I found this a really weird read, I feel like it doesn't really know what it wants to be - which is something I have to hope the author has fixed in the sixteen and a half books that follow it.

It was recommended to me as being hilarious but I just didn't find it all that funny. Some moments raised a smile, and there are some astute observations around the nature of war and politics, but I didn't find it as tickling as the reviews make out. Perhaps it just doesn't suit my sense of humour, I can accept that, it just felt at times like it was trying too hard to be funny rather than a natural flow of humour.

The first half of the book sets up a really good premise with an intergalactic proxy war, an ancient advanced civilisation and more layers to the nature of the universe than we could imagine.

Then Skippy turns up.

A lot of reviews say that the book doesn't really get good until Skippy's introduction, but I have to disagree. The first chapter with Skippy was so suddenly heavy on the try-hard humour that I nearly DNF'ed it right there. In the end I'm glad I didn't but it is a real whiplash moment.

The second half rattles along at a much faster pace - if anything I would say the first half of the book is too slow for me, but the second half is too fast. I felt like a lot of interesting angles were glossed over and there was hardly any character development. Everyone apart from Joe feels flat and I just can't get attached to Skippy as a character, which is a shame because there are some interesting aspects to him.

The other thing we have to talk about is the quality of the writing. This is a self-published book and I love that the author has backed himself to chase his passion, but it really could do with a good editor's eye, or even just another pass from the author. There are a lot of grammar and spelling errors throughout the book, which although I'm not a snob, do detract from the reading experience significantly as I kept finding myself pulled out of the story having to re-read sections.

If this was a standalone I would let it go, but given that the series now spans seventeen and a half books, including updated cover editions, I think it would be a good idea to have an editor go over them to add the missing polish. Not a full rewrite, more like "version 1.1". Existing fans wouldn't lose anything nor have to re-read if they didn't want to, but new readers would be much more likely to stay engaged. That said, having looked at reviews of the more recent books, they also allude to the lack of polish so perhaps that's a feature rather than a bug, in which case fair enough.

I noticed that a lot of the most positive reviews are audiobook readers, which makes sense - the narrator probably brings the characters to life a lot more and translates the writing issues for you, so it's probably a better listening experience than a reading one.

Personally I can't be mad at this for a freebie read but I won't be spending £85 to finish the series as it stands. If I can pick book two up for free I'll give it a go and see how I feel, mainly because I do think there is a lot of potential in the premise.