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Star Carrier: Singularity
Book 3
Author: Ian Douglas
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Publishing Date: 2012
Pgs: 389
Dewey: PBK F DOU
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Summary:

After 30 years of war, a losing war, factions in humanity are ready to sue for peace and accept whatever terms the alien Sh’daar Empire places upon Earth. Those factions are ready to allow the aliens to dictate what humanity can do technologically and socially. The military is not. Old nationalisms inside the military are prepared to fight...to the degree that a renegade admiral takes his battlegroup centered on the Star Carrier America into the void to strike behind enemy lines and attempt to draw the forces closing on Earth away. His plan works and the America battlegroup finds itself further from Earth than any Human has ever gone.
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Genre:
Science Fiction
Hard Science Fiction
Space
Militaria
Fleet Actions

Why this book:
Things blow up...space battles...I’m there.
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Least Favorite Character:
Gerard is a paper admiral. No way he should’ve been promoted as much or as high as he was. He’s a purely political appointee. Though he is a classic in European navies. Look at the Pre-World War I Royal Navy for examples of political appointees masquerading as admirals. Gerard's going to get his ass kicked.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
There is a hole in the story idea...well in the mechanics of their faster-than-light drive. The idea, one of the drawbacks of the system, is that while using the drive they could emerge anywhere within a given volume of space meaning that different ships would/could pop up at different times and not necessarily in the same orientation which they started in, in relation to each other. But every time, consistently, the main carrier, America, with all of the main characters on it, is always the first one to pop back into “normal” space. Now I understand why but it defeats the idea that they randomly pop back into space at the end of their flight time in FTL if America is always the first one to arrive.

Hmm Moments:
Damn, it's a ghost story. That's pretty cool.

I did not see that coming. They telegraphed it, but I didn't see it.

Meh / PFFT Moments:
The political aspects of these books always drags the plot and the pace down.

There is a tendency to repeat worldbuilding aspects like having Admiral Koenig and Lieutenant Gray have similar thoughts...exactly the same thoughts about a subject.
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Pacing:
The concepts, in the sense of what happens next, keep sucking me back into this book and turning the pages.

Last Page Sound:
Hmmm didn't expect that twist, especially with more books in the series. Good ending.
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This review will be for the complete first three book arc of this series. This novel reminded me a lot of the Jack Campbell Lost Fleet series as there was lots of space battles with ship to ship action. In this series, humans are fighting multiple alien species and not other human groups and for the most part are behind them technologically but the author makes up for this in the tenaciousness of the human fighting spirit. The author also does a pretty good job in fleshing out the multiple main characters and well as building a nice universe to tell the tale in.

I really enjoyed this who series and look forward to reading more in the followup series. 4 stars for a fun read. Recommended for any fan of space navy military sci-fi. ( )

So many stretches of boring data dumps, thaty I didn't care when the trilogy's grand finale happened.
Though I like that the author didn't hold back on the science and speculation. ( )

Light relief in what was to be the final in the 'Star Carrier' trilogy installment by military SF writer Ian Douglas (actually William H Keith). Douglas continues his tale of American exceptionalism and manifest destiny, as the North Americans show the appeasing European surrender monkeys and inscrutable Chinese a thing or two about taking the fight to the advanced alien races of unpronounceable names (Sh'daar' this time).
It is a good enough page turner, but the resolution a little on the convenient side. Perhaps a sign that his opus was wrapped up in a single trilogy, rather than the trilogy of same in it's space marines predecessor.

ETA - Not so fast, a fourth, fifth and sixth installment have now appeared! ( )