Mutineers’ Moon

For Lt. Commander Colin Maclntyre, it began as a routine training flight over the Moon. For Dahak, a self-aware Imperial battleship, it began millennia ago when that powerful artificial intelligence underwent a mutiny in the face of the enemy. The mutiny was never resolved--Dahak was forced to maroon not just the mutineers but the entire crew on prehistoric Earth. 

Dahak has been helplessly waiting as the descendants of the loyal crew regressed while the mutineers maintained control of technology that kept them alive as the millennia passed. But now Dahak's sensors indicate that the enemy that devastated the Imperium so long ago has returned--and Earth is in their path. For the sake of the planet, Dahak must mobilize its defenses. And that it cannot do until the mutineers are put down. So Dahak has picked Colin Maclntyre to be its new captain. Now Maclntyre must mobilize humanity to destroy the mutineers once and for all--or Earth will become a cinder in the path of galactic conquest.

Review by Travis Starnes

Mutineer’s Moon is the first book in the Dahak series following the giant ship Dahak and it’s bonded human Colin McIntyre as they try to thwart a group descended from high tech mutineers bent on taking back the ship and its awesome power.

This book has many things to like about it. Weber definitely steps outside of his comfort zone for sections of this title, and while not all of it works, I was glad to see him stretch his limits a bit.

The first thing that catches my attention is the use of genetically altered humans fighting among normal people. In a way, it is incredibly reminiscent of Sterling’s ‘Draka’ series, especially the final book in that series. Weber manages to write these characters in a way that they seem superhuman but not out of the bounds of reality.

The characters are all very well written. This is one of the few titles that Weber steps back form his white hat / black hat problem and gives everyone, good guys and bad guys, shades of gray. There is some decent, if not ground breaking, character progression with most of the major characters, which is also nice to see. The only character that feels flat for me was Dahak. His transfer from machine to self-aware never really felt believable for me, as he was acting self-aware from the beginning. The only change was Weber telling us he became self-aware.

The story is very interesting and well-constructed. It is paced well with no overly-slow parts and the action not all shoved together. I like the high tech mixed with today’s world concept, so most books of this ilk get a plus from me.

This is a quality sci-fi read, and one of Weber’s better works.  While later issues of this book quickly get away from the mix of high-tech and normal world technology, veering towards the pure high tech, this is the start of a really interesting series and just a good book overall.