Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is my first review. I don't normally review anything. But I bought this book and felt the need to comment because, well, it's really not very good. I'd like to comment constructively in case the author reads, I don't want to denigrate the effort that it took to write this book. In a nutshell, this book is Battlestar Galactica, as everyone else has commented. I mean, not just derivative, but like a direct copy of it. I'd go so far as to say it's plagiarism... I couldn't get past chapter 25, and I have always finished every book i ever start except for one. Why read this when I know exactly how the story goes? I mean, the basic narrative structure of all stories is very similar (check out Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey). So many stories share a similar plot STRUCTURE. But not the actual plot points. Changing the names of the characters but using the same plot is unoriginal at best. Here's a quick summary of all the points this story shares with BSG: 1. Cantankerous old captain in outdated starship 2. Grouchy alcoholic XO 3. Old ship slated to be turned into a museum 4. Alien battle almost destroyed earth 70 years ago 5. aliens disappeared then, haven't been seen since 6. A traitor to humanity gave them the backdoor to our current tech 7. They use this backdoor to attack 8. Outdated spaceship is only one immune to this attack 9. this ship shepherds a civilian fleet I can't even bring myself to continue. This author also needs a bit of work and critique to up his game. The characters are flat, unchanging, and boring. The dialogue is stilted and unrealistic. The cast is shallow and monochromatic, and as other reviewers have pointed out, anglocentric, white-centric, us-centric. It's just not believable. In any case, it takes a lot to write something. I certainly haven't written a novel. There's a value to putting out work even if it's not great. I just wish I'd not spent the money on it. I hope the author can continue to write and continue to improve. But this feels like a student novel, not something a reputable publisher would put out.