Fool's War

I'm going to pass on this one. Made it to page 100, and still the book totally failed to hold my attention.

I did like the captain, though. Al Shei is a practicing Muslim, and she even wears a <i>niqab</i>&emdash;and yet she's captain of a starship. How cool is that? The book kept hammering the point that she wore the <i>hijab</i> early on, but it eventually got over it. She's a wonderful character, a totally different captain from the usual slew of alpha males given to captaining starships in SF.

But, well, other than that, the book didn't work for me. I found the very idea of a ship's fool to be ridiculous, for instance, and even though everyone seems to find Dobbs hilarious, I found her jokes stupid and pointless. The other characters lacked the flair and appeal of Al Shei, for sure.

Ah well. Can't enjoy them all, I guess.