Ann saw me wasting my time, er, excuse me, reading this book and she asked, “Are those books actually any good?!” And I had a revelation – yes, usually, they are really entertaining. But this one, Book Two in the Five (and continuing) Vanguard series actually kinda isn’t.
I loved, loved, loved the worldbuilding in David Mack’s first Vanguard novel Harbinger, but the follow-up, authored by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dillmore, is desultory and dull. It lacks a singular narrative drive, a throughline, and has a never ending cast of expanding characters just drifting all over the place. It is, in short, a mess.
Still, it is a fun place to be, this space station in the nefarious Taurus Reach, and I’m not about to throw in the towel (especially as Mack is back for Book 3 – which I just ordered from Amazon.)
What it comes down to is this: I’ve been lucky with the Trek fiction I’ve read. I’ve read decent authors dealing with aspects of the expanded universe that I have an unquenchable interest in. But I recognize there’s a lot of dreck out there . . .and I’m hoping I don’t run into more.
