Willful Child
Ratings7
Average rating3.7
These are the voyages of the starship, A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life life-forms, to boldly blow the... And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly cock-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback - think James T Kirk crossed with ‘American Dad' - and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through ‘the infinite vastness of interstellar space’... The bestselling author of the acclaimed Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence has taken a life-long passion for 'Star Trek' and transformed it into a hugely entertaining spoof on the whole mankind-exploring-space-for-the-good-of-all-species-but-trashing-stuff-with-a-lot-of-hi-tech-kit-along-the-way type over-blown science fiction adventure. The result is smart. inventive, occasionally OTT and often very funny - a novel that both deftly parodies the genre and pays fond homage to it.
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2 primary books#1 in Willful Child
Willful Child is a 2-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2014 with contributions by Steven Erikson.
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Executive Summary: This book was OK. I was hoping it would be funnier. The plot could have been better too. I think he should probably just stick to writing Malazan books.
Audiobook: MacLeod Andrews seemed like a decent narrator, though 1 week removed from finishing, I don't recall much about him. He spoke clearly and was easy to hear. I think he did a few voices, but I might be mistaken. Audio is a good option if that's your preference.
Full Review
I should probably start by saying I'm not a big fan of the Original Star Trek series. I've seen all the movies, but very few episodes. I've watched all of the other series though. It's quite possible I missed a bunch of jokes as a result. There were definitely a few Next Generation jokes in there I got, especially one about everyone's favorite Ensign.
I really enjoyed most of the Malazan Fallen series, and I'm a big Star Trek fan, so I had pretty high hopes for this. Despite being “Grimdark” there are some really funny parts in Malazan, especially among the Marines. I think that sort of humor is harder to write, but maybe not. Humor is always hard in general. What one person finds hilarious the next person might find dumb.
With any humor or satire book, you are largely made and broken by the quality of the laughs. This book had some pretty hilarious parts, but often I was fairly uninterested in the characters and the plot.
The actual writing itself is fine, but story is so ridiculous at times that I just didn't care. The main character is intentionally an asshole. I kind of got tired of that by the end. For what the book is, it was fine, and I don't regret reading it. It was a quick listen.
Overall, I was a bit underwhelmed by this one, but I can easily see big fans of the Original Star Trek series enjoying this a lot more than I did. It's really going to come down to how funny you find the jokes I think.
