[pwalker8]

There are a number of different posting styles. Some are declarative, i.e. this is what I consider to be truth and I'm not willing to entertain any disagreement. While I suspect that sometimes some of my posts may come across that way, I tend to prefer open ended discussion which may or may not go in a direction that I had initial desired.

One of the downsides to reviewing a specific book, is that many times, it doesn't lead anywhere. The poster says this is what I thought of the book and that's about it. A few posters might say, ok thanks, I'll give it a try, or I liked it also, but actual discussion tends to be limited. But many times, I'm more interested in certain aspects of the book, author or some general trend that the book is an example of than I am in the book itself.

I read a book this week by an author, C.J. Carella. While I enjoyed the book, I'm not as interested in the actual book as some of the broad trends in that book that I see in this style book in general.

The book itself is basically a fairly standard indie SF, i.e. US in a universe full of bad guys in space. The basic plot line is embassy under siege on a low tech planet, i.e. 55 Days in Peking, set in outer space. The author seems to be a fairly standard successful indie writer, i.e. someone who would have been a mid-tier writer 20 years ago. IMPO, while the book was a fun read, Caralla doesn't have what I like to call the story teller gene, one of the broad trends that I want discuss.

First trend - the use of a historical event as the basis for a book. Once again, one sees this all the time is SF. Weber's Honor Harrington is loosely based on the British admiral Nelson's career. I've read a lot of books loosely based on the Battle of Roark's Drift (or more commonly, based on Zulu a popular movie that was based on the Battle of Roark's Drift which included numerous inaccuracies, but was a great movie). I've read a couple of books based on the Boxer Rebellion, but this was the first book where the book seemed to be more based on the movie 55 Days in Peking, a movie based on the Boxer Rebellion, but like Zulu, had numerous inaccuracies for dramatic effect.

Second trend - The story teller's gene. This is something I've mentioned before, but it's kind of hard to pin down. Some writers are simply good story tellers. These are the writers whose books I read and re-read, because a large part of the joy isn't finding out what happens, but how the story is told. In the martial arts we like to say that the point isn't the end goal, but the journey.

With this book, while I enjoyed the book and have already bought book 2 of the series, odds are pretty good that I'll never re-read the book and that I'll lose interest in the characters after the first couple of books. I've read a lot of authors like this. Sometimes they are authors who wrote a few books but never caught on, other times they are authors who have a bunch of books, usually different series that seem to simply peter out rather than reach a natural conclusion. I tend to view them as filler waiting for my favorite authors to put out a new book.