I shouldn't make threads at this ungodly hour. I can barely see. Oh well Midshipman's Hope! We meet our fucked up asshole of a hero. First midshipman Nicholas Ewing Seafort. The man who pisses everyone in the galaxy off, I love him. Ah what a prick, that motherfucker. So the germ of this book was ole Davy saying to himself, what if a captain was incompetent, and worse everyone knew, and worst he knows hes incompetent and everyone knows. The plot needs him unable to resign so that's what the customs of his government, training, and religion give him. So there we are deep interstellar in a world that sees ships take years to reach colony worlds, and bang hes captain. Oh it gets good, and oh so bad. Anons David can't write a convincing woman to save his goddamn life. Which is probably why his chicks seem so real. Inscrutability can be a benefit. We also meet Vax Holser, Sandy Wilsky, and Alexi Tamarov. All semi interesting in their own idiosyncrasies. We get full scale mutinies, boarding actions, corridor firefights, drunken brawls, first contact ever and immediately afterwards aliens get blown to stardust. A yes. A strong christian government that brooks no heretical hellspawn or mutiny against Gods own government. Shit what we don't get in this first book we get in spades in the truly impactful sequel. You ever felt hunger pangs? Well prepare for Davy to give you PTSD. I defy you not to lose weight reading the sequel. Ah but we can plug that later. Anyway where was I. Can't remember. Post time.