2008-07-04 You can hear the tattered sails flapping in the wind

This book bears no resemblance to the review that tempted me to buying it. About half way through the book I went back and checked if it was really marketed as an 'adult' book or a 'young-adult' book, it's so poorly written and seems aimed at a much younger audience. The characters are two dimensional and the whole story reads like a rehashed version of a Horatio Hornblower type book, the physics is a band-aid to the lack of story or ideas, thrown over the top to make it seem valid as 'sci-fi'. If the book was slightly rewritten you could easily imagine it as a lost fleet story of ancient sailing vessels, with all the accompanying saturday morning tv appeal. I'm amazed Black Jack didn't have a parrot on his shoulder.

As others have said, the characterisations really do follow some limp cliches, with the villains being stupid and the good guys all loving Black. Shallow, boring and so predictable.

I see the series has been extended, i won't be buying them.