Review of Lightship

[Sarah Schmidt]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Lightship" by Stephan Besik.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Lightship is a collection of four science fiction stories written by Stephan Besik. Featuring tales about interstellar travel and spaceship design, the difficulties that come with an artificially prolonged life, dealing with the fallout of a nuclear holocaust, and a species’ attempt to find a suitable planet to inhabit, this book takes readers on a well-detailed ride to technologically advanced futures.

In Lightship, an engineer brainstorms a revolutionary model for a spaceship. His ideas attract the attention of a bored former basketball player with more money than he knows what to do with. They team up together, kickstarting a global resuscitation of interest into the world beyond the skies. This is followed by The Old Man, a story about a man who, though having an extended lifespan, looks physically older than all the people around him. Reuniting with an old friend in the same situation causes him to decide on a new career path. Damage Report comes next. In it, a civilization travels through the galaxies on the hunt for a new planet to call their own. They discover a planet previously inhabited by a species almost biologically identical to themselves and try to figure out what led to this extinct group's destruction. Long Shot ends the collection, where a nuclear war leaves pitifully few survivors on Earth. A team of operatives is then sent on a mission to eliminate one of the major culprits of the devastation, but they’re left to question their end goals in the face of all they’ve lost.

I liked all the stories, but my favourite of the lot is definitely The Old Man. It felt more emotive than the other stories. The plot was more centred around a character as opposed to science, illustrating the difficulties faced with keeping up with the advancement of modern technologies and dealing with burnout. This story also ended on a more uplifting note than the others. This is not to say that the ending of the rest of the stories were bad. I would argue that how they were wrapped up left enough to the reader’s imagination without feeling unresolved or like a cliffhanger. Another positive of the book was Besik’s inclusion of postscripts and character sheets, which assisted in the placing of the stories in context.

As it relates to what I disliked about Lightship, I would only state a minor complaint. I love science fiction, and I loved that Lightship didn’t skimp on all the mechanisms involved. On the flip side, Besik seemed to be so fluent in nerd-speak I felt the urge to go watch paint dry. When reading a fictional book, I expect to be intrigued and serenaded by engaging writing. The writing sometimes felt droll, offset only by the brevity of the stories.

I found several errors in this book. These were not easily overlooked, and the frequency with which they occurred made them even more noticeable. As such, I assume that this book has not been professionally edited. Some profane content is present, though not a lot, and the sexual content that was present leaned more on the vague, merely hinted at side.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. One star was deducted on account of the number of grammatical and spelling mistakes present in Lightship. Otherwise, I found the technical aspects of each story very gripping and entertaining, and I would recommend this book by virtue of this feature alone. I think people who enjoy short stories about advanced futuristic societies that have some fantastical elements. I would not issue a recommendation to readers who prefer conflict-filled science fiction books.

******
Lightship
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords

[RHD]

This one to me seems like a 50-50. I don't know whether the plot and characterization were on point. Otherwise, great review!

[Chinaza Nnabuenyi]

Four collections of science fiction sounds very interesting and intriguing to read.

[Nkgchidimma080]

Am not a fan of science fiction,I don’t think this book is for me , nice review.

[NetMassimo]

This seems like an interesting collection of science fiction stories that address themes that might become relevant in the future. Thank you for your great review!

[Edit_or]

Science fiction ain’t really my thing but the review is very comprehensive. Thank you