Willful Child
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3.8 • 15 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times Bestselling author Steven Erikson comes a new science fiction novel of devil-may-care, near calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through the infinite vastness of interstellar space.
These are the voyages of the starship A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life-forms, to boldly blow the...
And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly c**k-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through ‘the infinite vastness of interstellar space.'
The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence has taken his lifelong passion for Star Trek and transformed it into a smart, inventive, and hugely entertaining spoof on the whole mankind-exploring-space-for-the-good-of-all-species-but-trashing-stuff-with-a-lot-of-high-tech-gadgets-along-the-way, overblown adventure. The result is an SF novel that deftly parodies the genre while also paying fond homage to it.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestselling fantasy writer Erikson (the Malazan Book of the Fallen series) takes a break from gritty epic fantasy to deliver this heavy-handed Star Trek parody. Capt. Hadrian Alan Sawback, commander of the Terran Space Fleet starship Willful Child, is pugnacious and perpetually one half-step away from a sexual harassment suit. His ship's ongoing mission is "hairy, fraught, and on occasion insanely dangerous," a good match for a captain who can't abide the "hell of routine." When a rogue AI named Tammy commandeers the Willful Child's computers, Sawback and crew dive headlong into adventures beyond the Known Rim, encountering officially designated "Strange New Worlds" replete with vaguely Greek looking ruins, mysterious portals, Muppet-like aliens, and even a super-chicken soldier in a mechanized battle suit. After decades of humorous commentary on Star Trek, most recently John Scalzi's award-winning Redshirts, Sawback and his crew come very late to the party. That tardiness, coupled with heavy-handed plotting and thinly sketched characters, make this feel more like a parody of parodies (particularly Futurama's egomaniacal Captain "Zap" Brannigan) than a satire of the show itself.
Customer Reviews
Failed to hit the mark
As much as I wanted to enjoy this book, as much as I enjoyed Stephen Ericksons prior works and love Star Trek, this parody just didn't win me over. I enjoyed the names, I enjoyed the Finley sketched characters, but I just couldn't shake the feeling that this was ultimately a bad TV show done badly. Don't get me wrong, I will buy future Steven Erickson books but I cannot recommend this and that pains me to say.