Starliner

Another review described this book as Starship Troopers meets The Love Boat, and that’s about right. Ran Colville is a new staff officer on The Empress of Earth, a 6000 person luxury starship. His job is managing trouble with the passengers, and with the kinds of people who go on interstellar voyages, that means a lot of trouble. There’s a war brewing between two planets, passengers have personal issues, and Ran has to save the day. The story clumps along in a series of loosely connected vignettes, until at the end there’s a hijacking attempt, and Ran leads a heroic rescue of his ship. Some decent gunplay, lousy characterization, downright awkward scifi sex (protip, the phrase ‘swollen labia’ should never be used in an erotic context). There are hints of a kind of callously cruel universe here, but the setting is little more than old stereotypes.

I’m coming around to solidly meh on Drake. If anybody knows which of his books are actually good, I might read them, but otherwise, too many good books out there.