Started: July 12
Finished: July 18
Notes: I've never read any works by this author, but I do recall his series of Retief novels were fairly popular during my childhood. So, thought I'd give one a try.
Mini review: Humans seemingly control the government on an alien planet with multiple intelligent species of creatures that look as if they are part insect and part electronic, almost like robots. An outside force stirs up trouble and attempts to take over the planet, but the locals band together to find back. Into all this steps Retief, a diplomat, but he's a diplomat with much in common with the likes of James Bond. This one reminded me quite a bit of the men's action novels from the 1970s which I used to read when I was a teen. But I hated almost every moment of reading this one, at least until the end. I actually enjoyed the final 30 pages quite a bit. The writing style didn't do much for me, and too much didn't seem to make any sense and there was hardly ever any explanation or even descent description, which is rather jarring consider all the different alien races which looked nothing like humans. But I'll admit some of that was the point. This was meant to be a quick, action read and little more. That can be forgiven. What I just about couldn't forgive is that the main character never really seems to be in any danger. Oh, he faces plenty of challenges, even physical ones, but at least in this novel he is never really tested in combat, at least not as far as I'm concerned. He seemed to talk his way out of everything, and that and more than a fair share of luck seemed to save the day most times. But what really irkked me was that the main character didn't really seem to be all that much of a smooth talker, it's just that everyone around him was an idiot, and I do mean everyone. Still, as much as I felt bogged down by this novel, the ending did pick things up quite well and wrapped it all up in a pleasing and even mildly amusing manner.
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