cover image Singularity: Star Carrier, Book 3

Singularity: Star Carrier, Book 3

Ian Douglas. Harper Voyager, $7.99 mass market (400p) ISBN 978-0-06-184027-2

Square-jawed hero Adm. Alexander Koenig, commander of the space battle cruiser America, has recently scored an enormous tactical success against the alien Sh’daar. In defiance of an Earth government that wants to surrender to the aliens, he ignores his orders to return to Earth and decides to take the battle to the Sh’daar, seeking out their homeworld in hopes of forcing a better peace settlement. He discovers the secret origins of the Sh’daar and the reason they so desperately want to prevent humanity from achieving technological singularity. Douglas knows his SF—his characters refer casually to the “Vinge singularity,” named for author Vernor Vinge—and his extraterrestrials are intriguingly alien in appearance and psychology. Unfortunately, his human characters are less than engaging, and his obsessive emphasis on military gear and tactics often reads like an interstellar Jane’s International Defence Review. (Mar.)