The Clone Elite
by Steven L. Kent
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steven L. KentEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-10-28
ISBN: 0441016081
Number of pages: 369
Publisher: Ace
Book Reviews of The Clone Elite
Book Review: A decent read but a bit campy
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a decent, readable book. Average but not up to the standards of the previous three. It strikes me as several good ideas thrown into a book with none of them fully developed as if the author was in a hurry or a bit disinterested.
In this book our hero Harris is leading a civilian life that, I guess, was not fulfilling. The military sent a - for some reason - formidable force to bring him back into the military, something that he accepted without much question. I think the author was trying to develop the 'killer' reputation our character has developed but that effort fell rather short in execution.
It seems the galaxy is being invaded by bad guys and they are invading at warp speed. They are an unstoppable juggernaut. So the authorities are scraping the bottom of every barrel to fight them. Our hero is sent off as part of a force to fight the enemy short of earth itself.
Several questions arise here. First, the transport system that sustained commerce was destroyed several books and quite some time ago. Yet, there seems to be no impact on commerce except for the main concourse of the central transport facility no longer being full. Also, there is a vast scarcity of transport that can function without the transport system, yet there is enough to put millions of men and tons of material on each planet being readied to resist the enemy. And, again, what is sustaining the commerce system needed to back such a military effort? Back to the plot.
Once on the planet our hero is a company XO who acts independently while pursuing the inevitable defeat of the enemy. Why an XO position? Other than being a poor plot set up for a bigoted CO who is inconsistent and artificial till Harris kills him, there seems to be no reason for this. He acts more as a platoon leader than XO. Plus, why not put him on detached duty instead of maintaining a fiction of him working as an XO? This does not make sense other than being a poor path for a sub-plot.
At one time, I thought this was going to be a grand space opera fighting against incredible odds. It may have been meant to be that but it is poorly carried off. I simply did not get that sense of grand peril and adventure that good space opera provides.
Besides, the strength of this author is the characterization of his characters. This drops to the level of stereotyping in this novel. The senior officers are all inept, quarreling, bigoted against clones, children in the main. The 2 scientists are also parodies - one a super pencil necked geek and one a dwarf. Everyone seems to operate on the principle of being the alpha dominant vice professional relationships. Shallow characterization vice the superb development of previous novels.
The military part is also of lower quality than previous books. One item that stands out is the mission prep and briefing that takes place. These actions seem to consist more of testosterone challenges and/or pep rallies than actual mission prep. Soldiers just seem to 'know' what to do without much if any preparation in carrying out complex operations. Not realistic.
Even the culminating - allegedly epic - battle lacks that gripping feel that stems from the previous novels.
It is my hope that the author was merely distracted or in a hurry while putting this together. Given that there are three more novels coming, I hope that this is the case. If not, this series has already peaked and is heading downhill fast.
In summary, this is a readable book. It is not terrible - merely average, pedestrian. It suffers much in comparison with the previous three novels on this character. Not all authors can handle a continuing series. We will see if this is the case for Mr. Kent here. I hope that he rises to the challenge and returns to the excellence of the previous novels.
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