Warspite

Ark Royal, Book 4

By: Christopher G. Nuttall

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Peace is not freedom. Peace is merely the absence of war.

The First Interstellar War is over, but the Royal Navy still has plenty of work to do. As Earth struggles to recover from the bombardment, Captain John Naiser is placed in command of HMS Warspite - an experimental heavy cruiser - and ordered to escort a squadron of colony ships to a star system of immense strategic importance. But as the crew struggle to survive hundreds of light years from Earth, they find themselves dealing with the legacy of the war...and a threat that may sow the seeds of renewed conflict or a deadly civil war that will rip the human sphere apart.

Like my self-published Kindle books, Warspite is DRM-free. You may reformat it as you choose. There is a large sample of the text - and my other books - on my site: chrishanger.net. Try before you buy.

©2014 Christopher G. Nuttall (P)2015 Audible Inc.

I hope the next one doesn't spend so much time on political musings.

I loved the first 3 books but this one was a bit too full of too much PC talk. I felt like all the worrying about inside political structure of the navy just took away from the story. The book spent at least a third of the story worrying about the political fall out with only the last 6 minutes of the book showing the results of all the other hours of musings. It just felt like it got in the way of a good story.

Not bad, but not great

What did you like best about Warspite? What did you like least?

Moves very slowly until the end. This is a small slice of life drama following the recent war without any significant movement for the bigger picture regarding the alien race and humans

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Need to move the global war issues forward

What didn’t you like about Ralph Lister’s performance?

Very harsh British voices which became irritating very early in the book. I suspect this may be a realistic reproduction of how the military carries on conversations, but it gets old very quickly

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

no

absorbing

This book picks up where the Ark Royal trilogy ended. This could be a standalone book or a beginning of the new series.

The first interstellar war is over. The Royal Navy is rebuilding and has lots of work to do. The earth is struggling to recover from the war. Our new protagonist is Captain John Naiser who is Commander of HMS Warspite, an experimental heavy cruiser. HMS Warspite is ordered to escort a squadron of colony ships to a star system of strategic importance to Earth.

Nuttall provides us with space pirates; tension building among the colonist in what might become a civil war. The story provides action, humor and some interesting developments for future stories. The story has both space battles and ground battles. We are introduced to a new human like aliens that are still in a primitive state.

Nuttall has made in my opinion a couple of gross mistakes that would never happen in any military in the world , and as far as I am concerned not even in military Sci-Fi. The first error is a corporal never out ranks a sergeant and the other error; never would a civilian been given a military rank and made the executive officer of a ship.

It looks as if Nuttall is launching another series. I will be in line to buy the next book if this becomes a series. Nuttall has created a couple of interesting characters I would like to learn more about. Ralph Lister narrated the book.

Taking a great world/story and revitalizing it.

Where does Warspite rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I love Ralph Lister's narration, and the Nuttall's ability to weave an interesting story is impressive. I had my doubts when I picked up the first book (Ark Royal), quite at random, but this fictional world has me hooked, and I'm just blown away that the Warspite storyline so fascinatingly picks up and starts a new life for the series. The Ark Royal sequels were also great, and very perfectly tied up all the lose ends. I could have been happy with just those, but there's more!This series keeps me coming back and it is now one of my favorites in my collection.

What other book might you compare Warspite to and why?

There is a real element of Star Trek in this series as well as Battle Star Galactica. While those series' canonicity is based on a different medium, the worlds around the settings and plot are similar enough that any fan of those franchises will love this series too. It's not epic or deep like Frank Herbert's Dune, but incredibly well-written. The pace is just about perfect, the characters fleshed out enough that you care and remain consistent, and you end up with just the exact amount of good sci-fi that you need.

Which scene was your favorite?

I really liked the alien planet invasion. There was a good amount of tension built up leading to it, and the whole alien race-reveal really took me by surprise. Also, I appreciate the Russians-as-bad-guys element in connection (I believe) with current political event.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This book, and its continuation of an enjoyable series, really satisfied my need for good sci-fi. I'll definitely keep purchasing Nuttall's work.

Least of the Ark Royal series

The author really added nothing much new. The major suspense involved people outside the main story line. It was just sort of a grind-it-out space opera. Unlike the other books in the series, I never had trouble turning it off when I pulled into my driveway.

The only real surprise was that one of the main characters was gay - but since the story is set in an era where there is no stigma attached to homosexuality there was no story around his sexual orientation. On the one hand this is good, because it exposes us to a society that doesn't judge people on their sexuality ... but on the other hand, if it isn't going to contribute to the plot, why keep bringing it up?