Space Captain Smith: Wrath of the Lemming Men (Spoilers)

[Dartzap]

I recently aquired the third of the SCS series whilst on my jaunt in Scotland, and I felt it deserved a thread!

For those unaware of the series: The basic premise is that at some point of the series past, a great human empire had spread across the galaxy but had, as is usual in such cobbled together domains, fallen to bits due to infighting and Evil Plots (mostly by the rulers) after the collapse, mini empires are formed by what are known as the Great Powers: The Free States (US), Indastan, China, Franco German Alliance, and, of course, The Second British Empire. The new empires are all struggling along, and not much fighting happens between the great powers these days, since there are now several alien races (Ghast, Yull, with the aid of Martians and human traitors) hells bent on the destruction of Humanity, but primarily the British Empire. Its all rather steampunkish, with steam powered battle titans, space going deadnoughts and the like. The Empire has several alien allied powers as well, the Malak, a race of Predator types with a strange need to cut the heads off their enemies and to get decent careers as structural engineers, as well as others, including an intergalatic race of giant dung beetles.

Anyway: Wrath of the Lemming Men primarily concentrates on the Yull entering the Ghast Vs BE/Humanity world cup on the side of the Ghasts. We get to learn about the histories of the Yull and Ghast and what their societies were before they become insane and removed all forms of being individuals. We get more DOGing action as well (Deepspace Operations Group AKA: Loony version of the SAS) as well as some 'Orbital Diplomacy' on the part of the Empire whilst hunting down a band of strange Morris dancers who may have informating relating to a race of godlike aliens who the Ghasts want to grab so they genetically engineer their Legions to unkillable and have l33t skillz.

All in all: 'tis a decent book, like the previous two. I laughed quite a bit, which may have made quite a few people on the train look at me rather oddly, but hey ho....

If you liked the previous two, then I highly reccomend it.

[The Grim Squeaker]

Pity they don't have those, i've never seen em before. We;;, it's something to add to the next Amazon order .

[Bounty]

I've just started on the firts book thirty minutes ago. Does Frost's writing get more confident later on? What I'm reading now is pretty amusing stuff, but it has the feel of someone who isn't quite sure what he's writing will stick so he races off to the next pun or plot point.

It really does feel like it was written one page at a time, as he said in interviews. There's very much a old-timey serial or paper strip feel it it, which works until now (50-odd pages in), but it could get very tiring very soon.

Still, the core idea is very good and he does have a knack for quickly drawing characters. It feels a lot like Colour of Magic, and I hope by the later books the writing becomes a bit more solid. If it does, this'll be a series I'll be following.

[Bounty]

For some reason it took me three pages to figure out who Neil, Trinny and Morris with the sunglasses were supposed to be. Nerd homeworld indeed.

[Dartzap]

I've just started on the firts book thirty minutes ago. Does Frost's writing get more confident later on?

By the second half of the book, he does become confident, with slightly more subtle jokes, and the next two books start on a better footing from the get go. .

[Bounty]

I finished it yesterday afternoon (300 pages, four hours. Quite the page-turner, that was). Not sure I agree with him becoming more 'subtle' - his battle of wits with 462, hm? - but I was genuinely amused throughout. I'll be looking into the next books too, if they're getting better as you say.