"The Myriad"

I think I've mentioned before my liking for the novels of R. M. Meluch. It's been a long time since her last, and so I ordered The Myriad as soon as I knew it to be available.

The front matter quotes a Booklist reviewer:

After a 10-years hiatus, a distinguished military SF writer returns to print with a zany adventure that might be considered a PG-13-rated Star Trek.

Which puzzles me. I wouldn't class Meluch's work as MilSF; I could see putting The Queen's Squadron in that category, perhaps, and sufficient determination could stretch the definition to cover Jerusalem Fire, but surely not Chicago Red. There may be other works of hers I'm unaware of, but we're not talking about Drake, Weber, or Pournelle here.

Be that as it may, The Myriad definitely is MilSF. It's the first, apparently, of a series - Tour of the Merrimack - and I suppose I'll follow it, but I didn't find it as intriguing as her earlier work. A few random comments, marginally spoilery, are under the cut.

( The Myriad )

Overall verdict: well, okay. I'm curious to see where she goes next, but this isn't quite up to par for her, in my judgement. I still rate The Queen's Squadron as her best.

Tangential addendum: Two of the Star Trek movies - Nemesis and First Contact - were, indeed, rated PG-13. The first of the movies was rated G; all the rest were PG.

Nice Try

Law 1, Cat 0.