Starfire
I enjoyed Starfire, by Paul Preuss. It does drift into ‘hard’ sci-fi, but over all, it was an easy read, and ‘soft’ sci-fi fans won’t get bored.There were a few dated references, but that’s to be expected for a thirty-year-old novel. Another aspect that frustrated me was about three or four lengthy flashbacks that just didn’t seem to help the story. I can appreciate the author trying to fill in the back-story to a few characters, but they derailed the story. I found myself angrily swiping pages to get through the boring back-story. On the final flashback, I just skimmed until it was obvious the flashback was over. It seemed almost as if the flashbacks were shoehorned in to reach a word or page count.
I really love the paperback cover. It fits the story perfectly and makes sense during the read. I don’t know if the art didn’t have the proper license, but the new electronic edition art, while it conveys that this is a sci-fi space adventure, just doesn’t work as good as the 1988 cover. (I grin when I see the 80s-style title font.)
I’m not too worried about spoiling a thirty-year-old book, so I’ll say that this space disaster is reminiscent of movies like Armageddon or Gravity.
I’m on the fence on this one in terms of star rating. It’s a great read, but the flashbacks just made me angry. If I did half stars, I’d say 3.5 stars, but for the purpose of Amazon and Goodreads, I’m gonna award it that extra half and say four-stars. If you’re a sci-fi fan, you’ll like this book.
