Missing in Action by Peter David
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I’ve been plowing through the last several New Frontier novels to get to the most recent three — ones that I’ve bought but never got around to reading (because I hadn’t had a chance to plow through the previous books recently). This is the first of those, a sequel to the “only okay” After the Fall.
Somebody dies in this one. Somebody major to the series. And, ironically (and intentionally), it happens completely offstage, making for a particularly gruesome reveal.
I offer that up in as non-spoilery a fashion as I can because it points out an ongoing difficulty or two of the series. It’s become so complex and character-ridden that it’s practically impossible to deal adequately with the secondary characters, while at the same time, the leads (including Mackenzie Calhoun himself) are forced to spend increasing time outside of the limelight. The fact is, I’m much more interested in some folks (Calhoun, Shelby, Burgoyne, Soleta, Cwan) than others (Mueller, Lefler, Xyon/Xyon/Moke, Kalinda) (and we’ll leave the New, Improved Zak Kebron aside), but with the tale including so many folks onstage, plus incidental characters from the immediate plot lines themselves, nobody here gets enough stage time (save, perhaps, Soleta) to satisfy me.
The New Frontier series has drifted from being highly personal tales to being “merely” intricate plots, with motivations presented in a sketchy fashion so we can quickly move on to the next scene, the next ship / base / planet. Enjoyable, but not as much as earlier. And it turns that death I mentioned above into a simple dramatic trick, designed to impel some future actions and close out another story line.
While this book resolves the second half of the tale started with After the Fall, and sets up the potential for some future conflicts, it’s not as much fun (or as interesting) as it feels like it should be. Still looking forward to the next.
Recommended for Peter David and New Frontier completists. Not a good hopping-on point. But still more enjoyment (for the long-time series reader) than a lot of books out there.