Enjoyable Wild West Space Adventure

Best taken as a single, if somewhat lengthy, novel, Partlow manages to breath life into a very tried and tested format of 'space opera' with the Star Bounty series. If you like a classic wildwest adventure story, but with blaster shoot-outs and high stakes, the protagonist and his somewhat familiar wise-cracking AI sidekick (in the shape of a dog this time and not a beer can) manages to keep things believable within the confines of the universe Partlow has created (this time). The limitations being the sense of a sparse population and locations in a western is translated to a universe which felt weirdly small, as the number of visited locations was not very large across the whole series. The characters are interesting and fleshed out, but Partlow again (ie Drop Trooper) suffers from his literary obsession with writing one type of female character, one which I get the sense is in his opinion the ideal, if unbelievable in some ways, dream-formed woman. This female protagonist is okay, but a little too close to sycophantic male fantasy for me, and I certainly eye-rolled a few times. However, taken at face value, its not unenjoyable with plenty of sub-plots and an overarching storyline which will leave you rooting for the unlikely quarto charged with saving the universe. Plenty of fun and exhilarating combat and chases. Don't try to read a subtext or look for a message, this is old-fashioned friends teaming up against a foe to save everyone and make a better life for them along the way. The end of the series is uplifting and leaves the door open for more novels. Spend a credit and get hours of entertainment 'meat-sack' - wait - that sounds familiar?

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