Championship B'tok (InterstellarNet, standalone) by Edward M. Lerner

Championship B'tok (InterstellarNet, standalone) Reviews

• 
  Katie

  This isn't a terrible story, but it reads more like an excerpt from a novel than a stand-alone piece of fiction. There are clearly ties to a bigger universe going on here, which I'm sure were appreciated by fans of the series, but on its own this story doesn't really have a solid beginning or end. A bunch of stuff happens, characters are introduced, mysteries are uncovered, stuff explodes as a climax, and then it just sort of ends without anything being resolved.
  
  Even without that issue, I felt pretty neutral about most of this. With some room to breathe I'm sure it could have been interesting, but right now it felt more like a not-terrible-but-not-very-good collection of tropes. Intrepid lady reporter! Inter-galactic conspiracy! Alien-version-of-chess as a stand in for complicated political maneuvering!
  
  Again, nothing terrible. But I don't think it's really award-worthy stuff.
• 
  Jeff Stockett

  B'tok is like chess, only more awesome.
  
  Also, if you are losing to someone in B'tok, you should probably be aware that you are losing to them in some larger strategy in real life.
  
  I liked this story and the way the different strategies were weaved together as if real life was a chess game.
  
  I wanted to know more about the conspiracies that have been going on for thousands of years, but it turns out there are some novels set in this same universe that I'm probably going to want to check out.
• 
  Laura

  I might have liked it if it was longer and the threads could have been built up and explained more. But it had trouble holding my interest as it was. It had potential, but perhaps wasn't my sort of thing.
• 
  H. P.

  There isn’t really a problem with Championship B’tok as a story. The problem is that it isn’t a story—it’s just part of one. That larger story is likely a good one but this piece of it doesn’t work on its own, for reasons that don’t have anything to do with the writing or storytelling.
  
  Championship B’tok (the title refers to a more complicated, alien variant of chess) is an ambitious story with a complicated plot. It utilizes 3rd-person limited POVs that rotate rapidly among a number of different characters. Such a technique often leads to a story hard to get a handle on until well into the story. Which is why a lot of works, including the Wheel of Time, start slow. Books that don’t, including 2015 Hugo best novel nominee The Dark Between the Stars, provide a payoff later in the story. The problem here is that Championship B’tok is so short I didn’t get a handle on things until the story was almost over (although it is a long novelette).
  
  The b’tok reference, of course, refers not just to the regular games of b’tok between the human commander of a former POW planet-camp and the human leader of the defeated, alien “Snakes,” but to the Snakes clandestine efforts to prepare for a revolt. But the board appears even bigger than that. There may be a third group moving not just humans and Snakes but also the other sapient species in the known galaxy by controlling technological progress. It’s cool stuff well done. But I would prefer to read the full story in one go.
  
• 
  Daniel Burton

  It's an intriguing and dangerous universe Edward M. Lerner's Championship B'tok attempts to create. The Hugo nominated novelette opens on a universe that is shrunken and more interconnected than ours, complete with hostile alien races and interstellar computing networks connecting the disparate planets and races. The Snakes are a race that has been conquered after an attempt to conquer others, and now, quietly, they plot to rise again.
  
  There's a lot of potential and creative energy in Lerner's story, but it never quite comes together in satisfying way. Because the story is part of a larger set of tales that Lerner writes, and though this is billed as a stand alone, I wondered if it was because I hadn't read anything else that I was often lost. Really, though, I think it's just a lack of narrative connection between scenes and characters, leaps joined by sudden exposition of details otherwise unavailable, and sudden plot resolution that left me feeling...unresolved.
  
  Also, there's the protagonist failing to protag very well. Sometimes it feels like it's going to move into a noir like mystery, and others its international espionage. In th end, it just ends...
  
  The novelette feels like a good first draft, but here it is up for the Hugo. There's potential, so I give it three stars, but ultimately, it feels forgettable.
• 
  Lance Schonberg

  Part of a small quest this year to read all of the Hugo-nominated novelettes, in spite of the controversy.
  
  A sequel story, or part of a larger tale that's been broken up into pieces, some of which have been stitched together into two novels, and this seems like the beginning of a third. There are hints and direct references both to history in the reality the story is told in and to wider events in that reality. From the beginning, the story feels like a setup for a larger story with nothing to indicate it's anything else through the whole tale. It's a fine read, with interesting characters, but it doesn't deliver anything special on its own, just the continuation of something that's gone before leading into the beginning of something else. It asks far more questions than it answers and that doesn't work for me in what's supposed to be a self contained novelette. Especially since it ends on a cliffhanger, a clear chapter break.
• 
  Joanne G.

  B'tok is a game of military strategy, and the alien Snakes are taking their lessons from the board to real life as they plan rebellion right under their planetary overseers' noses.

  
  Each piece is placed on the B'tok board in this novella: the Snakes with their warring factions, the journalist looking for a story, planetary governments trying to keep peace, mysterious spies, and the hapless guy drawn into the intrigue. Then, just as the board is ready for the first move, the story stops.
  
  I didn't give five stars because I dislike stories without a conclusion; I gave four stars because the set-up was satisfying and left me wanting to see how far the Snakes' rebellion went and how it would be thwarted.
  
• 
  Marco

  This short story was nominated to the 2015 Hugo awards thanks to the controversial puppy slate. Because of its inclusion in the slate, that features a lot of mediocre books, I had very low expectations. I was surprisingly pleased by the book to the point that I would read the other short stories set in the same world. The only disappointing part is that it reads like a chapter of a biggest saga, and it is hard to enjoy it as a stand alone novella. This said, I am glad to see that there is not only rubbish in the puppy slate!
  Silly tail comment: I know that we should not judge a book by its cover, but... this is possibly the least enticing book cover I have ever seen.
• 
  Elizabeth S

  Not sure what to think on this one, except to think I am missing a big part of the puzzle. I suspect that if I were previously familiar with the universe created by this author, I would have appreciated the story more. At least I could judge if the story was weird-dumb or weird-clever-fun. Someday I should read more from this universe and find out.
• 
  Norman Cook

  2015 Hugo Novelette Nominee.
  
  It turns out this is the second chapter of a much longer work. There is no real introduction, and certainly no conclusion. The first few pages introduce a character who gets into trouble, and is never referred to again. The rest of the story is a lot of talk about the metaphor of war as a strategic game. This story is not up to Hugo Award standards.
• 
  Bill

  A novella from the next installment of Lerner's InterstellarNet series. Tickled my interest enough to add the series to my TO READ list.
• 
  Kat

  A few spoilery thoughts here:
  
  Http://ciaracatscifi.blogspot.com
• 
  Alexandra

  No.
  
  A somewhat interesting premise although not at all original. Some military speak, some boring characterisation, not Hugo nominee material.
• 
  James

  I actually kind of liked this story. I'll probably try to pick up the continuation of it in the book.
• 
  Kurt

  Hugo 2015 nominee reading
• 
  Trish

  Also not a bad story - although I prefer The Triple Sun.