With Dreadnought, BV Larson starts to uplift this series from YA ghetto into more serious SF literature. Don't worry. We are still following the exploits of breezy (and slightly snidely) Sparhawk on his conquests of both the interstellar and sexual kinds. Zey is still fun, but the focus shifts to the slippery detestable Stroj called Lorn, and Yamada develops some interesting depth. The style remains snarky, with still a good deal of Heinlein.
The Battle Cruiser Defiant has been retrofitted with the best of Earth and Beta technology. It's mission is to re-open channels to the Colonies. On board is Sparhawk's Great Aunt Ambassador Lady Granthome who, of course, is constantly meddling in Sparhawk's affairs. The Colonies discovered turn out to have either fallen back into primitivism, barely clinging to survival, or have technologies far in advance of Earth's. And, oops, there's Stroj constantly attacking him. The style is light, moving the story along a breezy and quick pace.
What makes this book better is that the story starts to look beneath the surface of his society. Like Heinlein, Larson uses the story to start challenging accepted social notions like social class, sexual relationships, dynasties, power, and corruption. The last line of the book completely lays open the undercurrent and prepares the reader for the final book of the trilogy.
I recommend starting this series from the first book, Battle Cruiser, as this book assumes that the reader is already familiar with the world and characters from that book. It does not, for example, go into detail as to why the colonies are "lost" again. So new readers will not understand why the Stroj are the bad guys.
My rating: ★★★★★ (5 out of 5 stars) - Wow. I loved it!
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