3 Bells that Walk the Plank- light of impossible stars (Gareth L. Powell) – It’s Sci-Fi Month!

Ahoy me mateys!  Grab your grog!  Here be book 3 of the 10th installment of the 3 Bells trilogy showcase where for 3 days straight I will be reviewing 3 books in a row.  The catch is that the 3 books will showcase an entire trilogy.  So throw your 3 sheets to the wind and get ready to celebrate with me.  Grog optional . . .

Unpopular opinion time!  I really did not like the last book of this trilogy.  I still love Trouble Dog and Sal.  But ultimately the story went places that I didn’t care about and found nonsensical.  I liked the new character of Cordelia Pa.  I am completely in love with Nod who went from being an okay character in book one to a delight.  In fact the part the Druff played in this book ended up being one of me favorite parts.

The main problems in this book were two fold – dangling plot points and problematic character motivation.  In terms of characters, Sal and Trouble Dog were the only ones that still kinda felt real in this installment.  All the other characters seemed incidental or became two dimensional.  Characters previously important in other books do nothing in this one (like Lucy or Preston).  Other characters sacrifice themselves for no real purpose.  Ona Sudak really was the most boring bad guy ever who twirls their bad guy mustache and has no real motivation.  The “realization” moment by her at the end was just ludicrous.

As for dangling plot points.  Well the ideas of reality quakes and plates were fascinating and never really explained.  Both could have been used awesomely and weren’t.  Cordelia is a fun character but kinda magics her way through the end of the book.  The sci-fi feel of the book just went “poof!”  And how she saved the world was lame.  There is a trans character added in for no reason (okay as a random lust interest) who actually has a sex change operation in the MIDDLE of a battle.  Then leaves abruptly at the end of the book.  Michael goes on a salvage hunt that could have been cut out of the book with no substantive change to the plot.  There is a memory switch that really adds nothing to the plot.  The void creatures are never explained satisfactorily or actually dealt with.  They really are magic space dragons.  The loss of an eye side plot was so lacklustre.  The fleet of knives lose and randomly go back to do what they could have done all along.  And not to mention the deus ex machina savior thrown in at the end.

I could go on and on but who has time to that.  On to a new adventure.  This one walks the plank!  Arrr!

Side note: I still be glad I met Trouble Dog.

Goodreads has this to say about the novel (shortened for spoilers):

Low on fuel and hunted by the Fleet of Knives, the sentient warship Trouble Dog follows a series of clues that lead her to the Intrusion–an area of space where reality itself becomes unstable. But with human civilisation crumbling, what difference can one battered old ship have against an invincible armada? . . .

To visit the author’s twitter go to:

Gareth L. Powell – Author

To buy the novel please visit:

light of impossible stars – Book 3

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List

Previous Log Entries for this Author

embers of war – book 1 (3 Bells – Sci-Fi)
fleet of knives – book 2 (3 Bells – Sci-Fi)