Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Mutineer (Kris Longknife #1), by Mike Shepherd (author), Dina Pearlman (narrator)

Audible Frontiers, May 2009 (original publication January 2004)

Kris Longknife is the daughter of a distinguished political family. Her father is the prime minister of the planet Wardhaven, a member of the Society of Humanity, a union of nearly six hundred worlds. She's joined the navy rather than pursuing either a political or a social career because she wants to do something useful.

She's smart and capable and sincere, and she has no idea what she's in for.

Her first assignment as an ensign is rescuing a kidnapped six-year-old girl, the daughter of another prominent political family on another planet. And Kris is nearly killed by a shuttle malfunction that only affects Kris's shuttle.

Her next is a relief mission on a planet that is suffering the climate disaster following a major volcanic eruption. Relief supplies that include modifiable boats and bridges also malfunction even though no similar equipment from those companies have ever malfunctioned. These crises aren't a coincidence. Competing political forces are stoking a crisis that will produce a war.

The plot is solid and keeps moving. I like the characters.

But Kris Longknife is improbably capable. She keeps being the best at pretty much everything, right through at least three quarters of the way through the book. Around that point, she starts to have experiences in which she really learns things, including that being smart doesn't always mean being right.

All in all, it's fun and enjoyable, but it has some over the top passages that flirt with being really annoying.

Still, it is enjoyable, and a worthwhile light read or listen.

I bought this audiobook.

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