Challenger's Hope

Challenger's Hope adds to Nicholas Seafort's character. He loses his wife and sun to an alien attack, he is betrayed by an admiral, some of his passengers are bigots and violent street children, and Nick is forced to break an oath. David Feintuch is my favorite author, and he shows an incredible writing talent by adding depth to Nick and his world, making the aliens actually scary, and delivering an exciting and moving story. I salute you Mr. Feintuch.

Captive reading, that is! I cannot agree more with all the reviewers so far who have said they could not put the book down... Be prepared and leave a lazy day for this one. Seafort's dynamic personality becomes even more dynamic in this sequel. We see a lot more confusion in him in this story as opposed to Midshipman's Hope, perhaps due to the undue torment he faces from the universe. Emotionally (depending on your level of heart), this novel could make you cry, put you in a rage, and make you depressed all in the same day. It brought me to the verge of most of these emotions. Some times you feel "It's just not fair!" what happens to Seafort... But where, then, does the plot come from? Let me amend my previous statement. Get a hotel room to yourself for a night. Otherwise you won't satisfy the pace at which you'll want to plough through this book. My navy salute! Enjoy.

I read MIDSHIPMAN'S HOPE in a few days - I couldn't put it down. When I found the sequel, CHALLENGER'S HOPE I read that in a matter of hours. Having struggled to keep the crew and passengers on Hibernia alive while under attack from "the fish", Nicholas Seafort has been given command of a new ship - though not quite in the way he expected. This is far more of an adventure novel than the first, and you keep wondering how on earth he's going to avoid getting shot this time, but the story is fascinating and the action scenes will have you glued to the page. This is well worth the money but you have to read the first book or none of it makes sense. Go and buy both of them - it'll save you time later on.

"Challenger's Hope" is really, really cool. The characters and story are very well developed. The only problem is from this story into the various sequels, he constantly harps about how he's going to hell for breaking his oath, which isn't an unforgivable sin. A great read.

Very often the first book in a series is great but the sequels fall flat. Not so with "Challenger's Hope." the strength of Feintuch's character, Seaforth, is in his ability to inspire others as well as to survive and thrive against all odds. In the first novel of this series, the very young Seaforth saved the day through quality leadership, in this sequel we see a more human Seaforth, the insecure man behind the uniform. A more intimate look at Seaforth's background is here as well. His rigid, emotionally-deprived childhood with a fanatically-religious father explains more clearly Seaforth's own fanatical loyalty to the "Navy" and to the theocracy he serves. Don't start reading unless you are prepared to sit up all night till you finish the book. That's just what I did!