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Her Majesty American Steve White Books

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Her Majesty American Steve White Books

I forced myself to 60% of the way through the book and finally gave up.

Boy, it feels like White was asleep at the wheel when he wrote this.

The author sets up an interesting premise of an alternate history wherein the United States stayed part of the British Empire and essentially helped Great Britain avoid the decline of its empire and remain a central axis for the tide of history. There is a detailed timeline at the beginning of the book highlighting the divergence and the sequence of events that lead us to the current events of the story.

However, it feels very much like the alternate history context really just serves as set dressing for the storyline. There is no real exposure to the culture clash between the British and the New Americans, no description of the colony itself, and just lots of little details sprinkled around like seasoning without being put to any use:

Other Quibbles:
-We're clued in to unique elements of the Empire (e.g. the relationship between the Netherlands and the Empire), but they're never really put to use or fleshed out...they're just dabbled in at best
-Protagonist is descended from a historical figure unpopular with the New Americans...this is built up as a potential concern...but no one really reacts to it other than to point it out from time to time
-Oh look, a kukri, a Gurkha, and an Israeli => generic archetypes that aren't really put to use or fleshed out
-The main female character is completely two-dimensional, serving solely as a love interest, companion, etc....and the protagonist grows attached to her because she's attractive and female...and that's IT...
-For a story about intrigue, the characters all seem really simplistic and naive...there are a number of curveballs the reader can see a mile away that the characters just blissfully stumble into despite the fact that they are intelligence professionals
-All the opposition characters are portrayed as deluded, foolish, and naive..."they can't possibly have compelling reasons for their actions, they're just silly and misguided" => is pretty much the tone
-A whole lot more "telling" than "showing" => "this character feels this way because of this" rather than "this character does this thing or reacts this way and the reader can draw conclusions about them from that"

The only thing missing to finish this off is Unobtainium. :p


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Her Majesty American Steve White Books Reviews

I like the setting and story, although it could have avoided the more unlikely parts, like a boarding action in interplanetary space.
Story is believable if history changed.
Weaves in to the story what lost causes can do to harm based on unfortunate beliefs in the pass. Plus fantisim by believe in cause or religion.
And how someone can try to stop. Even in future.
Will read next book on this.
Plus now following the author.
Nothing exceptional or interesting about the characters or the plot. So much time is given to crafting an alternate reality but to no good end.
I like Steve White's writing. He usually does a good job with it. In this case he's picked an interesting historical point of departure for an alternative history. So that's a positive. The negatives are (1) the action is slow. (2) he spends too much time explaining how the time line diverged, and (3) the secondary characters are one dimensional. Part of that may be that he spent time explaining the history as opposed to having characters show the history. Some of it may be the result of the multi-layered nature of the spy story motif. There are so many villains its hard to make any of them realistic.
I have read many of Steve White's books in the past. This one seemed like a good start of a new series based on the premise. And that is where the good ended. Very predictable, very pedestrian plot with hackneyed twists that weren't much of a twist. No character development. It seems like he had a deadline and had to get something out.
First off its not a bad book. I've read plenty worse. A decent story line with sequel written all over it. If you're looking for the detail of a Harry Turtledove, this won't be it. But a decent story of what could have happened with a few changes in history.

It gave a decent amount of back story to how things changed in the past. I felt the main characters were a little under developed. The subtext of their attraction was not fleshed out well. Realistically the cover is supposed to get your attention to look further into what it's all about. So I felt the cover was misleading, with the space battle scene, and expected more action in space. Now all that being said if you like alternate history it's not a bad read and will give you an escape that sci-fi is supposed to. I suggest you check it out.
As I began this novel I was impressed with the timeline of alt-history; a neat summation. However it soon became clear that the plot itself was familiar in the sense that it sounded very similar to other thriller type novels in non-sf genres. Then I finally had to give up on it as the weak dialog became progressively more ludicrous. It's bad enough when an author uses an expository monologue of the "bad guy" to clear up plot points the author has been unable to put in in a more natural style but this author has 3 different bad guys indulging in the kind of over-the-top exposition where they take delight in explaining to the captured hero how superior they are. Pathetic. You would almost think a character who is supposed to be an accomplished spy uses being captured as his main technique to ferret out the bad guys when actually it is just a sign of an author unable to handle his own plot. This might work as a YA book though most young people aren't really credulous enough to put up with much of this. This is plotting and dialog from 1960's TV without the necessary irony.
I forced myself to 60% of the way through the book and finally gave up.

Boy, it feels like White was asleep at the wheel when he wrote this.

The author sets up an interesting premise of an alternate history wherein the United States stayed part of the British Empire and essentially helped Great Britain avoid the decline of its empire and remain a central axis for the tide of history. There is a detailed timeline at the beginning of the book highlighting the divergence and the sequence of events that lead us to the current events of the story.

However, it feels very much like the alternate history context really just serves as set dressing for the storyline. There is no real exposure to the culture clash between the British and the New Americans, no description of the colony itself, and just lots of little details sprinkled around like seasoning without being put to any use

Other Quibbles
-We're clued in to unique elements of the Empire (e.g. the relationship between the Netherlands and the Empire), but they're never really put to use or fleshed out...they're just dabbled in at best
-Protagonist is descended from a historical figure unpopular with the New Americans...this is built up as a potential concern...but no one really reacts to it other than to point it out from time to time
-Oh look, a kukri, a Gurkha, and an Israeli => generic archetypes that aren't really put to use or fleshed out
-The main female character is completely two-dimensional, serving solely as a love interest, companion, etc....and the protagonist grows attached to her because she's attractive and female...and that's IT...
-For a story about intrigue, the characters all seem really simplistic and naive...there are a number of curveballs the reader can see a mile away that the characters just blissfully stumble into despite the fact that they are intelligence professionals
-All the opposition characters are portrayed as deluded, foolish, and naive..."they can't possibly have compelling reasons for their actions, they're just silly and misguided" => is pretty much the tone
-A whole lot more "telling" than "showing" => "this character feels this way because of this" rather than "this character does this thing or reacts this way and the reader can draw conclusions about them from that"

The only thing missing to finish this off is Unobtainium. p