I've been supporting
Traveller since the Carter Administration. My support, however, is neither
automatic nor
mindless.
When a
Traveller product is wretched and this "book" is most definitely wretched, I say as much. In the long run, honest opinions are more important than knee-jerk adulation.
An instant judgment? My judgment was not an instant one and was based on reading a forty-plus page sample.
That sample, by the way, was provided in order to "tease" me into buying the rest of the book and it accomplished the exact opposite.
Just how bad is the book? I'll leave aside the frankly lousy "nuts & bolts" of the so-called author's writing abilities and just detail a few of the many idiocies found in just 40 pages of the narrative.
- Despite being capable of jump4, the Kinunir takes four weeks to travel to Moughas from Regina.
- Despite there being a naval base on Paya four parsecs away, the Admiralty sends a ship from 7 parsec distant Regina to investigate reports of a pirate base in the Keng system.
- Before begin deployed, Telson, the Kinuinir's captain, sees his long time XO promoted out of the ship, a unknown officer, Franks, with no shipboard experience appointed in their place, and an unknown computer program installed aboard his ship. Despite that, Telson waits FOUR WEEKS before bothering to ask or learn about Franks or the computer program. The program, the AI which will attempt to kill the players in A:1, even sends the Kininur to General Quarters for spurious reasons FOUR TIMES Telson bothers to quiz Franks about it's abilities.
- Telson "knows" Franks has little shipboard experience because long term spacers "... sported darkened complexions from the inevitable radiation leakage off the fusion engines" and lacks "...deep space weathered skin..."
- When Kinunir begins thrusting at 4gees to respond to a yacht's distress call, the wonky AI limits inertial compensation to 2gees. The crew takes their blue acceleration pills - like something out of the 1930s - while Telson admires the marine captain's ability to stand up under 2gees thrust on the deck by the airlock. Of course, the Kinunir's decks are parallel to her line of thrust so the marine captain, if he his going to be standing, will be doing so on a bulkhead.
I could on and on. Not a single page goes by with some absolutely idiotic description by the author or moronic action by his characters. For example, Telson, who allegedly such a superb tactician he's due to teach at the War College, handles his ship so poorly in a fight with a corsair that he thrusts for nearly 9 hours at 4gees and must then take hours to decelerate to effect a rendezvous with the yacht. Then, further insulting our intelligence, the ship's pinnace, despite having the same vector as the
Kinunir prior to launch, can somehow effect a rendezvous in a trivial amount of time. The battle itself turns thirty years of
Traveller ship combat inside out with lasers better than missiles at long range, particle accelerators nearly useless, missiles that somehow "spiral", and several other absurdities.
That old fallacy? Really? You must be Nijinksy before you critique dance? Gershwin before you can critique composition? Turner before you can critique painting? Welles before you can critique film? That's your sorry ass defense of this crap?
SHIT is
SHIT and you don't need a degree to recognize it.
And, sadly, that's what was done in this case.
And, sadly, that's what was not done in this case.
No. There are not enough novels
worthy of
Traveller as it is.
This novel is nothing but shit, formulaic, fill-in-the-blank, mail-it-in shit which cannot even be bothered to acknowledge its own setting. It doesn't even reach the Young Adult Fiction level the
TNE novels did. Once again, a novel has failed to do this grand old game justice.
Once again, I am embarrassed that a novel is associated with Traveller.
Martin Dougherty has written some great short fiction for
T20 and I'm very much looking forward to his
Traveller novel later this year.
. In any case, they have far more value to me than an AD&D novel(I was going to say a Mills and Boon but that's being a bit harsh and as I can't stand AD&D it was easier).