Monday, February 10, 2014

The Planet Thieves by Dan Krokos

Cover image for The planet thievesMason Stark is bored on his first mission as a cadet on a space command ship.  He is so bored that he keeps playing practical jokes on his sister, a bridge officer, and other crew members.  That comes to an abrupt end when their star ship is attached by an alien force.  Pretty soon, the cadets are the only humans on the ship, and Mason is their captain.  Regaining control of their ship is only the first of their challenges.

This book read like an episode of Star Trek Next Generation.  Krokos uses all the Star Trek terminology; tractor beams, warp engines, photon torpedoes.  It would be easy to imagine Will Crusher as Mason Stark.  The action is fast paced, and the challenges the cadets face are progressively larger and more urgent.  The whole action of the book takes place within one or two day period of time, but in the end Mason not only needs to save his ship, and his planet, but also all of the worlds in his star system. Because of the intensity of action, there is not a whole lot of time for character development.  Still, Mason does grow up during his brief stint as savior of the universe.  The story and characters were just barely compelling enough that I would be willing to read the sequel.  (253 p)

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