Odysseus Awakening (Odyssey One)

This book badly needs an edit. It's frustratingly difficult to read and stay immersed in the plot.
Repetitions of words that stand out as repetitions are repeatedly repeated in some of the more repetitive paragraphs. We're treated to bracketed three-letter-acronyms (TLAs) even when they are never subsequently referred to that way. We're an audience of military science fiction fans and we have HUD explained to us.

Oddly, when I was about 20 pages in, I had to check when this was written, because I had the impression it dated back to the 60s or early 70s. Some of the technology used made me check the copyright date and I was very surprised to find it was published so recently. I'm not saying this is a flaw, because I'm quite a fan of SF from that era, but it makes a modern book feel clunky. A couple of examples:

People are having to get used to new-fangled touch interfaces where they can swipe a finger to call up pertinent information. Come on, we've had iPads for a while now; this just seems weird.
The bridge crew, in their space attire, suddenly make a bet amongst themselves and whip out 10 dollar bills. From their uniforms? On an experimental mission to another star system?
The women are all nervous junior officers who get called by their first names.
Where others are described by their mannerisms, the second-in-command is introduced as being the big black man.

It's all very Heinlein in as much as almost everyone is the best of the best, and only shows a flaw if it's about to be revealed as actually a situational benefit - but I'll leave the comparison there, since there's nothing particularly political about Into The Black, or much in the way of social commentary.

The plot itself is derivative and predictable but that doesn't mean it's not fun. It's Heinlein, most obviously [b:Starship Troopers|17214|Starship Troopers|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1533117961l/17214.SY75.jpg|2534973], mixed with elements of Stargate and more than a few ideas lifted directly from the computer game Crysis. It basically consists of three battles, one in the first act and two parallel fights in the remainder of the book. There's not a lot of text that isn't about fighting.

The characters are underdeveloped in favour of the technology. The author actually goes into a fair bit of detail about the weaponry, armour and so on used by the protagonists, and tries quite hard to make it scientifically solid (notwithstanding the obvious concessions of an FTL drive). I think this part comes across well. There are some places where I don't believe it, because my willingness to stretch disbelief starts to falter, but they're few enough that I can forgive them.

The viewpoint changes are very clunky. We're a couple of chapters in before there's any indication it's not all going to be from the captain's perspective, and then suddenly the perspective starts changing all over the place. We see dogfights mostly from the pilots' point of view, but it snaps to the enemy in time to see them die in the explosion like it's an '80s B-movie put in print. There's a lot of time devoted to person A talking to person B and then us being told that person B pulled an expression hidden inside their blacked out helmet, for example, with the author explicitly reminding us that we shouldn't be able to know this. It would have been a much more comfortable ride if the story stuck to realistic viewpoints or just gave in and had an omniscient narrator.

Despite this, I found myself enjoying the story, and would pick up the sequel if I found it lying around. The experience was like watching a SyFy Original TV movie.