut your losses, put this book down and move on to something else. I recommend the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell.

Overall the Authors concept and detail is great for depecting mankind after several centuries in space, post non-human contact. The struggle of the earth base civilization in staking it's claim to exist. Good premise, good plot, bad delivery though. The Narrator is OK, but some of the detail is a bit taxing on an audiobook. The chapters are presented like millitary log entries, which can become a bit annoying chapter after chapter, plus about a third of the book is repeated explanations of tools, places, characters, or tactics. These repeating items may be subscripts in the printed version (I hope they are at least). In the audio version the amount repeated within the individual book, and from the first book of this series almost becomes an insult to the reader/listener.

I found the technological speculation of the entire series to be fascinating. Its astounding how few other sci-fi writers carry the possibilities of nano-tech to such a high level of development but Douglas did a spectacular job.

This was a book i listened to in 1.5 sittings. I listen to them all day at work so a 12 hour book is either one day's worth (depending on how buys i am at home) or 1.5 work days. i will probably listen to this one again!

Yes I would. I am going to try 3 and I hope it becomes a little smoother.

curious

yes

not really sure. need to think about that one.

too technical

This book is packed with so much science it will satisfy any geek.
the material is divided in such a way that the book never seems to drag along.

the Star Carrier series renewed my interest in many subjects such as astrophysics and nanotechnology while at the same time delivering a spectacular adventure story.

I would with no doubt listen to this audio book again.

Grey - I was really able to empathize with his roll as the outsider reluctantly struggling to fit in.

Katie Tucker - something about the way Sullivan performed this character really brought the character to life in a way the text could never do alone.

I had trouble putting this audio book down. If I had the time I would have undoubtedly listened to all of it in one sitting.

please make the third book of the Star Carrier series available on audible.

It was enough Tech to and enough action to keep me interested.

The Battle

I don't know

All of it

This book has a great story with great narration. Lots of action. Differant Aliens and a nice turn arround. I'm off to listen to book 3

First book was so disappointing I didn't even try the 2nd book. Sorry I paid for it first!

This will teach me to purchase more than one book in a series until I've actually listened to it. I generally like series so I can have several books that tell the story in a continuing manner. However, the first book was so disappointing I didn't have any interest in the second. I'm sorry I purchased it before listening to the first one!