The Lost Starship

The Lost Starship by Vaughn Heppner
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Lost Starship by Vaughn Heppner.

This book has qualities of hard science fiction. No fantasy or magic.

* Alien AI
* Stardrives
* Genetic engineering
* Evolution
* Weapons technology

It is a typical science fiction book that starts off a series. I will not get into the plot of the book that could be found in a Google search. I am interested in science about the "alien AI". Can we really call it an AI? In the book, this particular AI of the alien's starship possesses the engrams of the original captain. This would explain the unbalanced personality of the expert system running the ship. For those of us in computer science, a program is only as good as the programmer who wrote it. In this case, the alien race found a way to attach and upload memory into a computer system this, of course, is not a new concept but it is an interesting one.

As far as StarDrive goes, every author seems to want to invent their own type of StarDrive and the author of this book certainly has their own point of view of a StarDrive that jumps inside the star system. Nothing much to discuss. As for weapon technology the author again creates its own. Here is the item that I have seen over and over again when it comes to alien technology is always more powerful than humans technology and with most books of this nature, this holds true which this story. And it always seems that humans can find a way to outsmart it and outpower it. Why is this? Well, let's drop the fiction from the science. No human has ever met an extraterrestrial. Author's can only write about what they know. It takes an exceptional mind to create something new.

Onto genetic engineering and selective evolution. Today in the 21st century there are restrictions about genetic engineering used as a tool to enhance human beings. I personally do not have an issue with this. Right now genetic manipulation it's used to fight many diseases that crippled and actually kill human beings. Why not enhance the next generation of human beings? I think it is already being done quietly. In the book, the author takes a "Dune" approach. I have some personal theories about this but I am going to wait and read the other books when I get the opportunity to confirm this it would not be proper for me to get throw out my opinions and ideas and I end up totally wrong.

In conclusion, the book is an interesting read if you like military science fiction it is not the greatest thing in the world but I enjoyed it so can you.

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