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Title: Judgment at Proteus
Series:
Quadrail #5
Authors: Timothy Zahn
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
415
Words: 163K
Let’s get the
important issues out of the way first. For this re-read I have been
complaining about the covers and how Frank Compton and Bayta look
like some 2D design from a spastic 10 year old. So of course the
final cover doesn’t have them and it bugs the ever living daylights
out of me. I want consistency in my covers, even if the odds are
against that. While I HATE the new covers for this series (they have
all the artistic merit of a 2year old in the middle of a bout of
diarrhea) they at least follow the same formula for every cover. I
just can’t win.
And speaking of not winning, Zahn doesn’t really win here either. It is a satisfactory wrap up to the series but it’s so monotone. I feel like Frank Compton’s voice is coming from a drivethrough for a fastfood franchise and he’s a bored teenager who doesn’t want to be at work or helping you. The supposed acceptance of a relationship between Frank and Bayta had all the warmth and humanity of a cold, dead space slug. A GIANT cold, dead space slug in fact. It is the kind of relationship I would want to see between my grandparents (may they rest in peace).
This re-read has solidified in my mind that I am done with Zahn, old or new. I will probably re-read Cobra next year just to see if it holds up or fails like some of the Old Guard did for me in November (Galactic Odyssey, Sentenced to Prism) but other than that, it is time for me to accept that I need to move on.
Getting older sucks, you know that? All of these books and authors that were the foundations of my literary world are suddenly becoming completely irrelevant to me now. It is like if I was a Red Sox fan in 1920, when Babe Ruth moved to the Evil Empire, the Yankees. Babe Ruth who? Timothy Zahn who? Exactly. These changes are new enough to me that I’m not inured to them yet. That will happen, thank goodness, but until it does, it’s just low level misery. It’s like getting a flu shot and suffering for the weekend.
Overall, a decent story and a decent series. Just not for me any more.
★★★☆☆
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