He has one choice: to flame out-or simply fade away… Framed for attempted murder against his superior, Commander-now convict-Jacob Steiner receives one last chance at redemption. As the captain of a Penitentiary Assault Vessel, he’ll lead a desperate crew of thieves and murderers behind enemy lines in exchange for their freedom.
“No bars. No cells. No escape.” The three phrases on the cover say it all: you’re about to get back to the testosterone-laden macho stories of 1980’s action movies.
In «Prison Ship», Michael Bowers’ debut novel, we meet Commander Jake Steiner, a disgraced United Space Systems officer unjustly thrown in jail for standing against the traitorous Admiral Jamison, who’d sent Jake’s warship, the USS Valiant, into a trap. In order to escape from certain assassination in jail, Jake then accepts command of the Penitentiary Assault Vessel, a thirty-year-old warship full of criminals. The P.A.V., latter christened USS Marauder, spearheads a program for using convicts in suicidal missions across the USS border with the separatists of the New Order Empire.
Of course Commander Steiner will have to fight his irascible, mutinous crew, into shape. Of course they’re going to overcome impossible missions and, of course, he’ll find a way to avenge the crew of the USS Valiant and bring Admiral Jamison to justice. This book is as cheesy as they come. And deliciously so.
One of the author’s advantages, to me, is that he doesn’t try to spin a unique tale full or literary malabarism. Very early he establishes that Steiner is going to be your typical fallen, tortured hero in the path to redemption and revenge. Don’t expect nothing but tasty clichés here. In «Prison Ship», they work.
Actually the book might start a little too steeped into cliché sauce; the characters might take a while to be fleshed out, but if you endure the first fourth of the novel, you’ll be rewarded with a promising — and even, dare I say it, compelling — story. Steiner faces constant threat aboard the Marauder, his crew being composed of murderers, brutes, thugs, and thieves, having to prove time and again that he’s the most dangerous animal incarcerated aboard the P.A.V. The occasional friendships that arise are surprisingly riveting. I’ve found myself on the edge of my seat in the many, many — many — action passages.
If I should mention a downside, it’s the dream descriptions. I particularly feel detached on dream scenes in any book, comic, or movie, so I quickly read through them to get to the action. Also, Jake’s dreams of his pregnant wife dying in a shuttle accident are quite repetitive. I include here the “hallucinations” — in quotes because they’re not real hallucinations, but moments when we get too deep inside a character’s mind, seeing them reliving life-changing moments. It’s boring. Although I have to admit there’s a surprising reveal in the last of Jake’s reveries about his wife which makes worthwhile plowing through all the tedious dreams and hallucinations.
Also, there’s not much “science” in this military sci-fi. You should focus on the military and the fiction part of it.
Being a Bowers’ first novel, I can’t wait to read his future books, when he’s more experienced. «Prison Ship» is brutal, action-packed, simple, and straightforward. If you want your brain to take a vacation from denser Joe Haldemans or Jerry Pournelles, then dig in, soldier!